We investigate the perception and production of Czech /I/ and /i:/, a contrast traditionally described as quantitative. First, we show that the spectral difference between the vowels is for many Czechs as strong a cue as (or even stronger than) duration. Second, we test the hypothesis that this shift towards vowel quality as a perceptual cue for this contrast resulted in weakening of the durational differentiation in production. Our measurements confirm this: members of the /I/-/i:/ pair differed in duration much less than those of other short-long pairs. We interpret these findings in terms of Lindblom's H&H theory.
Cite as: Podlipský, V.J., Skarnitzl, R., Volín, J. (2009) High front vowels in Czech: a contrast in quantity or quality? Proc. Interspeech 2009, 132-135, doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2009-50
@inproceedings{podlipsky09_interspeech,
author={Václav Jonáš Podlipský and Radek Skarnitzl and Jan Volín},
title={{High front vowels in Czech: a contrast in quantity or quality?}},
year=2009,
booktitle={Proc. Interspeech 2009},
pages={132--135},
doi={10.21437/Interspeech.2009-50}
}