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International audience; Tokyo Japanese has a constraint against voiced geminate stops in its native lexicon. The present study investigates whether recently introduced word-medial voiced geminate stops [C1V1C(C)2V2] are differentiated from voiceless geminates and voiced singletons in terms of duration, voicing during closure, and spectral moments of stop release bursts. The findings suggest that the voiceless and voiced singleton stops were clearly differentiated by C2 duration. In contrast, C2 duration of the voiceless and voiced geminate stops was not significantly different. The devoic-ing of the word-medial stops was not only observed in voiced geminates, but voiced singletons also showed devoicing. The duration of the preceding vowel (V1) distinguished the voicing contrast in both singleton and geminate stops. The first four spectral moments of C2 stop release bursts did not distinguish the length and voicing contrasts in stops. These results indicate that, although word-medial voiced geminate stops are fully or partially devoiced, the Tokyo Japanese speakers lengthen the preceding vowels (V1) to maintain a voicing contrast. Production patterns of the voiced gemi-nates are considered in relation to marginal or intermediate phonological contrast.

Lifespan changes in speech have mostly been documented with respects to children’s development, while little is known about its evolution throughout adulthood. More particularly our knowledge on the effect of aging on speech and voice is sparse. Changes have been found in voice quality [e.g., Xue & Hao, 2003], the speech rate has been described to slow down [e.g., Staiger et al. 2017), and pitch is said to raise for older males and to lower for older females [e.g., Harnsberger et al., 2008]. The present study aims to investigate the effect of aging on Vowelto_Vowel anticipatory coarticulation in French. This effect is tested according to vowel duration and to differences in regional varieties. Data from 240 speakers (half female) distributed across three age groups (20–45), (50–69), and (70–80) have been extracted from the MonPaGeHA database [Fougeron et al. 2018] which includes speakers from four regional varieties: France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Quebec. The influence of V2 (/a/ or /i/) on V1 (/a/) is measured as a lowering of F1 and a rise of F2. Results show that coarticulation and vowel duration varies with regional variety and that vowels of older speakers are lengthened. More interestingly, results show a reduction of coarticulation with age.

In French, the acoustic effects of anticipation of a final high front rounded vowel, [y], can be observed in a preceding [i]. This labial anticipation induces a lowering of the formants being measured (F2,F3,F4) both in the middle and, to a greater extent, at the end of the [i] in [iCny] sequences. Although significant, this contextual influence does not jeopardize the acoustic contrast between [i] and [y]. To understand the articulatory basis of these results, acoustic consequences of the gestures involved in the so‐called rounding contrast between [i] and [y] are investigated through articulatory modeling. An [i]‐like area function is simulated with different degrees and combinations of anticipatory lip protrusion, reduction of the area at the lips, and larynx lowering. [i] allows little variation in lip gestures; beyond a limited range of coarticulation [i] shifts acoustically to the region occupied by [y]. While [i] appears to be quantal when we consider variation in tongue constriction, it shows a sensitive response to lip perturbation. In the [iCy] sequences observed, it seems that constraints on distinctiveness prevent a greater labial anticipation.