The patterns of syllable duration in English

Abstract

We report here some preliminary results from a large study of English speech rhythm. Adjective-noun phrases with three, four and five syllables (e.g., “bold design,” “poor bystander,” “electronic gear”) were spoken in meaningful sentences with the syllable “ma” substituted for each syllable of the phrase: for example, “bold design” was spoken as “MA maMA.“ The following aspects of the phrases were varied: (a) number of syllables, (b) stress pattern, (c) position of word boundary within the phrases, and (d) position of phrases within sentences. Preliminary results from three of eight talkers show how these variables influenced the “ma” syllable durations. The implications of the results for models of English speech rhythm, especially with regard to isochrony, will be discussed. The validity of the reiterant nonsense speech technique will also be discussed.