| This dissertation examines place assimilation in voiceless bi-consonantal stop sequences where a location in the speech apparatus at which a constriction closure or magnitude is made in the first consonant assimilates to the place of articulation of the following consonant (e.g., /VC1,-- C2V/ and /VC1 ;Results show that assimilation is an articulatory process, gradient in reduction and gradient in overlap. Firstly, there is gestural reduction with varying degrees of occurrences. High frequency in the emergence of categorical reduction is attained compared to gradient reduction. Data exhibits inter-consonant asymmetry and the result is compatible with across-language variability; coronal reduction is more frequent than labial reduction. Secondly, gestural overlap also varies in its degree. More overlap is consistently observed in the assimilation context than in the non-assimilation context, with no evidence of order contrast effects (i.e., back-to-front vs. front-to-back). There is a correlation between more reduced constriction of C1 and more overlap. Thirdly, place assimilation is also a perceptual process. Listeners' perception of more overlapped tokens is weaker than for less overlapped tokens. Lastly, we find evidence for syllable position effects and segmental context effects (i.e., gestural overlap of stop constrictions in C1C2) as the basis for syllable-final weakening, with inter-speaker, inter-variable, and inter-consonant variation. |
