An Articulatory Study of Consonant-Induced Vowel Duration Changes in English

Abstract

The effects of voicing, manner, and number of consonants on the duration of previous vowels in English can be created in three ways: by planned expansion or contraction of the entire vowel, by changing the relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures, or by modifying the duration of the closing movement for the consonants. An X-ray microbeam data base of 2 speakers of American English reciting monosyllabic words, which differed in their final consonants and in their position in the accentual structure of the utterance, was studied to evaluate these three accounts. In this data base, vowel duration differences due to the voicing of the following consonants were amplified by the presence of accent. Also, many of the duration differences associated with the following consonants are localized in the later portion of the opening movement, suggesting that subjects often create vowel duration changes by initiating the consonant closing gesture at an earlier or later time relative to the opening gesture.