Duration Variability in Erzya: Stressed and Unstressed Syllable Nucley in Idiolects
Duration Variability in Erzya: Stressed and Unstressed Syllable Nucley in Idiolects

Summary/Abstract: Recordings of spontaneous speech and scripted reading were analyzed to test the hypothesis that there is stress-related duration variability among the dialects of Erzya. This article reports the results of measurements on the durational relations between stressed and unstressed syllable nuclei in disyllabic words produced by 40 speakers. The data allowed distinguishing four groups of idiolects with regard to the durational characteristics of the adjacent syllable nuclei. In the group of idiolects characterized by the use of full vowels within a word, the duration of the syllable nuclei tended to be equal. The analysis of variance showed that differences between the duration of stressed and unstressed syllable nuclei were statistically not significant. In three groups of idiolects that are characterized by the occurrence of reduction in unstressed syllables, vowels under stress were found to be longer than in unstressed syllables; variance in the duration of the syllable nuclei for these groups was significant. Hence, in the types of idiolects that have reduction, duration is likely to be used as a correlate of stress. Cross-idiolect data exhibited a complexity of interrelationship between some of the varieties referred to different groups. Differences in the duration ratios between the syllable nuclei for separate idiolects were not statistically significant, which implies that there are borderline cases among the groups. The measurements of spontaneous speech and script reading produced analogous results. In the course of analysis, some of the segmental effects upon the durational relations between the syllable nuclei in the varieties were noted.

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