Final lengthening-partly a consequence of restrictions on the speed of fundamental frequency change

Abstract: The duration of speech segments varies depending on the position in the word and in the phrase. In this study attempts have been made to explain some of the temporal regularities of speech such as e.g. the so-called “final lengthening” phenomenon by means of articulatory and perceptual restrictions on the speed of fundamental frequency change. The obtained data shows that both the segment duration and the fundamental frequency contour are treated differently in the phrase final position as compared with all other positions. If it is assumed that the time required to perform a certain frequency deviation is a monotonically rising function of the frequency deviation, it seems possible to explain the variation of the segment duration in different positions in the word and in the phrase as a secondary effect of the F0 events.