Word‐level rhythm in non‐native English.

Abstract

Motivated by traditional rhythm class typologies, studies of language‐learners’ rhythm typically focus on the syllable or segment level. Studying word‐level rhythm lets us explore the effects of lexical features (e.g., part of speech, predictability) on word durations in non‐native speech. This study examined whether native and non‐native English can be distinguished by variation in the realization of English lexical features, and whether non‐native‐like word‐level rhythm leads to a stronger foreign accent. Word durations were measured in English paragraphs read by 12 native American English (AE), 20 native Korean, and 20 native Chinese speakers. AE listeners rated the “accentedness” of these speakers. AE speakers showed greater within‐speaker word duration variance than non‐natives, and non‐native speakers with greater variance received more native‐like accent ratings. Increased AE variance had two causes. AE speakers had shorter relative durations for function words than non‐natives. AE speakers also showed greater variance in their content word durations than non‐natives, perhaps due to differences between words with and without pitch accents. However, both AE and non‐native speakers produced shorter second mentions of words than first mentions, showing sensitivity to lexical predictability. Overall, these findings implicate word‐level rhythm as an important and complex feature of foreign‐accented English.