Duration of French Vowels in Unemphatic Stress

An experiment was designed to study the duration of French vowels in unemphatic stress, under controlled conditions. It was found that the lengthening of the stressed vowel depends primarily on two factors: intonation and syllable structure. Lengthening is greater when intonation falls than when it rises and this difference is more marked for open syllables than for closed syllables. Even though unemphatic stress correlates best with vowel duration when the intonation falls, it is suggested that when intonation rises, unemphatic stress correlates best with rising fundamental frequency and to a certain extent with the presence of a pause, and with vowel duration.