Bulgarian Speech Rhythm

Stress-Timed or Syllable-Timed

Bibliographic Data

ID2110434
AuthorsSnezhina Dimitrova (0000-0002-6104-0140, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume27
Issue1-2
Pages27-33
Publication date1997-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the International Phonetic Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0025-1003 • E-ISSN: 1475-3502
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0025100300005399
OpenAlexW1966905676
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited3

Experimental work on Bulgarian speech rhythm has failed to determine which of the two "traditional" rhythmic categories the language belongs to. Using the model put forward by Dauer (1987), the present paper attempts to characterise the rhythm of Bulgarian in scalar rather than in dichotomous terms. For such an assessment, six of the components proposed by Dauer are relevant. Bulgarian is assigned two pluses (for intonation and function of accent), two zeros (for vowel duration and vowel quality) and two minuses (for syllable structure and consonant quality). According to the model, the more pluses a language has, the more likely it is that this language is "stress-timed". From the relative rhythm "score" obtained for Bulgarian one can predict that, on a scale of rhythm, the language will occupy an intermediate position. This accounts for the contradictory conclusions reached in earlier studies. Dauer's model thus provides a useful starting point for a study of the rhythm of a given language, but it can be further improved, for example by adding zero marks for some of the components

Acoustics · Bulgarian · Duration (music · Intonation (linguistics · Linguistics · Physics · Rhythm · Speech recognition · Stress (linguistics · Syllable · Vowel · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology

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