An acoustic profile of consonant reduction

Abstract

Vowel reduction has been studied for years. It is a universal phenomenon that reduces the distinction of vowels in informal speech and unstressed syllables. How consonants behave in situations where vowels are reduced is much less well known. The authors compare durational and spectral data (for both intervocalic consonants and vowels) segmented from read speech with otherwise identical segments from spontaneous speech. On a global level, it shows that consonants reduce like vowels when the speaking style becomes informal. On a more detailed level there are differences related to the type of the consonant.