The production of English front vowels by Spanish speakers: A study of vowel duration based on vowel tenseness and consonant voicing.

Abstract

In many languages, vowels preceding voiced consonants have longer duration than vowels preceding voiceless consonants. Previous studies have suggested that while this difference may be considered a phonetic rule in many languages including Spanish, it constitutes a phonological rule in English. Additionally, vowel duration is used phonologically in English to distinguish tense and lax vowels. Furthermore, these two phonological rules interact. Thus, Spanish speakers learning English must acquire two phonological rules of vowel duration and the interaction between the rules. The purpose of this study is to examine the acquisition of these phonological rules and interactions by Spanish speakers by comparing the productions of native English speakers and native Spanish speakers. Both groups of subjects produced English stimulus words that contrasted tense and lax vowels and consonant voicing, as well as syllable structure. The analysis of durational patterns by native English speakers provides data about the interaction of the phonological rules in production. The analysis of the Spanish data may have implications for second language phonology, particularly the interaction of universal phonetic rules and language‐specific phonological rules.