Laryngeal activity in Swedish obstruent clusters

Laryngeal articulatory movements and their coordination with supralaryngeal events have proved to be important for control of voicing and pre- and post-aspiration in obstruents. A reciprocal pattern of activity generally has been observed among laryngeal adductor and adductor muscles in the control of glottal opening in voiceless obstruent production. Current notions about laryngeal articulatory control rest, however, mainly on studies using simple linguistic materials, where voiced and unvoiced segments alternate in a regular manner. The present study examines laryngeal activity in voiceless obstruent clusters using the combined techniques of electromyography, fiberoptic filming, and transillumination of the larynx. The results indicate that laryngeal articulatory movements are precisely coordinated with the oral articulations of clusters to meet the aerodynamic requirements of speech production. Several laryngeal movements may occur in a cluster. Comparison of temporal patterns of glottal area variations obtained by fiberoptic filming and by transillumination of the larynx, showed them to be practically identical.