Articulation of Vowel Length Contrasts in Australian English
Abstract
The articulatory realisation of phonemic vowel length contrasts is still imperfectly understood. Australian English (AusE) /ɐː/ and /ɐ/ differ primarily in duration and therefore provide an ideal case for examining the articulatory properties of long vs. short vowels. Patterns of compression, acceleration ratios and VC coordination were examined using electromagnetic articulography (EMA) in /pVːp/ and /pVp/ syllables produced by three speakers of AusE at two speech rates. Short vowels were less compressible and had higher acceleration ratios than long vowels. VC rimes had proportionately earlier coda onsets than VːC rimes. These findings suggest that long and short vowels are characterised by different patterns of both intra- and intergestural organisation in AusE.