Interactions of fundamental frequency contour and perceived duration in Norwegian

This study investigates the influence of fundamental frequency (F0) contour on perceived vowel duration in Norwegian. In the first of four experiments, a falling vs. flat contour in short vs. long vowels in isolated monosyllables was shown to cause a perceptual lengthening of the vowel. Contrary to the expectations, embedding the monosyllables sentence-medially in experiment 2 did not turn the lengthening into a shortening effect. Also unexpectedly, a rising vs. flat contour did not influence perceived duration in monosyllables (experiment 3). Experiment 4 focused on falling as well as rising contours in disyllabic test words. Here, too, a lengthening effect was found only for a falling pattern. In parallel with experiment 2, the presence of the test word's second syllable did not turn perceptual lengthening into perceptual shortening. Comparison of the present results with data previously reported for German leads to the conclusion that the interaction of F0 contour and perceived vowel duration is language-specific and cannot be explained by assuming a universal psychophysical mechanism.