ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2004
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2004

On the syllable timing in Taiwan English

Hua-Li Jian

In this paper the syllable timing of Taiwan English is compared to that of American English. A variability index reflecting vowel length over utterances is computed based on acoustic measurements of Taiwan and American English speech. The results show that successive vowel durations are more equal in Taiwan English than in American English. Further, vowel durations are generally larger in Taiwan English than in American English. These observations suggest that unlike American English, which is stress-timed, Taiwan English is not stress-timed.