Language can have a significant impact on speech production. However, few researchers have systematically investigated the influence of language variables on articulatory performance. Prior research on utterance length and syntactic complexity has shown that phrase length has a negative impact on lip movement stability in healthy adults (Smith et al., 2000). To further our understanding of the interactions between speech motor performance and linguistic variables, we will investigate the effects of phonological and lexical factors namely age of acquisition, neighborhood density and word frequency on tongue movement variability. We predict that movement variability will be greater for words that are phonologically and lexically more complex. Ten healthy female college students selected for the study will be asked to repeat 12 words presented via a loudspeaker in 12 randomized lists. Each word list will comprise of the same four words in each category i.e., two high and two low - age of acquisition, neighborhood density, and frequency words. Electromagnetic articulography (NDI, Canada) will be used to record vertical displacements of the tongue body while participants say each word. The spatiotemporal index (STI; Smith et al., 1995) will be used to estimate variability of vertical tongue displacements during 12 repetitions of the same word. STI comparisons will be made for words within and across the three categories. Our preliminary results suggest that tongue movements are less variable for low age of acquisition and high frequency words. The outcomes of this study will serve as a baseline for speech motor studies in disordered groups.