[DOI:10.17959/sppm.2025.31.1.91]

An articulatory examination of ambisyllabicity: Focusing on ultrasound images of American English laterals

Joo-Kyeong Lee (University of Seoul)

Abstract 

This study examines the articulatory characteristics of ambisyllabic laterals through ultrasound imaging, specifically investigating tongue body lowering, a primary articulatory gesture distinguishing onset and coda lateral allophones. Ambisyllabicity, first proposed by Kahn (1976), has posed persistent challenges to phonological theory and related empirical research, such as phonetic and psycholinguistic studies. Despite extensive debate, no consensus has emerged regarding whether ambisyllabic consonants genuinely exhibit intermediate articulatory properties shared between preceding and following syllables. In the experiment, ultrasound images of three types of intervocalic laterals—ambisyllabic laterals, non-ambisyllabic laterals preceded by stressed tense vowels, and non-ambisyllabic laterals preceded by unstressed vowels—were systematically compared. These were further contrasted against word-initial (onset) and word-final (coda) laterals. The results revealed that ambisyllabic laterals did not consistently show intermediate tongue body lowering across participants, nor were significant differences observed between ambisyllabic and non-ambisyllabic laterals in this articulatory feature. Consequently, the current ultrasound articulatory data do not empirically support ambisyllabicity as a distinct articulatory phenomenon, suggesting instead that ambisyllabicity remains primarily a theoretical construct within phonological theory. 

Keywords 

ambisyllabic, intervocalic, laterals, ultrasound, tongue body gestures, onset, coda