Location and size of constriction in labiovelar and velar sounds in English

Not all velar sounds are produced using a velar constriction. Previous research [Islam et al., 2024, JASA 155] reveals both velar and palato-velar constriction locations in Parisian French velars. The current study investigates whether this variation is language-specific by comparing the size and location of constriction of velar sounds in English using an rtMRI speech corpus [Lim et al., 2021, Scientific Data 8]. Using Whispgrid [Martin, 2024, Github] and Montreal Forced Aligner [McAuliffe et al., 2017, Interspeech], Praat [Boersma & Weenink, 2024] textgrids were auto-generated and manually corrected in sentence and phone tiers to extract MRi freeze-frames from 10 participants split evenly between (5) L1 and (5) L2 English speakers. A Python script measuring Euclidean Distance located the size and constriction of English velar and labiovelar sounds between the palate and tongue. Results from MRI freeze-frames suggest that in English L1 and L2 speech, velar stops maintain a velar constriction and are not fronted across vocalic contexts found in French velar stops. Variation for velars indicates language-specific trends in constriction location.