Latviešu valodas troksneņu kvantitāte
The quantity of Latvian obstruents

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the quantity of Latvian obstruents in two-syllable speech units: 1) in the position between a short stressed and a short unstressed monophthong as opposed to the position between a long stressed and a short unstressed monophthong, e.g. [ˈikːŭ] vs. [ˈiːkŭ], [ˈigŭ] vs. [ˈiːgŭ]; 2) compared voiceless and voiced obstruents of the same place and manner of articulation in the speech units, e.g. [ˈikːŭ] vs. [ˈigŭ], [ˈiːkŭ] vs. [ˈiːgŭ]. In the 1960s of the 20th century, Elmārs Liepa experimentally studied the quantity of voiceless obstruents in the Latvian literary language widely. In two-syllable words between a short stressed and a short unstressed monophthong, the voiceless obstruents get lengthened and are usually described as long, although half-long variants of these consonants are also observed. This study aims to test the quantity of Latvian obstruents using modern speech analysis methods. Lengthening is not expected for voiced obstruents in the corresponding position. However, the data of voiced obstruents are included in the current study to make a systematic comparison with voiceless obstruents. The research material consists of 3 native female speaker data. There are no speech disorders in their pronunciation. A total of 2160 speech units were analysed. Data analysis was performed with the computer software „PRAAT”. The measurements were conducted using Miettas Lennes script, which calculates the length of labelled segments. The study concluded that in the position between a short stressed and short unstressed monophthong, all voiceless obstruents lengthen compared to voiceless obstruents in the position between a long stressed and short unstressed monophthong at a ratio of 1.3–2.0 vs. 1. In most cases, voiced obstruents are slightly longer, at a ratio of 1.1–1.5 vs. 1. The phonetic lengthening of voiced obstruents is less than that of voiceless obstruents in the position between a short stressed and a short unstressed monophthong.

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