scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Showing papers on "Voice published in 2014"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An expanded view of voice is created; one that extends beyond voice as a positively intended challenge to the status quo to include voice that supports how things are being done in organizations as well as voice that may not be well intentioned.
Abstract: Scholarly interest in employee voice behavior has increased dramatically over the past 15 years. Although this research has produced valuable knowledge, it has focused almost exclusively on voice as a positively intended challenge to the status quo, even though some scholars have argued that it need not challenge the status quo or be well intentioned. Thus, in this paper, we create an expanded view of voice; one that extends beyond voice as a positively intended challenge to the status quo to include voice that supports how things are being done in organizations as well as voice that may not be well intentioned. We construct a framework based on this expanded view that identifies 4 different types of voice behavior (supportive, constructive, defensive, and destructive). We then develop and validate survey measures for each of these. Evidence from 5 studies across 4 samples provides strong support for our new measures in that (a) a 4-factor confirmatory factor analysis model fit the data significantly better than 1-, 2-, or 3-factor models; (b) the voice measures converged with and yet remained distinct from conceptually related comparison constructs; (c) personality predictors exhibited unique patterns of relationships with the different types of voice; (d) variations in actual voice behaviors had a direct causal impact on responses to the survey items; and (e) each type of voice significantly impacted important outcomes for voicing employees (e.g., likelihood of relying on a voicing employee's opinions and evaluations of a voicing employee's overall performance). Implications of our findings are discussed.

342 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article found that vowel backness, consonant voicing, and consonant place of articulation each elicit a sound symbolic effect, which is amplified when these dimensions are combined, bringing the Bouba-Bouba-Kiki association back.
Abstract: Sound symbolism is the process by which speakers link phonetic features with meanings non-arbitrarily. For instance, speakers across languages associate non-words with rounded vowels, like bouba, with round shapes, and non-words without rounded vowels, like kiki, with spiky shapes. Researchers have posited that this link results from a cognitive association between sounds and visual or proprioceptive cues made in their production (e.g. sounds of rounded vowels cue the image of rounded lips, which is mapped to rounded shapes). However, non-words used in previous studies differ from one another along multiple phonetic dimensions, some showing no clear iconic mapping to shape. This study teases apart these features, finding that vowel backness, consonant voicing, and consonant place of articulation each elicit a sound symbolic effect, which is amplified when these dimensions are combined. This investigation also probes object properties that can be involved in sound symbolic association, bringing the “bouba-...

94 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Whether voice quality is strengthened in vowels and sonorants is determined, and whether this type of strengthening is consistent with word-initial glottalization is proposed and motivated.

63 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: New experimental evidence that people learn phonological alternations in a biased way is provided, taking as evidence that learners have a soft bias, considering alternations between perceptually similar sounds to be more likely.

54 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Listeners showed dimension-based learning only for the accented pair, not the canonical pair, indicating that they are able to track separate acoustic statistics across place of articulation, that is, for /b-p/ and /d-t/.
Abstract: Speech perception flexibly adapts to short-term regularities of ambient speech input. Recent research demonstrates that the function of an acoustic dimension for speech categorization at a given time is relative to its relationship to the evolving distribution of dimensional regularity across time, and not simply to a fixed value along the dimension. Two experiments examine the nature of this dimensionbased statistical learning in online word recognition, testing generalization of learning across phonetic categories. While engaged in a word recognition task guided by perceptually unambiguous voice-onset time (VOT) acoustics signaling stop voicing in either bilabial rhymes, beer and pier, or alveolar rhymes, deer and tear, listeners were exposed incidentally to an artificial “accent” deviating from English norms in its correlation of the pitch onset of the following vowel (F0) with VOT (Experiment 1). Exposure to the change in the correlation of F0 with VOT led listeners to down-weight reliance on F0 in voicing categorization, indicating dimension-based statistical learning. This learning was observed only for the “accented” contrast varying in its F0/VOT relationship during exposure; learning did not generalize to the other place of articulation. Another group of listeners experienced competing F0/VOT correlations across place of articulation such that the global correlation for voicing was stable, but locally correlations across voicing pairs were opposing (e.g., “accented” beer and pier, “canonical” deer and tear, Experiment 2). Listeners showed dimension-based learning only for the accented pair, not the canonical pair, indicating that they are able to track separate acoustic statistics across place of articulation, that is, for /b-p/ and /d-t/. This suggests that dimension-based learning does not operate obligatorily at the phonological level of stop voicing.

46 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Goodness ratings indicated that burst spectrum influences category typicality for voiceless stops even when voice onset time is unambiguous.
Abstract: Voicing contrasts in stop consonants are expressed by a constellation of acoustic cues. This study focused on a spectral cue present at burst onset in American English labial and coronal stops. Spectral shape was examined for word-initial, prevocalic stops of all three places of articulation in a laboratory production study and a large corpus of continuous read speech. Voiceless labial and coronal stops were found to have greater energy at higher frequencies in comparison to homorganic voiced stops, a difference that could not be attributed to aspiration in the voiceless stops or modal phonation in the voiced, while no consistent effect was found for dorsal stops. This pattern was found with various methods of spectral estimation (time-averaged and multitaper spectra) and measures of spectral energy concentration (center of gravity and spectral peak) for both linear and auditorily based frequency scales. Perceptual relevance of the spectral cue was tested in laboratory and online experiments with continua created by crossing burst shape and voice onset time. A trading relation was observed such that voiceless identifications were more likely for tokens with higher frequency bursts. Goodness ratings indicated that burst spectrum influences category typicality for voiceless stops even when voice onset time is unambiguous.

38 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results from Russian show that underlying voicing affects consonantal duration and glottal pulsing but not preceding vowel duration, and shows that incomplete neutralization has different sources for different acoustic parameters.

37 citations


BookDOI
13 Jan 2014

36 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results indicated that first and second spectral moments, as well as second formant (F2) onset, and normalized amplitude values are the acoustic parameters most correlated with the Greek fricative place of articulation distinction.
Abstract: The present study examined the acoustics of Greek fricative consonants in terms of temporal, spectral, and amplitude parameters. The effects of voicing, speaker's gender, place of articulation, and post-fricative vowel on the acoustic parameters were also investigated. The results indicated that first and second spectral moments (i.e., spectral mean and spectral variance), as well as second formant (F2) onset, and normalized amplitude values are the acoustic parameters most correlated with the Greek fricative place of articulation distinction. F2 onset and spectral mean were the parameters that distinguished all five places of articulation, while normalized amplitude differentiated sibilants from non-sibilants. In addition, normalized duration and normalized amplitude are the parameters that distinguish Greek voiced from voiceless fricatives, with high classification accuracy.

30 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results indicate that individual differences in cognitive skills can influence phonological representations in speech perception as well as the type of inhibition that influences phonological representation is domain-specific or domain-general.

27 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present new experimental data on Quito Spanish /s/-voicing, which has attracted considerable interest from theoretical phonologists owing to the overapplication of voicing to word-final pre-vocalic /s/.
Abstract: This paper presents new experimental data on Quito Spanish /s/-voicing, which has attracted considerable interest from theoretical phonologists owing to the overapplication of voicing to word-final pre-vocalic /s/. Bermudez-Otero (2011) singles out Quito /s/-voicing as an important test case for discriminating between two competing theories of phonology–morphosyntax interactions: Output–output correspondence and cyclicity. Overapplication in /s/-voicing cannot be captured using correspondence relationship to a base form, which challenges Output–output correspondence as a theory of opacity. However, the argument only holds insofar as word-final pre-vocalic /s/-voicing is considered phonological, as Output–output correspondence can account for /s/-voicing assuming that it only applies in the phonetics (Colina 2009). We discuss the diverging empirical predictions concerning categoricity and gradience in the surface realisation of voicing processes. We further test these predictions based on acoustic data from seven speakers of Quito Spanish. Evidence from speech rate manipulations shows that some speakers produce more voicing during frication at normal speech rate, compared to fast, maintaining a stable voicing ratio across different speech rates. We argue that for these speakers, /s/-voicing is optional but categorical, and so it ought to be analysed as phonological. This result presents a challenge to the Output–output correspondence approach, but can be accommodated within cyclicity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: These findings point to input-driven constraints on functional plasticity within the language architecture, which may help to explain how listeners maintain stability of linguistic knowledge while simultaneously demonstrating flexibility for phonetic representations.
Abstract: A primary goal for models of speech perception is to describe how listeners achieve reliable comprehension given a lack of invariance between the acoustic signal and individual speech sounds. For example, individual talkers differ in how they implement phonetic properties of speech. Research suggests that listeners attain perceptual constancy by processing acoustic variation categorically while maintaining graded internal category structure. Moreover, listeners will use lexical information to modify category boundaries to learn to interpret a talker's ambiguous productions. The current work examines perceptual learning for talker differences that signal well-defined, unambiguous category members. Speech synthesis techniques were used to differentially manipulate talkers' characteristic productions of the stop voicing contrast for two groups of listeners. Following exposure to the talkers, internal category structure and category boundary were examined. The results showed that listeners dynamically adjusted internal category structure to be centered on experience with the talker's voice, but the category boundary remained fixed. These patterns were observed for words presented during training as well as novel lexical items. These findings point to input-driven constraints on functional plasticity within the language architecture, which may help to explain how listeners maintain stability of linguistic knowledge while simultaneously demonstrating flexibility for phonetic representations.

15 Dec 2014
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an acoustic analysis of this assimilatory process in Peninsular Spanish, focusing on the main phonetic correlates in relation to the production of voicing, and test the effect of different factors that have been shown to influence gestural organization.
Abstract: Voicing assimilation of /s/ before a voiced consonant is a widely reported feature of the Spanish sound system. This process is often described as stylistically determined, gradient and variable. However, there is a scarcity of non-impressionistic data supporting these claims. Following previous approaches to assimilation, we analyze voicing assimilation in Spanish as an instance of gestural blending. Taking this as a point of departure, this study presents an acoustic analysis of this assimilatory process in Peninsular Spanish, focusing on the main phonetic correlates in relation to the production of voicing, and tests the effect of different factors that have been shown to influence gestural organization. Our results show that the manner of articulation of the following consonant and the type of prosodic boundary intervening between /s/ and the triggering consonant affect the degree of voicing assimilation, while stress does not seem to play any role.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that, despite their being perceived as mother-tongue speakers of Swedish by native listeners, the late learners do not exhibit a fully nativelike command of Swedish VOT, and do not constitute the evidence necessary to reject the hypothesis of one or several critical (or sensitive) periods for language acquisition.
Abstract: This study examined the effects of age of onset (AO) of L2 acquisition on the categorical perception of the voicing contrast in Swedish word-initial stops varying in voice onset time (VOT). Three voicing continua created on the basis of natural Swedish word pairs with /p-b/, /t-d/, /k-/ in initial position were presented to 41 Spanish early (AO 12) near-native speakers of L2 Swedish. Fifteen native speakers of Swedish served as controls. Categorizations were influenced by AO and listener status as L1/L2 speaker, in that the late learners deviated the most from native-speaker perception. In addition, only a small minority of the late learners perceived the voicing contrast in a way comparable to native-speaker categorization, while most early L2 learners demonstrated nativelike categorization patterns. However, when the results were combined with the L2 learners' production of Swedish voiceless stops (Stolten, 2005; Stolten, Abrahamsson & Hyltenstam, in press), nativelike production and perception was never found among the late learners, while a majority of the early learners still exhibited nativelike production and perception. It is concluded that, despite their being perceived as mother-tongue speakers of Swedish by native listeners, the late learners do not, after detailed phonetic scrutiny, exhibit a fully nativelike command of Swedish VOT. Consequently, being near-native rather than nativelike speakers of their second language, these individuals do not constitute the evidence necessary to reject the hypothesis of one or several critical (or sensitive) periods for language acquisition.

Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: A recent paper on the prehistory of the Tibetan verbal system by Guillaume Jacques (2012), in keeping with many previous authorities, presents Tibetan verbs as occurring in pairs, with a voiced intransitive and a voice-alternating transitive member. However, as noticed by Uray, Tibetan verbs occur in triplets with no relationship between voicing and transitivity.

Book
14 Apr 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a model in which phonology, phonetic interpretation, and phonetics find their respective homes, and integrate the disparate threads of modern research of sound patterns into one sound system.
Abstract: For decades, the voicing system of Polish has been at the center of a heated theoretical debate concerning laryngeal phonology as it features a number of phenomena that constitute the core of this debate, such as Final Obstruent Devoicing, Regressive Voice Assimilation, and Progressive Voice Assimilation. As research into laryngeal phonology progresses on various fronts, it becomes more obvious that a large portion of the phenomena in question have phonetic or implementational conditioning, thus limiting the role of phonology even further. The model presented here is one in which phonology, phonetic interpretation, and phonetics find their respective homes. Paradoxically, by separating these three levels of description, we wish to integrate the disparate threads of modern research of sound patterns into one sound system.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results suggest that the proprioceptive feedback provided through PROMPT had a positive influence on speech motor control and inter-gestural coordination in voicing behavior.
Abstract: This study evaluated changes in motor speech control and inter-gestural coordination for children with speech sound disorders (SSD) subsequent to Prompts for Restructuring Oral and Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT) intervention. We measured the distribution patterns of voice onset time (VOT) for a voiceless stop (/p/) to examine the changes in inter-gestural coordination. Two standardized tests were used (Verbal Motor Production Assessment for Children (VMPAC), GFTA-2) to assess the changes in motor speech skills and articulation. Data showed positive changes in patterns of VOT with a lower pattern of variability. All children showed significantly higher scores for VMPAC, but only some children showed higher scores for GFTA-2. Results suggest that the proprioceptive feedback provided through PROMPT had a positive influence on speech motor control and inter-gestural coordination in voicing behavior. This set of VOT data for children with SSD adds to our understanding of the speech characteristics underlying speech motor control. Directions for future studies are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study examined whether talkers exhibit a compensatory behavior when manipulating information about voicing and found that when talkers received feedback of the cognate of the intended voicing category, they changed the voice onset time and in some cases the following vowel.
Abstract: Previous research employing a real-time auditory perturbation paradigm has shown that talkers monitor their own speech attributes such as fundamental frequency, vowel intensity, vowel formants, and fricative noise as part of speech motor control. In the case of vowel formants or fricative noise, what was manipulated is spectral information about the filter function of the vocal tract. However, segments can be contrasted by parameters other than spectral configuration. It is possible that the feedback system monitors phonation timing in the way it does spectral information. This study examined whether talkers exhibit a compensatory behavior when manipulating information about voicing. When talkers received feedback of the cognate of the intended voicing category (saying “tipper” while hearing “dipper” or vice versa), they changed the voice onset time and in some cases the following vowel.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper presented a lexical survey with native Kriol speakers followed by two acoustic studies of the obstruent inventory with literate speakers, and finally an acoustic analysis of naturally occurring speech.
Abstract: Roper Kriol is a major variety of the largest Indigenous Australian language, Kriol, yet its phonology remains under-described and it has never been examined instrumentally. Reports suggest high variability. We present a lexical survey with native Kriol speakers followed by two acoustic studies of the obstruent inventory with literate speakers, and finally an acoustic analysis of naturally occurring speech. We conclude that the obstruent inventory has inherited features from the substrate languages and English. It has contrastive stop voicing using Voice Onset Time differences in an English-like manner. It also has contrastive fricatives, but no voicing distinction in these phonemes. Like some of the substrate languages, stops also contrast in constriction duration to a much greater degree than English. There is no evidence that voicing is a variable phenomenon, and we suggest that the reported variability is due to language shift over several generations from a situation where it was primarily an L2 used...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Investigating the effect of increased vocal intensity on interarticulator timing in individuals with Parkinson's disease found voice treatment during everyday communication resulted in improved temporal coordination across the laryngeal and supralaryngeAl mechanisms for the majority of speakers with PD and made them easier to understand.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The data overall do not allow using (a lack of) accommodation as a diagnostic as to the processing level at which an error has occurred, and support speech production models that allow for an integrated view of phonological and phonetic processing.
Abstract: Purpose Phonetic accommodation in speech errors has traditionally been used to identify the processing level at which an error has occurred. Recent studies have challenged the view that noncanonica...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined how variation in production is perceived and then interpreted by listeners, thus providing the link between phonetic variation and sound change, and found that listeners can detect the nasal leak that may accompany utterance-initial voiced stops in Spanish, and reinterpret it as a nasal segment.
Abstract: This study examines how variation in production is perceived and then (re)interpreted by listeners, thus providing the link between phonetic variation and sound change. We investigate whether listeners can detect the nasal leak that may accompany utterance-initial voiced stops in Spanish, and reinterpret it as a nasal segment. Such reinterpretation may account for a number of sound patterns involving emergent nasals adjacent to voiced stops in oral contexts. Oral pressure, nasal/oral airflow, and audio were recorded for utterance-initial /b d p t/ produced by 10 Spanish speakers. Tokens showing different degrees of nasal leak (nasal C, maximum, medium, and no nasal leak) were placed inter- vocalically, where both /C/ and /NC/ may occur. The stimuli were presented to Spanish listeners for identification as /VNCV/ or /V(C)CV/. Identification results indicate a higher number of VNCV responses with incremental changes in nasal leak in voiced but not voiceless stimuli. Reaction time analysis showed shorter latencies to nasal identification for larger velum leak stimuli. The results suggest that listeners can 'hear' the nasal leak and fail to relate it to voicing initiation, interpreting a nasal segment. Thus a gesture aimed at facilitating voicing initia- tion may be interpreted as a new target goal.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2014-Language
TL;DR: In this article, a new voicing cooccurrence pattern in Afrikaans is presented as an example of a pattern that arose via this third route of lexical accumulation, and evidence is also presented that this pattern is being learned as a grammatical constraint by Afrikaner speakers.
Abstract: Two explanations are offered in the literature for the origin of lexical patterns of consonantal voicing cooccurrence: (i) speaker-oriented: a cooccurrence pattern may result from voicing assimilation under ease-of-articulation pressures, and (ii) listener-oriented: a cooccurrence pattern may result from systematic misperception by listeners. This article argues for a third possible origin of such patterns: (iii) lexical accumulation: a series of unrelated sound changes may conspire to create a lexical pattern of voicing cooccurrence. Once introduced into the lexicon of some language through any of these three routes, speakers can elevate such a pattern to a grammatical principle. A new voicing cooccurrence pattern in Afrikaans is presented as an example of a pattern that arose via this third route of lexical accumulation. Evidence is also presented that this pattern is being learned as a grammatical constraint by Afrikaans speakers.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: None of the examined acoustic cues appeared to be used by Italian listeners to obtain a robust voicing distinction, thus pointing to the use of other acoustic cues or combination of other cues to guarantee stable voicing distinction in this language.
Abstract: Speech production and speech perception studies were conducted to compare (de)voicing in the Romance languages European Portuguese (EP) and Italian. For the speech production part, velar stops in two positions and four vowel contexts were recorded. The voicing status for 10 consecutive landmarks during stop closure was computed. Results showed that during the complete stop closure voicing was always maintained for Italian, and that for EP, there was strong devoicing for all vowel contexts and positions. Both language and vowel context had a significant effect on voicing during stop closure. The duration values and voicing patterns from the production study were then used as input factors to a follow-up perceptual experiment to test the effects of vowel duration, stop duration and voicing maintenance on voicing perception by EP and Italian listeners. Perceptual stimuli (VCV) were generated using biomechanical modelling so that they would include physically realistic transitions between phonemes. The consonants were velar stops, with no burst or noise included in the signal. A strong language dependency of the three factors on listeners' voicing distinction was found, with high sensitivity for all three cues for EP listeners and low sensitivity for Italian listeners. For EP stimuli with high voicing maintenance during stop closure, this cue was very strong and overrode the other two acoustic cues. However, for stimuli with low voicing maintenance (i.e. highly devoiced stimuli), the acoustic cues vowel duration and stop duration take over. Even in the absence of both voicing maintenance during stop closure and a burst, the acoustic cues vowel duration and stop duration guaranteed stable voicing distinction in EP. Italian listeners were insensitive to all three acoustic cues examined in this study, with stable voiced responses throughout all of the varying fully crossed factors. None of the examined acoustic cues appeared to be used by Italian listeners to obtain a robust voicing distinction, thus pointing to the use of other acoustic cues or combination of other cues to guarantee stable voicing distinction in this language.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Laryngeal–oral coordination was studied in German clusters of voiceless fricative or plosive plus /l/ or /r/ by means of videofiberendoscopy and transillumination and Prosodic strengthening itself had a particularly clear influence on the magnitude of the devoicing gesture.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The two subtypes of SD exhibit differential performance on the basis of consonant voicing in short, simple sentences; however, each subgroup manifested voicing-related differences on a different variable (voice quality vs sentence duration) suggest different underlying pathophysiological mechanisms for ABSD and ADSD.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Con consonantal context does not specify vowel identity in singing as clearly as it has been demonstrated for spoken utterances and the unexpected results lend themselves to two possible explanations: the reduction of the consonants and the undersampling of the formant transitions.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a multilevel Gaussian General Recognition Theory model is presented as a model of multidimensional feature perception, fit to data from three experiments probing identification of noise-masked, naturally-produced labial and alveolar English stop consonants [p, [b], [t], and [d] in onset and coda position.
Abstract: Abstract Distinctive features define a multidimensional structure that must be implemented in speech production and perception. A multilevel Gaussian General Recognition Theory model is presented as a model of multidimensional feature perception. The model is fit to data from three experiments probing identification of noise-masked, naturally-produced labial and alveolar English stop consonants [p], [b], [t], and [d] in onset (syllable-initial) and coda (syllable-final) position. The results indicate systematic perceptual deviations from simple place and voicing structure in individual subjects and at the group level. Comparing onset and coda positions shows that syllable position modulates the deviation patterns, and comparing speech-shaped noise and multi-talker babble indicates that deviations from simple feature structure are reasonably robust to variation in noise characteristics. Possible causes of the observed perceptual confusion patterns are discussed, and extensions of this work to studies of feature structure in speech production and investigation of non-native speech perception are briefly outlined.

Dissertation
01 Jun 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used acoustic, electropalatographic and laryngographic data to investigate articulatory timing and the timing of voicing of single stops and two-stop consonant clusters in Tripolitanian Libyan Arabic.
Abstract: This study uses acoustic, electropalatographic and laryngographic data to investigate articulatory timing and the timing of voicing of single stops and two-stop consonant clusters in Tripolitanian Libyan Arabic. The theoretical framework which has been adopted in this investigation is based on Articulatory Phonology. An acoustic approach is also employed in this study to measure the duration of segments and overlap in clusters. Another objective of this research is to determine whether syllable position, place of articulation, including articulation sequence, the morphological structure, gender of the speaker and articulation rate will have an influence on the gestural coordination and the timing of voicing of Tripolitanian Libyan Arabic stops. Fourteen native speakers of Tripolitanian Libyan Arabic produced fifty-eight mostly monosyllabic words that contain seven syllable-initial single stops, seven syllable-final single stops, twenty-seven syllable-initial two-stop clusters and seventeen syllable-final two-stop clusters in normal, fast and slow articulation rate. One speaker was recorded using Electropalatography and Laryngography. Measurements include duration of the hold phase of the stops, the duration of overlap/delay between two adjacent consonantal closures, the timing and duration of the voicing during the hold phase and the duration of VOT. Statistical results show significant influence of syllable position, place of articulation, gender and speaking rate on the gestural coordination of two-stop clusters. In syllable-initial position, the pattern of coordination is characterised by an overlap between the two consonantal closures or by a short delay as a result of the release of the first stop. In syllable-final position, the pattern of coordination of two consonantal gestures is marked by a less cohesive coordination leading to the existence of an epenthetic vowel. These patterns of coordination varied as a function of place of articulation, gender of the speaker and the rate of articulation. Clusters with lingual stops are less overlapped compared to clusters containing bilabial stops. Male speakers produced longer hold phase durations and longer inter-consonantal intervals in comparison with female speakers. While in faster articulation rates the two consonantal gestures were reduced in duration and exhibited more gestural overlap, slow articulation rate resulted in the opposite outcome. Results of the influences of articulation sequence and morphological structure of the cluster were less evident. Finally, the duration of voice onset time and the timing and duration of voicing during the hold phase varied as a function of syllable position, place of articulation and articulation rate, with more voicing in syllable-final single stops than syllable-initial and an increase in voicing by the increase in articulation rate, and the opposite pattern is evident in slow articulation rate. The duration of VOT becomes longer as the place of articulation moves back and shorter when the articulation rate is increased. In slow speaking rate, VOT is longer.