The role of gestural phasing in Western Andalusian Spanish aspiration

This study examines the phenomenon of post-aspirated voiceless stops in Western Andalusian Spanish in /s/+voiceless stop sequences. Previous analyses have proposed that the post-aspiration arises through a reorganization of the glottal spreading gesture for /s/ and the oral constriction gesture for the stop. This theory is tested by steadily increasing speakers' production rate, which has been shown to trigger spontaneous changes in gestural organization in speech and other motor activities. Results from the study support the initial hypothesis. There is a switch from productions with preaspiration and short VOT to those with long VOT as rate increases. Additionally, there is a tradeoff between VOT and pre-closure aspiration, indicating they may result from the same gesture. Lastly, the variability in production shows a number of hallmarks of phase transitions in human coordination. In sum, a change in gestural organization provides a simple explanation for post-aspirated stops in this dialect.

► We analyze the shift from pre- to post-aspiration in Western Andalusian Spanish voiceless stops.
► A change in the coordination of speech gestures is hypothesized to underlie this shift.
► We can trigger this shift by increasing the rate of production, as in other motor control studies.
► Variability in production is also consistent with the gestural-rephasing hypothesis.