CZECH SPEECH RHYTHM AND THE RHYTHM CLASS HYPOTHESIS

Jana Dankovicova & Volker Dellwo
University College London, UK

ID 1538
[full paper]

While a number of languages have been classified as either syllable- or stress-timed, the case of Czech remains unclear. In this paper we make predictions about Czech rhythm on the basis of our analysis of syllable complexity in recorded samples of Czech. The results on syllable complexity show mixed features. This is reflected in the classification of Czech rhythm using rhythm measures based on durational variability of consonantal and vocalic intervals.