Rhythm and Vowel Quality in Accents of English
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2478/v10015-010-0011-8Keywords:
phonology, rhythm, vowel quality, English pronunciationAbstract
This paper will examine rhythmic differences among native and non-native accents of English, and report on a pilot experiment investigating a hypothesized interaction between rhythm and vowel quality. A new metric, % SteadyState, an acoustic measure that quantifies the purity of vowels, appears to capture rhythmic differences that have been reported among various native and non-native accents of English. In the tradition of other recently developed rhythm metrics, these findings suggest a link between rhythm and segmental phonology. Additionally, the perspective gained from this study may be beneficial to learners whose goal is native-like vowel quality, offering an understanding of the dynamic properties of English vowels.
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