Acoustic-phonetic evidence of vowel quantity and quality in Norwegian

The phonological notions of vowel quantity and vowel quality are acoustically realized in the duration and spectral characteristics of a vowel. This study examines acoustic attributes of six Norwegian vowels, /i, i:, 0, 0:, A, k/ and addresses the extent to which vowel quantity and quality each affect vowel duration and thefirst two formant frequencies of the vowels. Results suggest that while vowel quality afects both spectral characteristics and the duration of a vowel, vowel quantity afects vowel duration without necessarily afecting the vowel spectrum in Norwegian.