Phonemic length and phrasal accent in Slovak consonantal and vocalic nuclei

Slovak allows us to compare vowels and consonants (/l/ and /r/) in nuclear position for their implementation of phonemic length contrast in stressed as well as unstressed syllables of accented as well as unaccented words. We analyzed the acoustic data of seven speakers for the changes in the duration of the vocalic and consonantal nuclei induced by phonemic length contrast and phrasal accent for both, stressed and unstressed syllables. The difference between long and short nuclei was always robust, while phrasal accent only affected the long nuclei. Whether the nucleus was a vowel or a consonant did not matter except for the long nuclei in the unstressed syllable, where /l/ differed significantly from /e/ or /r/. Results are discussed also by taking into account what is known from the articulatory stand point.