Effects of speaking rate on the vowel length distinction in Korean

Variations in speaking rate affect the perception of temporally defined phonetic distinctions in consonants, such as voicing in stops, and the stop‐glide and stop‐affricate contrasts. The production data on these contrasts show asymmetrical effects on temporally distinctive pairs, with the longer members showing the effects more markedly. These data further suggest that the shorter member of the pair serves as a phonetic anchor. This study investigates whether similar effects emerge for vowels. To this end, production of short‐long vowel pairs was examined across speaking rates in Korean, a language that has phonemic vowel length. Results show that both long and short vowels vary across speaking rates, such that the symmetrical effects found for consonants are not found for vowels. Short vowels do not provide a phonetic anchor: In fact, the durations of short vowels produced at a slow rate nearly always overlap those of long vowels produced at a fast rate. [Work supported by NIH.]

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