“Compensatory shortening” in monosyllables of spoken English

Abstract

Many durational patterns for segments look like compensations to maintain a more constant interval duration at a higher level of prosodic organization. For example, vowel duration is shorter when the number of consonants in the syllable coda is increased. The origins of this pattern and of a similar pattern of coda shortening after longer vowels are examined. Vowel height and coda composition (singleton vs. cluster) were varied. The acoustic durations of the vowels and consonants and the kinematics of the accompanying jaw movements were measured. All three subjects showed a decrease in the acoustic duration of the vowel in the presence of a following cluster; two of the three subjects showed a decrease in the duration of the syllable coda when following a longer vowel. Kinematic evidence suggested the possibility that, in part, these patterns were produced by gestural overlap between the consonants and vowels; that is, successive movements overlap in time and are blended to produce a single output.