Kiyoshi Oshima
RILP, Univ. of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113 Japan
Haskins Labs., 270 Crown St., New Haven, CT 06511
Kyoshi Honda
ATR, 2-2 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Kyoto, 619-02 Japan
Seiji Niimi
RILP, Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Vincent L. Gracco
Haskins Labs., New Haven, CT 06511
In this paper tongue activity during Japanese speech production was
examined. Of interest was the identification of potential neural control
strategies and biomechanical contributions underlying speech production by
evaluating, separately and in combination, kinematic and electromyographic
(EMG) activity of the tongue at normal and fast speaking rates. Three normal
adult Japanese speakers (three male) served as subjects for this investigation.
Hooked-wire electrodes were placed in three tongue muscles; two extrinsic
(genioglossus anterior [GGA] and genioglossus posterior [GGP]) and one
intrinsic, and two facial muscles (orbicularis oris inferior [OOI] and
depressor labii inferior [DLI]). The two-dimensional movement data were
recorded electromagnetically on the midsagittal plane using an EMMA system
[Perkell et al. (1992)]. Upper lip, lower lip, tongue tip, and tongue body
movement were recorded simultaneously with the EMG data. Though a variety of
speech tasks were recorded, the present report will focus on three syllable
words, /poteto/, in a carrier sentence, /ii