Factors affecting schwa-insertion in final consonant clusters in standard dutch

The current paper reports on a study which fits in a larger investigation on variability in the pronunciation of Standard Dutch, as spoken in the Netherlands and the Flemish part of Belgium. In particular, it deals with the factors that determine the possible insertion of a schwa in specific consonant clusters at the end of words. Our study reveals that the absence or occurrence of such an extra vowel is dependent on regional, social and phonotactic determinants. We discuss how this finding, in combination with other results on speech variability, is important for speech technological applications, both for synthesis and recognition.