Acoustic Measurements of the ‘Fake’ Vowel Length and Degrees of Vowel Length in St. Lawrence Island Eskimo

Abstract One peculiarity of St. Lawrence Island Eskimo is the ‘fake’ vowel length which is triggered by stress in a conditioned environment. The degree of the fake vowel length has been neither seriously questioned nor recognized in the Eskimo literature as being distinct, phonetically or phonemically, from the intrinsically long or short vowel. Based on acoustic evidence, the present paper argues that there are, phonetically but not phonemically, three distinct degrees of vowel length and that the perceptual difficulties in identifying the fake vowel length are primarily due to its unsubstantial contrast with the other degrees of vowel length. Measurements of these vowel lengths were made on spectrographic displays.