VOWEL DURATION IN WHISPERED AND IN NORMAL SPEECH

Vowel duration measurements were made from the sound spectrographic patterns of normal and whispered consonant-vowel-consonant syllables produced by three male speakers. It was found that the average duration of whispered vowels was longer than that of normal vowels. Like normal vowels, whispered vowels can be grouped according to four degrees of length: Iong-/le, a, J/, relatively long-/e, 3, o /, relatively short-/i, u/, and short-/r, E, A, u/. Like normal vowels, whispered vowels increase in duration with degree of mouth opening, if tense and lax vowels are con-sidered separately, tense whispered vowels are longer than lax whispered vowels, and whispered vowels are longer. preceding voiced consonants and fricative consonants than they are preceding voiceless consonants and stop consonants. An attempt is made to explain vow01 duration variations in terms of language structure and the dynamic properties of the speech mechanism. Studies by Peterson and Lehiste (1960) and by House (1961) of the duration ot vowel sounds in American English have shown that vowels are longer before voiced consonants than they are before voiceless consonants. Two explanations have bee