Abstract
The present electropalatographic study reports the production of the allophones. i.e., [l] and [r], of Korean tap /r/ and their coarticulatory characteristics in /$C{\'{a}}r#g$/ and /$C{\'{a}}r#i$/ sequences. The finding that tap /r/ involves a complete oral closure with less lingual contact, i.e., apico-frontalveolar coupling. than lateralized /r/ which involves apico-bladealveolar coupling and tongue dorsum lowering for adequate airflow through either side and/or both of the tongue body suggests that the two allophones of the tap /r/ have different lingual gestures. Moreover. in comparison with the tap. the lateral exerts longer lingual contacts. The mean ratio between them is 3.7. In the sequences /Car#g/. the two adjacent antagonistic segments (i.e., /r/ and /g/) show mutual coarticulation effects taking on features of adjacent segment. but either of them is precisely constrained without blocking the formation of involved major lingual gestures for the other segment. In sequences /Car#i/ occurs anticipatory V-to-C coarticulation but not vocalic carryover effects. In both sequences. the allophones reveal insignificant wordinitial consonantal carryover coarticulatory effects and insignificant speaker-specific lingual contacts.