Word level coarticulation and shortening in Italian and English speech

Our study compares measures of word-level coarticulation and shortening in Italian and English. In English, these measures have been shown to correlate and to mirror the supposed left-dominant foot structure of English words. That is, stressed syllables coarticulate more with, and are shortened more by, unstressed syllables that follow them than unstressed syllables that precede them. A recent study of Italian word stress (Nespor & Vogel, 1979) suggests that, like English, Italian has a left-dominant foot structure. Our investigation of coarticulation and shortening in Italian shows no evidence that this foot structure is realized in the coarticulation or timing behavior of talkers. Three Italian talkers differed markedly from each other and from English talkers on measures of coarticulation and shortening.