In this study, the temporal aspects of speech are compared in read-aloud Finnish produced by six native and 16 non-native speakers. It is shown that the speech and articulation rates as well as pause durations are different for native and non-native speakers. Moreover, differences exist between the groups of speakers representing four different non-native languages. Surprisingly, the native Finnish speakers tend to make longer pauses than the non-natives. The results are relevant when developing methods for assessing fluency or the strength of foreign accent.
Cite as: Toivola, M., Lennes, M., Aho, E. (2009) Speech rate and pauses in non-native Finnish. Proc. Interspeech 2009, 1707-1710, doi: 10.21437/Interspeech.2009-515
@inproceedings{toivola09_interspeech,
author={Minnaleena Toivola and Mietta Lennes and Eija Aho},
title={{Speech rate and pauses in non-native Finnish}},
year=2009,
booktitle={Proc. Interspeech 2009},
pages={1707--1710},
doi={10.21437/Interspeech.2009-515}
}