Quantification of Speech Rhythm in Norwegian as a Second Language

This paper looks into the question of how to quantify rhythm in Norwegian spoken as a second language by speakers from different language backgrounds. The speech material for this study was taken from existing recordings from the Language Encounters project and consisted of sentences read by natives and speakers from six different L1s. Measurements of syllable durations and speech rate were made. Seven different metrics were calculated and used in a discriminant analysis. For the five utterances investigated, statistical classification was to a large degree in congruence with L1 group membership. The results therefore suggest that L2 productions differed rhythmically from Norwegian spoken as L1.