Motor coordination of articulators depends on the place of articulation

Although the sounds/p/and/k/are both voiceless plosives, they have different places of articulation: bilabial and velar, respectively. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship among articulators in plosives with reference to their place of articulation. Ten healthy subjects repeated bilabial and velar plosives in synchronization with magnetic resonance scanning. Each run was measured using a gradient echo sequence. Several linear and angular variables were defined to delineate the individual movements of articulators and to determine the temporal relationships among articulators. These variables showed distinctive changes depending on the place of articulation. In addition, movement of the velum was significantly correlated with that of the lips and the anterior part of the tongue in the bilabial plosive and with the posterior part of the tongue in the velar plosive. We conclude that unitary motor coordination of articulators depends on the place of articulation.