Prosodic Boundary Effects on Durations and Vowel Hiatus in Modern Greek

Research on the prosodic structure of languages has been based on processes such as durational patterns and sandhi phenomena. One of the underlying assumptions is that such processes signal, and are regulated by, the same structure. This paper is part of ongoing research on the effect of prosodic boundary strength on segmental and supra-segmental phenomena. It investigates the effect of boundary strength on two processes, namely pre-boundary lengthening and resolution of external (between-words) vowel hiatus on Modern Greek. Results show that a) pre-boundary lengthening is influenced by boundary strength in a hierarchical gradient manner, and b) degree of coalescence (F2 values at the mid point of vowels in hiatus) is not influenced by boundary strength. Preliminary results also suggest that the first vowel (V1) of vowels in hiatus is not elided in Gr.