Dear all,
We are happy to announce the next talk in the phonology colloquium by

Ludger Paschen (Leibnitz ZAS, Berlin & Potsdam University)
Title: Final Lengthening – a universal phenomenon? Insights from 25 languages

Date: November 24, 2021
Time: 16-18 ct
Location: IG 4.301

Abstract:
Final Lengthening – a universal phenomenon? Insights from 25 languages.

Lengthening of segments in the vicinity of prosodic boundaries is often considered a universal phonetic process (Fletcher 2010). However, language-specific variation with respect to the scope and extent of lengthening is also attested, especially in languages that have a phonological vowel length contrast (Hyman 2009, Nakai et al. 2009). In this talk I will present results from a cross-linguistic study investigating final lengthening of vowels in 25 languages from a worldwide sample. The data are taken from DoReCo, a corpus containing annotated and time-aligned recordings from language documentation projects (Seifart et al. 2021). Results indicate that while final lengthening is widespread, it is not without exceptions, and the presence of phonological quantity may indeed affect final lengthening in individual languages.

Fletcher, Janet. 2010. The Prosody of Speech: Timing and Rhythm. In W. J. Hardcastle, J. Laver, & F. E. Gibbon (eds.), The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, Second Edition: 521-602.
Hyman, Larry M. 2009. Penultimate lengthening in Bantu: Analysis and spread. UC Berkeley PhonLab Annual Report, 5.
Nakai, Satsuki, Sari Kunnari, Alice Turk, Kari Suomi & Riikka Ylitalo. 2009. Utterance-final lengthening and quantity in Northern Finnish. Journal of Phonetics 67: 29-45.
Seifart, Frank, Ludger Paschen & Matt Stave (eds). 2021. Language Documentation Reference Corpus (DoReCo) 0.1. Berlin & Lyon: Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft & Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage (UMR5596, CNRS & Université Lyon 2).