V-to-C Coarticulation Effects in Non-native Speakers of English and Russian: A Locus-equation Analysis

Locus equation scatterplots for [bilabial stop + vowel] syllables were obtained from 16 non-native speakers of English and Russian. The results indicated that both Russian speakers of English and English speakers of Russian exhibited modifications towards respective L2 norms in slopes and y-intercepts. All non-native locus equations generated exhibited linearity. Accordingly, the basic results reported in [17] were reverified by securing a larger subject base. More experienced speakers displayed better approximations to L2 norms than less experienced speakers, indicating the necessity of perception- and articulation-related learning for allophonic variations due to adjacent phonetic environments.