Compensatory lengthening in Persian: the timing of non-modal phonation

Persian has CVGC (or CVCG) sequences (G, a glottal consonant; /h/ or /?/) which become reduced in certain occurrences, with the perceptual effect of the loss of the glottal consonant. The purpose of this study is to provide an acoustic description of the sequences in reduced forms. A production study examined three acoustic measurements of phonation types: H1-H2, H1-F1, and f0. The measurements were made at 15 ms time intervals throughout the vowel to determine the time course of phonation effect. Results indicate that G is realized as breathiness in CVhC (or CVCh) and laryngealization in CV?C (or CVC?), and that such non-modal voice qualities spread onto half of the portion of the preceding vowels.