Phonetic description of alveolar phones using electropalatography.

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the articulation of the Brazilian Portuguese, by examining the tongue-palate contact in the production of consonantal phones.

Methods: The electropalatography (EPG) of the alveolar consonants of the Brazilian Portuguese produced by an individual with typical speech was used, considering the alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal, and velar rates, as well as the percentage of activated contacts at the point of maximum constriction, and the visual inspection of palatograms.

Results: As expected, it was observed that all the examined phones have more contact in the alveolar region at the point of maximum constriction. The phones /t/, /d/ and /n/ showed more alveolar contact, with total obstruction of the air stream; the fricative phones /s/ and /z/ were characterized by the absence of contact at the central longitudinal axis; the lateral phone /l/ did not present contact at the lateral longitudinal axis, and the tap /[symbol: see text]/ showed not only few tongue-palate contacts but it was also produced in the shortest duration time.

Conclusion: The electopalatography allowed a detailed description of the extension of the tongue-palate contact in the different alveolar phones of the Brazilian Portuguese and how they occur.