Electroglottographic analysis of coda voicelessness in Australian English

The implementation of voicelessness may be achieved by glottal spreading or glottal constriction, with both gestures inhibiting vocal fold vibration. Glottal spreading is associated with breathiness, and constriction with glottalization. In many dialects of English, glottalization often occurs at the end of vowels preceding coda /t/, and sometimes also occurs with /p, k/, suggesting that coda stop voicelessness is achieved through glottal constriction in these cases. Conversely, voiceless coda fricatives are associated with breathiness on a portion of the preceding vowel, suggesting that voicelessness in such cases is achieved through glottal spreading. However, analyses specifically measuring glottal activity in coda consonant contexts in English are sparse. To address this, we conducted electroglottographic and acoustic analyses of vowels preceding voiceless codas /p, t, k, s/ to examine how coda voicelessness is achieved in Australian English across the three places of articulation. We found that coda /t/ is associated with glottal constriction towards preceding vowel offset. Conversely, /k/ patterns with /s/ and generally exhibits glottal spreading towards the end of preceding vowels, whereas coda /p/ demonstrates an intermediate position. This suggests that two separate implementation strategies may be used to achieve coda voicelessness in Australian English, with these strategies further mediated by vowel identity.