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The duration of stressed and unstressed vowels in Spanish
Berkovcová, Zuzana ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Šturm, Pavel (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to examine the issue of acoustic correlates of word stress in Spanish. The literature reviewed shows conflicting opinions among scholars engaged in this subject. Most of them traditionally consider intensity or fundamental frequency changes as determining features of prominent vowels, whereas duration is regarded as playing a minor role. The core of this thesis is to be found in the research that deals with the way duration behaves with both Spanish stressed and unstressed vowels analyzed in three different speech styles. Recordings of four Castilian Spanish native speakers were made, featuring two-syllable and three-syllable words which were analyzed with various positions of stressed vowels. On the whole, the results showed trends of major duration of stressed vowels in comparison with unstressed ones only in three-syllable words. No significant differences were observed in two-syllable words. No direct link between duration of stressed and unstressed vowels and each specific speech style could be established either, due to unequal values measured in two-syllable and three-syllable words. Key words: word stress, acoustic correlates, duration, speech styles, Spanish
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