Voiceless Consonant Durations in VCV Utterances

Abstract

Durations of the eight English voiceless obstruents, /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /s/, /c/ were measured from digitized oscillographic displays. Eight subjects produced each consonant 10 times in each of the four contexts i-i, i-a, a-i, and a-a. They read from randomly ordered lists and were instructed to place equal stress on both the surrounding vowels. The affricate /č/ had the longest total duration (closure plus ‘burst”) and the fricatives /s/ and /š/ the next longest total duration for all subjects in all contexts. There were no consistent differences in total duration of the remaining five consonants. Closure durations for stop consonants were, in decreasing order, /p/, /t/, /k/, and burst durations showed the opposite order, results thus tending towards equal total stop consonant durations. Durational effects of the preceding vowel were not consistent across subjects. Low vowels were preceded by shorter total consonant durations than high vowels. The shorter durations were mainly observed during the burst of stops and affricates, and were least obvious in labials and interdentals.