Coarticulation

Coarticulation plays an important part in the process of speech production as it allows for a smooth flow of everyday conversation. This process requires the articulators to move at fast speeds as certain points or targets are required to be reached for phonemes to be produced. Due to the speed at which the articulators move from one target to another the motion of articulators will overlap. This overlapping motion is called coarticulation. That is the how articulators affect each other during the movement otherwise known as transition from one target to another. Coarticulation is influenced by a number of parameters. Firstly the distances the articulators need to move in the given amount of time in order to reach the required targets are not the same for all phonemes. The differences create an overlapping motion.