Son, Minjung. 2015. Articulatory properties of the allophonic variant [ɾ] in Korean /l/-flapping: Gestural reduction and the role of gestural overlap. Studies of Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology 21.3. 427-456.

In the current EMMA study, we examine the allophonic variant [ɾ] of the Korean lateral in an /a+la/ context at two different speech rates. The results are recapitulated as follows. First, phonetic values from spatio-temporal measurements of the tongue tip gesture were distributed along a continuum in a gradient fashion, but no categorical reduction was attested. Second, rate effects were not prevalent, being confined only to several kinematic
parameters. Third, the tongue tip movement orientation during all-inclusive closing duration has three different directionalities (backward > horizontally unaltered > forward). Meanwhile, confined to the tongue tip closing acceleration duration, we had two distinct directionalities, one with backward movement and the other with forward movement. Lastly, we did not find strong evidence for co-articulatory resistance with the intervening flap [ɾ], except for evaluating one parameter. To conclude, the Korean allophonic variant [ɾ] displayed both language-particular as well as cross-linguistic characteristics comparable to American English /t/- and /d/-flapping. Gestural overlap also played a role in the increment of all-inclusive forward locomotion as well as greater tongue dorsum opening displacement in the fast speech rate. (Hannam University)