14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14)San Francisco, CA, USA |
This paper reports on an investigation of how the phonological
rule of the complementary relationship between vowel and
consonant duration is manifested in Swedish infant-directed
speech (IDS), as compared to adult-directed speech (ADS).
Cross-linguistic investigations indicate that vowels tend to be
prolonged in speech directed to infants. In contrast, there are
signs that consonants may be shortened in this speech style.
How then, would these tendencies affect the phonological rule
of V:C and VC: sequences in IDS?
Analysis of vowel and consonant durations in disyllabic content
words from six Swedish mothers' IDS and ADS revealed that
the VC proportionality is preserved in the IDS. The results
suggest that important information of the linguistic structure of
the ambient language is maintained.
The results are discussed from an infant developmental
perspective in a model of IDS transforms.
Bibliographic reference. Sundberg, Ulla (1999): "Quantity in infant-directed speech", In ICPhS-14, 2189-2191.