Consonant lengthening marks the beginning of words across a diverse sample of languages.

ABSTRACT: Speech consists of a continuous stream of acoustic signals, yet humans can segment words and other constituents from each other with astonishing precision. The acoustic properties that support this process are not well understood and remain understudied for the vast majority of the world's languages, in particular regarding their potential variation. Here we report cross-linguistic evidence for the lengthening of word-initial consonants across a typologically diverse sample of 51 languages. Using Bayesian multilevel regression, we find that on average, word-initial consonants are about 13 ms longer than word-medial consonants. The cross-linguistic distribution of the effect indicates that despite individual differences in the phonology of the sampled languages, the lengthening of word-init

SUBMITTER: Blum F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11576513 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature