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LIETUVIŲ KALBOTYROS KLAUSIMAI, III
LIETUVOS TSR MOKSLŲ AKADEMIJA
THE LENGTH, OR QUANTITY, OF LITHUANIAN VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS
V. Vaitkevičiūtė
I LENGTH, THE CONDITIONS THAT DETERMINE IT, AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
The length of a vowel or diphthong is the amount of time required to pronounce it. In Lithuanian, when all other phonetic conditions are identical, the length of vowels and diphthongs is determined by the following factors:
a) The nature of the syllable containing the vowel or diphthong: in an open syllable it is somewhat longer than in a closed syllable, e.g., in the word kišis (future tense, 3rd person singular) ī = 18″, whereas in the word kiškis ī = 17″; in the word šekė ē = 51″, whereas in the word šėkų ē = 50″. In a closed syllable, vowels and diphthongs are shorter than in an open one, because some of the energy is used to pronounce the consonant that follows them.
b) The preceding consonant: a vowel or diphthong is somewhat longer after a voiced consonant than after a voiceless one, because voiceless consonants are pronounced with more energy than voiced ones, e.g., in the word būs ū = 22″, whereas in the word pūs ū = 21″.
c) Stress: the same stressed vowel or diphthong is longer than when unstressed, because it is pronounced with much greater energy, e.g., in the word kaši ā = 20″, whereas in the word kaši a = 17″.
d) The position of stress in the word: the farther an unstressed syllable is from the stressed one, the shorter the sound it contains, because the greatest amount of energy goes to the stressed syllable and those close to it, e.g., in the word akmuõ a = 15″, whereas in the word akmenyje a = 13″.
e) The number of syllables in the word: the fewer syllables a word has, the longer the sounds making them up, and the more syllables it has, the shorter those sounds, e.g., in the word piniginiam t = 15″, whereas in the word piniginiame i = 13″. The reason is that the amount of energy allotted to pronouncing a word with a given number of syllables is limited and constant. Therefore, as the energy used to pronounce the stressed syllable increases, the unstressed syllables suffer; the more of them there are, the more briefly and less energetically they are pronounced².
ė) The quantity of the sounds making up the other syllables of the word: if a word contains one or more long vowels or diphthongs, then the sounds making up all the syllables of that word
1″, or σ (sigma) = 0.01 sec., is a unit of time used in experimental phonetics to express sound length. In acoustics, 1″ (σ) = 0.001 sec.
² See Л. В. Щерба, Русские гласные в качественном и количественном отношении, 151, С. - Петербург, 1912.
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are somewhat shorter than in a word that does not contain long vowels and diphthongs, because pronouncing long sounds requires more energy than pronouncing short vowels, e.g.: in the word kìbo o =39″, but in the word kỹbo o=34″.
f) The position occupied by a vowel or diphthong in the word: at the absolute end of a word, vowels and diphthongs are much longer than the same vowels and diphthongs in other phonetic positions, e.g.: in the word sėkti ė=23″, but in the word sėktė ė=28″. The lengthening of vowels and diphthongs at the absolute end of a word, characteristic of Lithuanian, Russian, and other languages, is explained by the very slow, unobstructed return movement of the speech organs3. Vowels and diphthongs in the final closed syllable of a word are also slightly longer than in other phonetic positions, but shorter than at the absolute end of a word.
g) Accent: the sounds making up long syllables that bear a circumflex accent are longer than the same sounds bearing an acute accent, e.g.: in the word dýgė (past passive participle) ī=22″, but in the word dỹgė (singular accusative) ‘a type of marsh moss’ ī=24″; nešioti ō=34″, but in the word nešiõte ō=39″.
h) Speaking rate: when speaking quickly, the sounds making up all the syllables of a word are shorter than when speaking slowly.
i) Vowel quality: short and corresponding long vowels occurring in the same phonetic positions always differ in length, e.g.: in the word pùs ī=21″, but in the word pũs ū=32″; in different phonetic positions, however, long and short phonemes may sometimes be of equal length (see the tables of long and corresponding short phonemes). Such coincidence in the length of long and short vowel phonemes does not mean that they have merged, since Lithuanian long and short vowels differ not only in length but also in other features: quality, tension of the speech organs, energy, etc. If one feature in the entire complex disappears while all the other features remain, the long and short vowel phonemes do not merge. Vowels and diphthongs of entirely different qualities also differ in length. Generally, low and mid vowels are correspondingly longer than high vowels, because after high vowels, closure or constriction of a consonant begins somewhat earlier4.
Thus, the length of the sound forming each syllable depends on a set of conditions: as the phonetic position changes, the length of the sound also changes to some extent. Unstressed vowels and diphthongs in Lithuanian, which always retain their quality, are subject to quantitative reduction, or shortening. The length of long and short vowels and diphthongs varies: long vowels and diphthongs have a fairly wide range of variation, while short vowels have a somewhat narrower one (see the corresponding tables). However, in the same phonetic position, sound length is a constant value.
Not all the factors listed here are equally significant for sound length. For long and corresponding short vowels that constitute independent phonemes and distinguish the meanings of words and their forms, e.g.: à: ã in the words kàs: kãs; ė: ē in the words mės: mės; ī: ī in the words tīko: tỹko (cf. týkoti); ū: ū in the words pùs: pũs; ò: ō in the words lòtas (a unit of weight): lótas (cf. lótį), the difference in length plays a phonemic role and is therefore the most significant. All the other factors mentioned above—
3 See ibid., 132.
4 See ibid., 132.
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Circumstances that cause slight changes in the duration of the syllable-forming sound merely indicate quantitative fluctuations of the same phoneme in various phonetic positions; they have no phonemic significance and are less important.
II Vowel duration5
1. Duration of front vowels
Phoneme i. The duration of the stressed high-close long phoneme ī varies approximately from 22″ to 36″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 20″ to 32″ (see Table 1).
Phoneme i. The duration of the stressed high-close short phoneme i varies approximately from 13″ to 21″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 9″ to 16″ (see Table 2).
Stressed: 1 — closed syllable, absolute word-final position; 2 — 1st closed syllable, 1st open syllable, absolute word-final position; 3 — 1st and 2nd open syllables, absolute word-final position; 4 — 3rd open syllable; 5 — 3rd open syllable; 10. 19″, 21″, 17″, 18″, 19″, 16″, 20″, 15″, 13″. Unstressed: 2nd closed syllable 1st, 2nd open syllable 2nd, absolute word-final position 1st; 1st open syllable 3rd, absolute word-final position 1st; 1st open syllable 3rd, 2nd open syllable 4th, 3rd open syllable 7th, 4th closed syllable 7th. 14″, 14″, 16″, 13″, 15″, 11″, 11″, 9″, 11″.
Table 2
5 The tables presented here give, in sigmas, the duration of each vowel and diphthong in the principal phonetic positions. The numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. at the top of the tables indicate the number of syllables in the word containing the vowel or diphthong. The abbreviations užd. sk. = mean ‘in a closed syllable’, atv. sk. = ‘in an open syllable’, and a. g. = ‘in absolute word-final position’. A number preceding these abbreviations (e.g., 1. atv. sk.) indicates the ordinal position in the word of the syllable containing the vowel or diphthong; a number following them (e.g., 2. užd. sk. 1.) indicates the ordinal position of the stressed syllable in the word. The ˊ sign before a sequence of numbers indicates the duration of a vowel or diphthong with a falling accent, while ~ indicates one with a rising accent. The tables give the durations of vowels and diphthongs after a voiceless consonant or between voiceless consonants.
14. Kalbotyros klausimai, III
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Phoneme ė. The duration of the mid-close stressed long phoneme ė varies approximately from 30″ to 49″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 17″ to 29″ (see Table 3).
Stressed; Unstressed; 1; 2; 3; 4; closed syll.; 1st open syll.; 2nd closed syll.; gen. sg.; 2nd open syll.; 33″; 36″; 30″; 33″; 48″; 49″; 49″; 1st open syll. 2.; 1st open syll. 3.; 2nd open syll. 3.; gen. sg. 1.; 1st open syll. 2.; 2nd open syll. 3.; 21″; 28″; 21″; 19″; 26″; 29″; 17″; 20″
Table 3
Phoneme e. The duration of the mid-close stressed short phoneme e, which occurs only in international words, varies approximately from 17″ to 25″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 14″ to 19″ (see Table 4).
Stressed; Unstressed; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 1st open syll.; 3rd open syll.; 2nd open syll.; 5th open syll.; 25″; 22″; 20″; 18″; 17″; 1st open syll. 2.; 1st open syll. 3.; 2nd open syll. 3.; 3rd open syll. 4.; 19″; 14″; 19″; 18″; 16″; 14″
Table 4
Phoneme ę. The duration of the mid-close stressed short phoneme ę varies approximately from 18″ to 27″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 14″ to 21″ (see Table 5).
Stressed; Unstressed; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 10; closed syll.; gen. sg.; 1st closed syll.; 1st open syll.; 1st open syll.; 3rd open syll.; 5th open syll.; 26″; 27″; 23″; 25″; 24″; 24″; 27″; 20″; 26″; 18″; 27″; 1st open syll. 2.; 1st open syll. 3.; gen. sg. 1.; 2nd open syll. 3.; 2nd open syll. 4.; 2nd open syll. 3.; gen. sg. 3.; 1st open syll. 7.; 21″; 19″; 16″; 21″; 16″; 14″; 15″; 19″; 15″
Table 5
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Phoneme ē. The duration of the stressed long mid vowel phoneme ē ranges from 43″ to 51″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 33″ to 35″ (see Table 6).
Stressed: 1 — closed syllable 50″; 1 — long open syllable 51″; 2 — 1st closed syllable 50″; final syllable 51″; 3 — long open syllable 43″; 2nd open syllable 49″. Unstressed: final syllable 1st — 35″; final syllable 1st — 33″.
Table 6
2. Duration of back vowels
Phoneme ū. The duration of the stressed long high vowel phoneme ū ranges approximately from 26″ to 46″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 13″ to 29″ (see Table 7).
Stressed: 1 — 1st closed syllable 29″, final syllable 32″ and 39″; 2 — 1st open syllable 28″, 1st closed syllable 27″, final syllable 46″; 3 — 1st open syllable 27″, final syllable 44″; 4 — 1st closed syllable 26″. Unstressed: 1st open syllable 2nd — 24″; 2nd closed syllable 1st — 23″; final syllable — 29″; 1st open syllable 3rd — 20″; 1st open syllable 2nd — 18″; 6th closed syllable 7th — 13″.
Table 7
Phoneme u. The duration of the stressed short high vowel phoneme u ranges approximately from 17″ to 24″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 12″ to 19″ (see Table 8).
Stressed: 1 — 1st closed syllable 21″; 2 — 1st open syllable 20″, 2nd closed syllable 19″, final syllable 23″; 3 — 1st closed syllable 17″, 2nd open syllable 18″, final syllable 24″; 4 — 1st closed syllable 20″. Unstressed: 1st open syllable 2nd — 17″; 2nd closed syllable 1st — 15″; final syllable 1st — 19″; 1st open syllable 3rd — 14″; 1st open syllable 2nd — 15″; final syllable 1st — 18″; 2nd open syllable 3rd — 14″; 1st open syllable 5th — 12″; 1st open syllable 6th — 12″.
Table 8
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Phoneme ō. The duration of the stressed mid vowels of phoneme ō varies approximately from 34″ to 48″, while that of unstressed ones ranges from 15″ to 39″ (see Table 9).
1 2 3 4 10 Stressed closed syll. 1st open syll. 2nd open syll. 38″ 34″ 48″ 48″ 39″ Unstressed 1st open syll. 2nd 1st closed syll. 2nd a. g. 1 1st closed syll. 2 1st closed syll. 3 3rd open syll. 1 6th open syll. 8 32″ 29″ 39″ 28″ 27″ 26″ 15″
Table 9
Phoneme o. The duration of the stressed short mid vowels of phoneme o varies approximately from 23″ to 26″, while that of unstressed ones ranges from 16″ to 21″ (see Table 10).
2 4 5 Stressed 1st closed syll. 1st open syll. a. g. 2nd open syll. 23″ 24″ 26″ 23″ Unstressed 1st open syll. 2nd 1st open syll. 3 1st closed syll. 2 1st closed syll. 3 21″ 20″ 16″ 17″
Table 10
Phoneme a. The duration of the stressed short low vowels of phoneme a varies approximately from 18″ to 29″, while that of unstressed ones ranges from 10″ to 19″ (see Table 11).
1 2 3 4 5 6 10 Stressed closed syll. a. g. 1st closed syll. 1st open syll. a. g. 1st open syll. a. g. 23″ 28″ 18″ 20″ 29″ 18″ 27″ Unstressed 1st closed syll. 2 1st open syll. 2 a. g. 1 1st open syll. 2 1st closed syll. 3 2nd open syll. 1 a. g. 1 1st open syll. 3 1st closed syll. 4 4th closed syll. 3 1st open syll. 3 6th closed syll. 5 2nd open syll. 7 5th open syll. 7 15″ 17″ 19″ 16″ 14″ 15″ 19″ 14″ 13″ 17″ 13″ 16″ 10″ 12″
Table 11
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Phoneme ā. The duration of the low vowel phoneme ā when stressed varies from approximately 35″ to 53″, while when unstressed it ranges from 33″ to 40″ (see Table 12).
Any long vowel is 1.5–2 times longer than its corresponding short vowel. Diphthongs are approximately as long as long vowels, that is, pronouncing a diphthong takes as much time as pronouncing a long vowel. The range of variation in diphthong duration is narrower than that of vowels.
1. Duration of pure diphthongs
Phoneme ai. The duration of the stressed phoneme ai ranges from 32″ to 52″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 30″ to 34″ (see Table 13).
Phoneme au. The duration of stressed phoneme au ranges from 36″ to 50″, while that of unstressed phonemes ranges from 30″ to 34″ (see Table 14).
Table 14
Phoneme ei. The duration of stressed phoneme ei ranges from 40″ to 56″, while that of unstressed phonemes ranges from 28″ to 36″ (see Table 15).
Table 15
Phoneme eu. In international words, the stressed phoneme eu, which occurs very rarely, has a duration of approximately 30″, while the duration of unstressed phonemes ranges from 15″ to 21″ (see Table 16).
Table 16
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Phoneme oi. The duration of stressed phonemes oi, occurring in international words, ranges from 42″ to 51″, while that of unstressed phonemes ranges from 25″ to 30″ (see Table 17).
Table 17
Phoneme ui. The duration of stressed phoneme ui ranges from 40″ to 50″, while that of unstressed phonemes ranges from 24″ to 28″ (see Table 18).
Table 18
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2. Length of diphthongs with contiguous vowels
Phoneme ie. The duration of the stressed phoneme ie ranges from 30″ to 48″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 23″ to 30″ (see Table 19).
Phoneme uo. The duration of the stressed phoneme uo ranges from approximately 34″ to 52″, while that of the unstressed phoneme ranges from 23″ to 29″ (see Table 20).
IV ORDER OF VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS ACCORDING TO THEIR LENGTH
Of all the long vowels, the lowest-rise phoneme ā is the longest (maximum duration 53″), followed by the mid-rise phonemes ē (maximum duration 51″), ė (maximum duration 49″), and ō (maximum duration 48″); these are followed by the high-rise phonemes ū (maximum duration 46″) and i, which has the highest rise (maximum duration 36″); it is the shortest of all long vowel phonemes.
Of all the short vowel phonemes, the lowest-rise phoneme a is the longest (maximum duration 29″), followed by the mid-rise phonemes e (maximum
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length 27”), and (maximum length 26”), e (maximum length 25”), followed by the high vowels, the short phonemes u (maximum length 24”) and i—the shortest of all short phonemes (maximum length 21”).
The longest of all diphthong phonemes is ei (maximum length 56”); it is followed by the phonemes ai and uo (their maximum length is 52”), then by oi (maximum length 51”); next come au and ui (their maximum length is 50”); these are followed by ie (maximum length 48”), and the final position is occupied by the phoneme eu (maximum length 30”).
LENGTH, OR QUANTITY, OF VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS IN THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE
В. А. ВАЙТКЯВИЧЮТЕ
Abstract
An experimental study of Lithuanian vocalism has established that the duration of vowels and diphthongs in Lithuanian is determined by the following factors: 1) syllable type (duration is shorter in a closed syllable than in an open one); 2) the quality of the preceding consonant (duration is longer after a voiced consonant than after a voiceless one); 3) stress (a stressed vowel is longer than an unstressed vowel of corresponding quality); 4) the position of stress in the word (vowels and diphthongs in syllables close to the stressed syllable are longer than those farther from it); 5) the number of syllables in the word (the more syllables there are, the more the duration of all vowels and diphthongs in the word is reduced, and vice versa); 6) the position of the vowel or diphthong (in absolute word-final position, all vowels and diphthongs are longer than in other phonetic positions); 7) intonation (vowels and diphthongs with rising stress are slightly longer than those with falling stress); 8) speech rate (at a fast speech rate, all vowels and diphthongs in the word are shortened); 9) vowel quality (low vowels are longer than high vowels).
The article then presents tables of the duration of each phoneme in the principal phonetic positions, and arranges all phonemes in a corresponding order by duration.
