TY - BOOK ID - 77933159 TI - Segmental and prosodic issues in romance phonology AU - Prieto i Vives, Pilar. AU - Mascaro, Joan. AU - Sole, Maria-Josep. PY - 2007 SN - 1282154818 9786612154812 9027292698 9789027292698 9789027247971 9027247978 PB - Philadelphia, PA : John Benjamins Pub., DB - UniCat KW - Romance languages KW - Language and languages. KW - Foreign languages KW - Languages KW - Anthropology KW - Communication KW - Ethnology KW - Information theory KW - Meaning (Psychology) KW - Philology KW - Linguistics KW - Neo-Latin languages KW - Italic languages and dialects KW - Phonology UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77933159 AB - This paper explores the concept of linguistic rhythm classes through a series of studies exploiting metrics designed to quantify speech rhythm. We compared the rhythm of 'syllable-timed' French and Spanish with that of 'stress-timed' Dutch and English, finding that rate-normalised metrics of vocalic interval variability (VarcoV and nPVI-V), together with a measure of the balance of vocalic and intervocalic intervals (%V), were the most discriminant between the two rhythm groups. The same metrics were also informative about the adaptation of speakers to rhythmically-similar (Dutch and English) or rhythmically-distinct (Spanish and English) second languages, and showed evidence of rhythmic gradience within accents of British English. Patterns of scores in all studies support the notion that rhythmic typology is not strictly categorical. A perceptual study found VarcoV to be the strongest predictor of the rating of a second language speaker's accent as native or non-native. ER -