Contextual effects on lingual-mandibular coordination.

Coordination between intrinsic and jaw-related components of tongue blade movement during the articulation of the alveolar consonant /t/ was examined across changes in phonetic context. Tongue-jaw interactions included compensatory responses of one articulatory component to a contextual effect on the position of the other articulatory component. A similar reciprocity has been observed in studies that introduced artificial perturbation of jaw position and studies of patterns of token-to-token variability. Thus the lingual-mandibular complex seems to respond in a similar manner to at least some natural and artificial perturbations.