Paths to Phonological Complexity: Onset clusters in speech production, perception, and disorders

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The principal aim of our proposal is to significantly advance our knowledge of how universal aspects of speech production, motor control and perception are shaped by grammatical differences between the languages of the world. We propose a cross-linguistic study into the nature of preferred patterns in speech production, their perception and their manifestation in disordered speech. We capitalize on prosodic and phonotactic differences between four languages (Japanese, French, German, Georgian), and, for a single language, on error pattern differences between two types of speech disorders (apraxia, aphasia). We further take the emergence of motor optimization into account. No such comprehensive cross-linguistic study exists to date. Further innovative potential comes from considering differences in articulatory timing (consonant overlap) between languages and the impact timing differences have on the conditions in which preferred production patterns emerge and how these patterns are perceived. By considering the perceptual recoverability of preferred production patterns we broaden our understanding of how physiological preferences may be reflected in grammar. In addition, we consider the interplay of universal preferences and learned behavior in the light of apraxia of speech and aphasia, which allows for new insights into the cognitive and motoric/perceptual components of phonological complexity, and challenges abstractionist theories of aphasic phonological impairment. This work will be foundational for our understanding of one of the major aspects of human speech and language: how the diversity of the world's languages arises from a common cognitive and physiological basis.