Topic-154: Syllable Timed Languages In syllable timed languages, all syllables tend to have an equal time value (for example, their length or duration) and the rhythm of the language is said to be syllable-timed. In these languages, syllables tend to occur at regular intervals of time with fixed word stress. A classic example is Japanese in which all morae have approximately the same duration. This tendency is contrasted with stress-timing where the time between stressed syllables is said to tend to be equal irrespective of the number of unstressed syllables in between. Czech, Polish, Swahili and Romance languages (e.g., Spanish and Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Phonetics and Phonology (ENG)
VU French) are often claimed to be syllable-timed. Many phoneticians however, doubt whether any language is truly syllable-timed.
