Swedish quantity: Central Standard Swedish and Fenno-Swedish

Highlight•We studied the realization of quantity in Central Swedish (CS) and Fenno-Swedish (FS).•Most native speakers of FS are bilingual, with Finnish as L2.•Fortis/lenis occlusion duration ratios are greater in CS than in other languages.•FS speakers exaggerate the Swedish quantity contrast, relative to CS speakers.•Quantity realization by FS speakers exhibits clear influence from Finnish.

The durational realization of the Swedish complementary quantity contrast was investigated in monosyllabic and disyllabic target words in Central Standard Swedish and in Fenno-Swedish. Several systematic durational differences between the two varieties were observed, most of which can be summarized by stating that speakers of Fenno-Swedish exaggerate, in comparison to Central Standard Swedish speakers, the quantity contrast between the vowel in the stressed syllable and the following consonant, i.e. they make short segments shorter and long segments longer. This we explain as influence on Fenno-Swedish from Finnish, in which vowels and consonants have a binary quantity contrast independent of each other. In speaking and listening to Finnish, bilingual speakers of Fenno-Swedish have come to make larger durational distinctions than occur in Central Standard Swedish.