Word-Final Unstressed Vowel Reduction On Children And Adult Speech From Florianopolis: An Acoustic Analysis

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of the phenomena of vowel reduction and deletion from speech data by an adult and two children aged six years from Florianópolis. Stressed vowels ([i, , u]) and unstressed final ([ɪ, ɐ, ʊ]) are observed in order to determine whether the factors stress and age influence the acoustic parameters of duration and frequency of resonance (F1 and F2). The results have indicated influence of stress such that the end groups carried out vowels unstressed final lower and a reduction in area F1-F2. The data have also shown cases of unstressed vowel deletion which occur predominantly with high vowels and after unvoiced consonants contexts. By comparing adult and children, the relative duration does not show significant differences. On the other hand, for F1 and F2, the results corroborate partially studies that point out the frequencies decrease when the age increases. This study aim to contribute for both the research about the children´s speech and the research about Florianópolis´s speech.