Compensatory effects of foot structure in segmental durations of Soikkola Ingrian disyllables and trisyllables

This acoustic study explores compensatory influences of foot structure on segmental duration and quantity in the\r\nfoot nuclei of 22 trisyllabic and four disyllabic structures in vanishing Soikkola Ingrian (Finnic). A robust ternary\r\nquantity contrast of consonants is confirmed for both disyllables and trisyllables. While in the shortest disyllables\r\nthe contrast is “pure” (i.e., not significantly reinforced by the durations of other segments), in all trisyllables it is enhanced\r\nthrough the durationally inverse (compensatory) effects in other segments. In this, the situation in trisyllables\r\nis closer to that attested in other languages with ternary consonantal quantity than the situation in disyllables.\r\nThe phonological quantity contrast has been lost from the second syllable vowel of trisyllables, and its duration is\r\nnow inversely related to the first syllable complexity. In the segments preceding this vowel, all compensatory effects\r\nare purely phonetic. Shorter segmental durations and stronger compensatory effects in trisyllables than in\r\ndisyllables indicate tendencies for both polysegmental and polysyllabic shortening. We discuss a potential relation\r\nof observed compensatory effects of shortening and lengthening (a “half-long” vowel) to foot isochrony and metrical\r\nstress.