Universal versus language‐specific aspects of voicing‐dependent vowel duration

Abstract

All languages show vowels to be slightly longer before voiced obstruents. A phonological rule of vowel lengthening has been proposed for English because the variation seems to be much greater than in, say, French. This comparison, however, has been based on studies that do not control for word length, syllable structure, or for whether or not the languages have final devoicing. A comparison of voicing‐dependent vowel duration in English and French monosyllables shows that phrase finally and medially under focus, obstruent voicing is a significant factor influencing the duration of preceding vowels in both languages. In unfocused medial position, on the other hand, the difference between the durations as a function of consonant voicing is much smaller. Moreover, if differences in syllabification are taken into account, the languages are even more similar. That is, in French, consonants tend to be resyllabified with the following syllable, unlike in English. These results suggest that languages universally exhibit fairly similar physiologically conditioned voicing‐dependent variation in vowel durations. Under certain conditions, including word length, syllabic structure, stress, position in word, and utterance and speaking tempo, the difference is enhanced, while in others it is obscured. Thus a general phonetic account in terms of timing control is preferable to a language‐specific phonological rule.All languages show vowels to be slightly longer before voiced obstruents. A phonological rule of vowel lengthening has been proposed for English because the variation seems to be much greater than in, say, French. This comparison, however, has been based on studies that do not control for word length, syllable structure, or for whether or not the languages have final devoicing. A comparison of voicing‐dependent vowel duration in English and French monosyllables shows that phrase finally and medially under focus, obstruent voicing is a significant factor influencing the duration of preceding vowels in both languages. In unfocused medial position, on the other hand, the difference between the durations as a function of consonant voicing is much smaller. Moreover, if differences in syllabification are taken into account, the languages are even more similar. That is, in French, consonants tend to be resyllabified with the following syllable, unlike in English. These results suggest that languages universally ...