Vowel Duration and Spectral Balance in Scottish English and Russian

Abstract

This is a cross-linguistic study into the effect of extrinsic vowel duration conditioning on the realisation of spectral balance (intensity distribution above 0.5 kHz) in Scottish English and Russian. The materials consisted of monosyllabic words containing the vowel /i/ in prominent syllables, with varied right consonantal context in order to trigger extrinsic vowel duration conditioning. Results show, that Scottish females have a higher spectral level (between 2.5–4.5 kHz) in the short /i/ than in the long one, whereas Russian females do not differentiate between the two in spectral balance, and not to the same extent in duration. We present the results and discuss the observed differences in duration and spectral balance with regards to possible confounding effects.