Coarticulation is defined as

• A. The influence of surrounding sounds on the articulation of a sound
• B. The rhythm of speech
• C. The meaning of words
• D. A child's babbling stage

Answer: (A)

Coarticulation is about how speech sounds aren’t produced in strict, separate blocks. The articulators—lips, tongue, jaw—move in a continuous way, so the articulation of a sound is shaped by neighboring sounds. For example, when you produce a vowel that follows a rounded sound, your lips may start rounding during the preceding consonant in anticipation of the upcoming vowel. This anticipatory adjustment, and its carryover into surrounding sounds, is what coarticulation describes.

The rhythm of speech describes prosody and timing, not how individual sounds influence one another. The meaning of words is a semantic property, not articulatory. A child’s babbling stage is a developmental phase, not an articulation effect.