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Word-initial lengthening of consonants in non-WEIRD languages

Nature Human Behaviour volume 8, pages 2094–2095 (2024)Cite this article

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We found that across a sample of 51 diverse languages, consonants at the beginning of words are on average 13 ms longer than their non-initial counterparts. Considering that this finding is robust across languages from all over the world, we argue that this effect helps to mark the boundaries of different words in the continuous stream of speech.

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Fig. 1: Word-initial consonant lengthening in 43 languages.

Change history

  • 04 October 2024

    In the version of the article initially published, "WEIRD" was defined as "Western, European, industrial, rich and democratic". This has now been corrected to "Western, educated, industrial, rich and democratic" in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

References

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This is a summary of: Blum, F. et al. Consonant lengthening marks the beginning of words across a diverse sample of languages. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01988-4 (2024).

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Word-initial lengthening of consonants in non-WEIRD languages. Nat Hum Behav 8, 2094–2095 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01989-3

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