All consonants in Irish are contrastively velarized
/Cˠ/ or palatalized /Cʲ/. This study investigates the
timing of /Cˠ Cʲ/ gestures across syllable positions
in Irish. In Russian, which has a similar contrast,
the dorsal gesture for /Cʲ/ seems to peak at the
CV transition in prevocalic onset consonants. In
postvocalic codas, /Cʲ/ gestures peak near the VC
transition, may be held until C release, and may
have more variable timing. We report comparable
gestural timing in Irish, and propose that these
patterns are grounded in perception. Both CV/VC
transitions and C release carry important cues to /Cˠ
Cʲ/ contrasts. In onsets, aligning /Cˠ Cʲ/ gestures at
CV transition maximizes the salience of those cues.
In codas, /Cˠ Cʲ/ gestures must be aligned to both
VC transitions and C release to achieve the same
effect. Cross-linguistically, /Cˠ Cʲ/ contrasts are
often limited in coda position, plausibly reflecting
these articulatory asymmetries.