Phonetic duration, phonological quantity and prosodic structure in Inari Saami

• Published in: Phonetica
• Main Authors: Bye, P. (Patrik), Sagulin, E. (Elin), Toivonen, I. (Ida)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Inari; Northern Finland; saami
• Online Access: https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/4913; https://doi.org/10.1159/000298583

Inari Saami, an endangered Finno-Ugric language of Northern Finland, is reported to have a three-way surface contrast in consonant length (short, halflong and long). We studied disyllabic words (C)V1CxV2(C) using data from 5 native speakers under two conditions, with short and long preceding vowel, V1, and found support for the claim that Inari Saami has a ternary contrast in consonant length. The three-way length contrast is more robust following a short V1. The duration of V2 correlates negatively with the length of the medial consonant. However, there is one major departure from this pattern. When both V1 and the medial consonant are long, V2 is also longer. This finding supports the idea that dis