Anticipatory vowel-to-consonant coarticulation of Swedish voiceless fricatives [s], [ɕ] and [ɧ]

Abstract: In this thesis, anticipatory vowel-to-consonant coarticulation of Swedish fricatives [s], [ɕ], and [ɧ] was examined in isolated words and connected speech. 10 women and 10 men participated in the study, performing a production test where fricative-initial, real words were read as isolated words and in sentences. The first spectral moment (M1), also known as center of gravity, was measured at midpoint and end of the word-initial fricatives. M1 was found to differ greatly at the two measuring points in [s] and [ɕ], with a mean decrease of 2852 and 985 Hz, respectively. This was not the case for [ɧ], for which the M1 trajectories decreased and increased almost to the same extent. When taking vowel context into account, some correlation between vowel quality and M1 was found, in that M1 at midpoint of [s] and [ɕ] mirrored the height of F2 of the following vowel. M1 measurements were similar in isolated words and sentences, and no convincing differences were observed between the two in this investigation.