Length and Stress, with Sound Files

For Linguistics 103, "Introduction to General Phonetics"

as taught by Bruce Hayes (Department of Linguistics, UCLA)


Purpose

This page demonstrates basic contrasts of vowel and consonant length, as well as stress, in nonsense words pronounced by Bruce Hayes.  The primary purpose of this page is to prepare my students for dictation and production exams.

The long and short sounds given here would be roughly analogous to contrasts present in (say) Finnish and Estonian, but they are basically pedagogical sounds, pronounced for maximum clarity.  I believe that if you can produce and perceive these clear examples, you will probably be better prepared to take on the more subtle distinctions found in real languages.

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Getting Started

You can hear the vowels by clicking on the links below.  

Or, click here to obtain this chart in one zipped bundle.  Then you can do something else while it's downloading (about 900 K), instead of waiting for the files one by one.  Once you have the zipped file, put it in a folder, unzip it, and click on Index.htm.  

Please don't try the above if you're uneasy about computers--just go on to the next section.

If you have no Internet connection, or your connection is too slow, you can bring a blank recordable compact disk to my office hours and I will make a copy for you (UCLA students only; please do not send in orders!).

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Length and Stress Examples (click to play)

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Practice Items

Click to play, then click on the answer to check.  These are the same sound files as above, but randomized.

1. Sound Answer
2. Sound Answer
3. Sound Answer
4. Sound Answer

5. Sound Answer
6. Sound Answer
7. Sound Answer
8. Sound Answer

9. Sound Answer
10. Sound Answer
11. Sound Answer
12. Sound Answer

13. Sound Answer
14. Sound Answer
15. Sound Answer
16. Sound Answer

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Approximate Segment Durations for the Above Words

The purpose of these measurements was to confirm the legitimacy of the exercise.

Actual numbers from which the above graph was constructed:

As can be seen, the basic distinctions between long and short are preserved here on a relative basis:  between any two minimal pairs, the longer segment is longer than the shorter one.  There is also a certain amount of what one might loosely call "allophonic" variation (perhaps a transfer effect from my English, or just natural phonetic processes, or idiosyncratic strategies for saying these sounds).  Thus, final vowels tend to be longer than non-final, and an apparent strategy of "staccato" stress makes many vowels a bit shorter when they are stressed.

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If the sound files don't play

Download a free waveform player on the Web.  For Windows, I've had the best luck with the Windows Media Player, available here. I don't know much about Macs, but one possibility is WinAmp, available here.  For both Windows and Mac, there are many other players as well.

If all is going smoothly, the files will simply play when you click on them. But you may find that instead, your software for playing files will pop up on the screen. This will slow you down, but only by a little. Click the Play button on this software (it usually looks like the Play button on a tape recorder). If you can't locate an interface with a Play button on your computer screen, try minimizing the browser window (it might be lurking underneath).

Please contact me at if you're still having trouble with the sound files.

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