This study uses ultrasound to image onset velar stop consonant articulation in words. By examining tongue body placement, the extent of velar closure variation across vowel contexts provides for the measurement of anticipatory coarticulation while productions within the same vowel context provide measurement of extent of token-to-token variation. Articulate Assistant Advanced 2.0 software was used to semi-automatically generate midsagittal tongue contours at the initial point of maximum velar closure and was used to fit each contour to a curved spline. Patterns of lingual coarticulation and measures of speech motor stability, based on curve-to-curve distance (Zharkova, Hewlett, & Hardcastle, 2011), are investigated to compare the speech of typically fluent speakers to the speech of people who stutter. Anticipatory coarticulation can be interpreted as a quantitative measure indicating the maturity of the speech motor system and its planning abilities. Token-to-token variability is examined from multiple velar vowel productions within the same vowel context, describing the accuracy of control, or stability, of velar closure gestures. Measures for both speaking groups are examined across the lifespan at stages during speech development, maturation, and aging. Results indicate an overall age effect, interpreted as refinement, with increased speech stability and progressively more segmental (less coarticulated) productions across the lifespan. A tendency toward decreased stability and more coarticulated speech was found for younger people who stutter, but this difference was small and absent among older adults. Outcomes of this study suggest the articulatory maturation trajectories of people who stutter may be delayed, but overall maturation of the speech mechanism is evident by older adulthood for typically fluent speakers and those who stutter. Applications to intervention are discussed in closing.

Ce travail de thèse étudie la production de la parole à l'âge de 4 ans, en comparaison avec l'adulte, sous l'angle du contrôle moteur. Un intérêt particulier a été porté à deux indices : la variabilité liée à la répétition de voyelles isolées et la coarticulation anticipatoire intra et extra-syllabique dans le cadre de la production de séquences de type V1-C-V2. Des données acoustiques et articulatoires ont été enregistrées via l'échographie linguale et le dispositif HOCUS. Les données acoustiques ont été analysées pour 20 enfants et 10 adultes et les données articulatoires ont été analysées pour 6 de ces enfants et 2 de ces adultes. En accord avec de nombreuses études de la littérature, la variabilité liée à la répétition est plus importante chez les enfants que chez les adultes. Une forte anticipation de V2 dans la réalisation de V1 a été observée pour tous les adultes. Chez les enfants, cette anticipation n'est pas systématique, et lorsqu'elle est observée, elle est d'amplitude plus faible que chez les adultes. Ainsi, seulement 5 enfants parmi les 20 étudiés montrent des signes d'anticipation, majoritairement dans la dimension antéropostérieure, manifestée dans l'espace acoustique par la dimension F2. La coarticulation anticipatoire intra-syllabique semble également être d'amplitude plus faible chez les enfants. Enfin, les gestes de parole des enfants sont plus lents que ceux des adultes. Dans leur ensemble, ces résultats sont interprétés comme la preuve de l'immaturité du système moteur pour la production de la parole chez l'enfant, selon deux perspectives : des patrons moteurs insuffisamment stables pour la production de gestes vocaliques et un manque d'efficacité dans l'anticipation les gestes futurs lors de la production d'une séquence de sons de parole. Selon une perspective empruntée aux théories du contrôle moteur optimal, nous proposons que la coarticulation anticipatoire repose sur l'usage de modèles internes, représentations sensori-motrices du système moteur de la parole dans le système nerveux central, et que son amplitude reflète la maturation progressive de ces représentations sensori-motrices à mesure que la production de la parole se développe. / This thesis work investigates speech production in 4-year-old children, in comparison with adults, from a speech motor control perspective. It focuses on two indices: measures of token-to-token variability in the production of isolated vowels and on anticipatory intra and extra-syllabic coarticulation within V1-C-V2 sequences. Acoustic and articulatory data were recorded thanks to ultrasound tongue imaging within the HOCUS system. Acoustic data from 20 children and 10 adults have been analyzed. Ultrasound data have been analyzed from a subset of these participants: 6 children and 2 adults. In agreement with former studies, token-to-token variability was greater in children than in adults. Strong anticipation of V2 in V1 realization was found in all adults. In children, anticipation was not systematic, and when observed, it was of smaller amplitude than in adults. In more details, only 5 children among the 20 studied showed a small amount of anticipation, mainly along the antero-posterior dimension, manifested in the acoustic F2 dimension. Anticipatory intra-syllabic coarticulation also seems to be of smaller amplitude in children than in adults. Last, children's speech gestures are slower than those of adults. These results are interpreted as evidence for the immaturity of children's speech motor control from two perspectives: insufficiently stable motor control patterns for vowel production, and a lack of effectiveness in anticipating forthcoming gestures. In line with theories of optimal motor control, we assume that anticipatory coarticulation is based on the use of internal models, i.e. sensori-motor representations of the speech production apparatus in the central nervous system, and that the amplitude of anticipatory coarticulation reflects the increasing maturation of these sensori-motor representations as speech develops.

In this thesis, anticipatory vowel-to-consonant coarticulation of Swedish fricatives [s], [ɕ], and [ɧ] was examined in isolated words and connected speech. 10 women and 10 men participated in the study, performing a production test where fricative-initial, real words were read as isolated words and in sentences. The first spectral moment (M1), also known as center of gravity, was measured at midpoint and end of the word-initial fricatives. M1 was found to differ greatly at the two measuring points in [s] and [ɕ], with a mean decrease of 2852 and 985 Hz, respectively. This was not the case for [ɧ], for which the M1 trajectories decreased and increased almost to the same extent. When taking vowel context into account, some correlation between vowel quality and M1 was found, in that M1 at midpoint of [s] and [ɕ] mirrored the height of F2 of the following vowel. M1 measurements were similar in isolated words and sentences, and no convincing differences were observed between the two in this investigation.