An EPG+UTI study of Italian /r/

This paper describes a system for the acquisition, real-time synchronization and analysis of acoustic, electropalatographic (EPG) and ultrasonographic (UTI) data. Simultaneous data on linguo-palatal contact and tongue sagittal profiles are captured for rhotic consonants produced by a native speaker of Italian. Three anterior variants of /r/ ([ɾ], [ɹ̝] and [ɹ]) are shown to be realized with an apical tongue gesture, but different vowel-related coarticulation patterns. The paper discusses the implication of the proposed analysis for a coherent investigation of lingual and linguo-palatal dynamics.