EFFECTS OF SPEECH RATE AND SYLLABLE POSITION ON THE TEMPORAL AND SPECTRAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CANTONESE VOWELS

This study investigates the effects of speech rate and syllable position on the temporal and spectral characteristics of the Cantonese long vowels and short vowels. Ten speakers produced a set of meaningful CV(C).CV(C) disyllabic words at slow, normal, and fast speech rates. Temporal results show expected vowel shortening in fast speech and vowel lengthening in slow speech. A robust syllable-final lengthening in Cantonese vowels is also observed, and the extents of the lengthening are relatively constant across three speech rates. Spectral results show reductions of the long vowels in the F1/F2 plane under two conditions: (i) the shortened duration in fast speech lowers the non-low vowels, and (ii) the syllable-final position lowers and centralizes the peripheral vowels. As for the short vowel, (i) they are more centralized in the syllable-initial position, and (ii) they get closer to the long [ɛ ɔ a] in slow speech.