On the tonal and temporal domains of accent in Finnish

Abstract Using monosyllabic words that can be continued to quadrisyllabic words (for example, sei, Seiko, Seikola, Seikolasta), all spoken with two degrees of prominence (unaccented and strongly accented), this study examined the temporal and tonal domains of accent in Finnish. Large accentual lengthening was observed to extend from word onset to the end of the third syllable, with minor lengthening appearing on the first segment of the fourth syllable. The tonal domain of accentuation in turn was observed to extend from word onset to the middle of the third syllable, and in shorter words, to a corresponding temporal location in the next word. Thirdly, it was observed that polysyllabic shortening does not operate in Finnish: word length (number of constituent syllables) has no overall effect on segment durations. The results, together with previous ones, show that in Finnish, a full-fledged quantity language, segment durations are adjusted to achieve a temporally and tonally uniform realization of accent. This is contrary to the situation in many nonquantity languages, in which the temporal realization of accent varies as a function of the segmental structure of the accented syllable.