Relations between language rhythm and speech rate

The interaction between speech rate and rhythm is a topic that has hardly been studied in respective models of language rhythm though its potential significance has recently been addressed: since both of these prosodic parameters are to a great extent dependent on speech timing they are suspected to interact to a great degree. The present research studies the influence of speech rate on the vocalic and intervocalic measures %V and C that have been discussed widely in the recent past as measures by which language rhythm classes may be distinguished. Results show that C is extremely speech rate dependent while %V remains rather stabile across different speech rates. Different results may be obtained according to the way speech rate is controlled across languages. An alternative model for a cross language rate control will be proposed in this context.