6533b7dafe1ef96bd126ecd6
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Measures of native and non-native rhythm in a quantity language.
Verna StockmalDace MarkusDzintra Bondsubject
AdultLinguistics and LanguageSociology and Political ScienceAdolescentFirst languageMultilingualism050105 experimental psychologyLanguage and LinguisticsSpeech Acoustics030507 speech-language pathology & audiology03 medical and health sciencesSpeech and HearingRhythmPhoneticsHumansLearning0501 psychology and cognitive sciencesAcoustic phoneticsMathematicsPikecomputer.programming_languageAgedLanguagePsycholinguistics05 social sciencesIndo-European languagesLatvianPhoneticsGeneral MedicineMiddle Agedlanguage.human_languageLinguisticslanguageSpeech PerceptionSyllable0305 other medical sciencecomputerPsychoacousticsdescription
The traditional phonetic classification of language rhythm as stress-timed or syllable-timed is attributed to Pike. Recently, two different proposals have been offered for describing the rhythmic structure of languages from acoustic-phonetic measurements. Ramus has suggested a metric based on the proportion of vocalic intervals and the variability ( SD) of consonantal intervals. Grabe has proposed Pairwise Variability Indices (nPVI, rPVI) calculated from the differences in vocalic and consonantal durations between successive syllables. We have calculated both the Ramus and Grabe metrics for Latvian, traditionally considered a syllable rhythm language, and for Latvian as spoken by Russian learners. Native speakers and proficient learners were very similar whereas low-proficiency learners showed high variability on some properties. The metrics did not provide an unambiguous classification of Latvian.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-03-01 | Language and speech |