Duration of Stop Consonants in Kannada

Abstract

This study aimed at identify some of the variables affecting the duration of Kannada consonants. 83 meaningful trisyllabic Kannada words with these consonants in the medial position uttered by 6 subjects in the age range of 22-40 years formed the material. High resolution signal analyzer was used to measure the consonant duration. The experiments revealed that voicing, aspiration, gemmination, place of articulation and sex influenced the duration of consonants in Kannada. Further, it supported the earlier hypothesis about the influence of sex and retroflexion on the duration of speech sounds. The results are discussed in terms of the above.