On Vowel Duration and Pitch Prominence

Abstract

The phenomenon of strong vowel lengthening when followed by voiced consonants does not occur uniformly in American English but only in rather special circumstances. Vowel lengthening is always accompanied by a rather prominent change in fundamental frequency during the vowel and the following consonant. The “pitch” change can be either a drop associated with stress, a continuation rise, or a final drop. The amount of lengthening varies with the complexity of the pitch inflection. The most striking elongations, for example, occur in the combination of falling stress and a continuation rise: the so-called fall-rise intonation. Not all such pitch patterns, however, cause vowel lengthening. The terminal pitch change is, in general, spread from the last primary or secondary-stressed syllable to the end of the breath group or phrase. Lengthening occurs only if the entire change is forced to fall within one syllable. When this occurs, vowel lengthening is greatest when followed by voiced consonants, but some lengthening occurs with unvoiced consonants, and in final vowels.