articulatorslips

Articulator slips are a class of speech errors in which the movements of the speech articulators (lips, tongue, jaw, velum) are misdirected, producing sounds or sequences that differ from the speaker's intention. They are a subset of slips of the tongue and are studied in psycholinguistics and phonetics as a window into how speech is planned and executed.

These slips arise from the motor planning and execution of speech. Coarticulation, timing pressures, and competition among simultaneous articulatory gestures can cause one gesture to be articulated too early, too late, or with an altered place or manner of articulation. Factors such as speaking rate, fatigue, and cognitive load increase their likelihood. Dialectal variation and individual articulation habits also influence the patterns observed.

Common manifestations include substitutions of one articulatory gesture for another (for example, a sound produced with a different place of articulation), premature release or delayed initiation of a gesture (anticipation of upcoming sounds or perseveration of earlier gestures), and, less frequently, metathesis, addition, or omission of gestures. Articulator slips can occur with any segment but are most noticeable on consonants and vowels whose production depends on precise coordination of the tongue, lips, and jaw.

Measurement and study of articulator slips often employ articulatory tracking methods such as electromagnetic articulography, ultrasound imaging of the tongue, palatography, or aerodynamic and acoustic analyses to link articulatory movements with audible output.

See also: slips of the tongue, speech production, coarticulation, phonetics.