Hyperarticulation in short intonational phrases in three Australian languages

In Lindblom's Hyper- and Hypo-articulation (H & H) theory, speech varies between clear and less clear depending on the communicative context. Hyperarticulation is known to reflect prosodic boundary information and prosodic prominence or focus. The realisation of hyperarticulation appears to differ between languages. In this study of three Australian languages, it is asked whether, in pre-boundary position in short prosodic phrases, vowel lengthening tends to co-occur with acoustic evidence of hyperarticulation. Further, it is asked whether hyperarticulation is stronger in the pre-boundary syllable than in the post-boundary one. It is demonstrated that pre-boundary lengthening in short intonational phrases in Australian languages tends to co-occur with an increase in vowel peripherality.