Cross-linguistic differences between accented vs unaccented vowel durations

This study compares durational measures of accented vs unaccented vowels for data of 5 languages (4 speakers per language read translations of the same passage). Results show clear crosslanguage differences: accented vowels in our data of British English are more marked in terms of duration than in data of Mexican Spanish and Parisian French (data of German and Italian take a somewhat intermediate position). Direct durational measures of accented vs unaccented vowels yield a useful insight in aspects of speech rhythm that are only partially addressed by global measures of V variability (as provided by various popular rhythm metrics). Such results may have implications in rhythm typology and might help understand why stresses are perceived to occur at roughly regular intervals of time in so-called stress-timed languages.