The articulation of mutated consonants: Palatalization in Scottish Gaelic (original) (raw)

Scottish Gaelic (henceforth SG) exhibits a rich system of consonant mutation, which is mostly governed by its morphology. Using ultrasound imaging, this study explores the articulation of palatalization in SG, considered a type of consonant mutation, asking the question of how various palatalized consonants are produced. The results from 6 SG speakers show that there is a clear gestural difference between plain and palatalized consonants, but yield highly idiosyncratic variations in how speakers distinguish them. The findings from this study provide empirical evidence that the phonemic contrast plain vs. palatalized in SGmanifests gesturally, and potentially support speaker-specific variability in speech production.