Temporal conspiracies for a tonal end: Segmental durations and accentual f0 movement in a quantity language

This study investigated the interaction between segment durations and the tonal manifestation of accent in Finnish, a language with a binary quantity opposition in both vowels and consonants, and fixed initial stress. Unaccented and strongly accented versions of four sets of disyllabic target words were elicited. Accentual lengthening affected all segments in the target words reliably, but the lengthening was highly nonlinear. Word-initial consonants were extensively lengthened, and otherwise the extent of lengthening was determined by whether or not a segment constituted one of the word's first two morae, irrespective of syllable structure. The word's first two morae were extensively lengthened, other segments less. Usually, those segments were lengthened in the accented versions that had relatively long duration in the unaccented versions. In some positions, the extent of lengthening seemed to be constrained by a need to maintain the quantity opposition. The accentual f0 rise-fall movement was highly uniform across the four target word sets, and the author argues that the observed subphonemic durational variations, besides making room for the tonal movement, conspire to guarantee tonal uniformity across the different word structures, all consisting of disyllabic feet.