Goal

Phonetically diverse group of sounds – alveolar, retroflex, uvular & pharyngeal; trills, taps, flaps, approximants & fricatives [2]. Acoustically: lowered F3 characteristic of many rhotics [3], but not true of all types of /r/. Liquids may share more in the articulatory domain; eg. English: /l/: produced with coronal + dorsal constrictions [4] //: produced with tongue tip + pharyngeal approximation [5] Lack of broad typological data: unclear whether similar common articulatory properties exist among different types of liquids which also pattern together. Phonetic Characterisation of Liquids Aim of this study: compare dynamic articulation of liquid consonants in Spanish and Russian in pursuit of unifying phonetic properties which characterize the class, and differentiate liquids from obstruents