Acoustic Evidence for Partial Temporal Restoration in Syllable and Segmental Deletion in Igbo

Abstract

Compensatory lengthening is commonly described as a process in which the deletion of a segment or syllable is accompanied by the lengthening of an adjacent segment. This study examines the acoustic evidence for partial temporal restoration following syllable and segment deletion in Igbo. Speech data were obtained from six adult native speakers of Igbo, comprising three males and three females. The speakers produced selected words and utterances representing different phonological environments in which segmental or syllabic deletion occurs. The recordings were analysed acoustically using Praat, with particular attention to the duration of the segments and syllables involved before and after deletion. The analysis shows that deletion is frequently accompanied by an increase in the duration of an adjacent vowel. However, the measured duration of the lengthened vowel does not consistently equal the combined duration of the deleted sequence and the vowel that remains. The acoustic evidence therefore points to partial rather than complete temporal restoration. The findings suggest that, although vowel lengthening contributes to the recovery of temporal material following deletion, it does not necessarily reproduce the full duration of the original sequence. The study provides acoustic evidence that explains the occurrence of compensatory lengthening and the degree of temporal restoration achieved through the process.