Acoustic Influence of Consonants on the Duration of the American English Vowel /I/

A set of 576 different CVC monosyllables was generated by combining 23 consonants and silence in initial or final position around the vowel /I/. This set was recorded by one speaker in three different orders on three different days. Sound spectrograms were produced, and data consisting of three phoneme durations and 11 frequency values for each of the first three formants of the vowel were extracted from them, employing a TV camera and light-pen controlled computer display system. Results demonstrate that the vowel duration is influenced by (1) consonantal position, initial or final, (2) consonantal voicing, (3) consonantal manner of articulation, (4) consonantal horizontal place of articulation, and (5) the articulatory pace for a particular clay. Several parametric descriptions for obtaining accurate vowel durations in CVC contexts are presented.