A Study on Quantification of the Extent of Co-articulation in a VCV Sequence

Co-articulation is a phenomenon in speech production where the articulatory movements for a speech sound are influenced by the surrounding sounds and their movements. The proposed work quantitatively evaluates co-articulation in VCV (Vowel-Consonant-Vowel) sequences using real-time MRI videos, focusing on the consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ followed by the vowels /a/, /e/, and /u/. The analysis examines air-tissue boundaries to measure co-articulation and observe articulatory variations across different phonetic environments. Three methods are employed: Euclidean distance, dynamic time warping, and correlation coefficients. The results indicate that the consonant /k/ shows more symmetry in its articulation compared to /p/ and /t/, regardless of the surrounding vowels. The study suggests that depending on the consonant and vowel context the co-articulation in VCV sequences tends to vary and exhibits asymmetric nature.