Word Duration in the Spontaneous Speech of an Agglutinating Language

Word generation in an agglutinating language is influenced by many factors. Word length follows a predictable pattern, that is, more syllables take longer to produce. However, syllable duration can be reduced as word length increases (i.e., the reduction phenomenon). Little is known about how part of speech (noun vs. verb) affects the reduction process as well as the influence of age and gender on this process. The interaction among these factors was analyzed in the spontaneous speech of 40 native Hungarian-speaking participants who were evenly divided into groups by age and gender. Syllable duration was measured in one- to five-syllable words categorized as nouns or verbs. A linear mixed-effects model (LMM) revealed that (a) as expected, older individuals spoke more slowly than younger adults; (b) age-dependent differences were noted in word duration as syllable length increased; (c) nouns took longer to produce than verbs, but only in older adults; and (d) females produced words more quickly than males. A linear regression analyzing syllable reduction revealed an influence attributable to age. The present findings indicate that word duration in an agglutinating language is heavily dependent on word length as well as in differences in how speakers articulate longer words.