Vowel Duration in Polysyllabic Words in American English

Abstract

The durations of vowels in polysyllabic words were studied from natural readings of texts by several speakers of various dialects. Durations of vowels in prepausal and word-final stressed syllables follow the same rules as those of monosyllabic words. They are affected strongly by pitch manipulations that reflect the word's syntactic position and semantic value [cf., N. Umeda and C. H. Coker, J. Acoust. Soc. Amer. 49. 123(A) (1971)]. Vowels in other positions in polysyllabic words are comparatively free of higher-level lengthening phenomena; durations are well accounted for by purely phonological conditions. Data are grouped into the following classes: (1) individual vowels with primary stress in non-word-final syllables; (2) vowels in word-initial unstressed syllables; (3) vowels in post-stressed, non-word-final syllables, and (4) vowels in word-final, unstressed syllables (with subclasses according to the type of ending: -ing, -ness, -ment, -er, etc.). Distribution patterns of data for different speakers are very similar; slight differences in average value are plausibly explained by differences in speech rate. After the above factors are taken into account, the remaining effects in these data from readings of texts do not positively support a direct influence of the number of syllables in a word on the duration of each vowel.