Patricia Ann Keating (born July 20, 1952)[2] is an American linguist and noted phonetician.
[3] In 1980 she joined the faculty of the Linguistics Department at University of California, Los Angeles, where she remained until her retirement.
[4] She also held a position as Distinguished Professor and served as Chair of UCLA Linguistics Department.
[5] She is, with Cécile Fougeron, the discoverer of the initial strengthening effect, wherein consonants receive more fortis articulations (greater degree of articulatory contact) to the extent that they occur at the beginnings of high-ranking phonological phrases.
On the theoretical side, she is the inventor of the "window model" of coarticulation,[6] a theory of phonetic realization that specifies a particular range of legal values for each segment along each phonetic parameter.