On the duration of the Lithuanian stressed mixed diphthongs [i] + R in the speech of the young generation

The article presents findings from an experimental study aimed at the investigation of the duration of mixed diphthongs and their formants pronounced with the falling and the rising accents by representatives of the young generation of native speakers of Lithuanian. The findings of the study were contrasted with earlier studies of mixed diphthongs in Standard Lithuanian. The analysed data comprises two hundred pairs of words whose instrumental analysis was done using the software PRAAT. The results were statistically validated by Wald-Wolfowitz runs test for independent samples. The experimental study confirmed the hypothesis that speakers of the young generation do not differentiate the falling and the rising accent of [i] + R mixed diphthongs in the stressed position. The data obtained through the experiment is different from earlier finding sin Standard Lithuanian which showed that the duration of vowel and consonant formants in the mixed diphthongs is significantly different. The analysis of the absolute and relative durations of the diphthongs and their formants allows the author to conclude that: a) there is no significant difference in the absolute and relative duration of the vowel of the diphthongs pronounced with the falling and the rising accents; b) the duration of the consonant formants of the diphthongs is not significantly different when they are pronounced with the falling and the rising accents; c) the diphthongs [im], [in] pronounced with the rising accent are longer than those pronounced with the falling accent; d) the diphthongs [il], [ir] pronounced with the rising accent are shorter than those pronounced with the falling accent; e) the vowel formant is longer than the consonant in the diphthongs [il], [ir] pronounced with the falling and the rising accents; f) the consonant formant is longer than the vowel in the diphthongs [im], [in] pronounced with the falling and the rising accents