Contrastive rhythm metrics: Research utilities

Praat script for the extraction of durations from Praat TextGrid interval tiers. The rhythm metrics spreadsheet works with the vowel and consonant durations for each utterance entered as two separate columns, thus vowel and consonant boundaries should be labelled on separate interval tiers.

Excel spreadsheet for the calculation of contrastive rhythm metrics. The following papers discuss the use and interpretation of rhythm metrics:

• Wiget, L., White, L., Schuppler, B., Grenon, I., Rauch, O., & Mattys, S.L. (2010). How stable are acoustic metrics of contrastive speech rhythm? [pdf file]. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127, 1559-1569.
• White, L., Liss, J.M., & Dellwo, V. (2010). Assessment of rhythm. In A. Lowit & R.D. Kent (Eds.), Assessment of Motor Speech Disorders (pp. 213-252). San Diego: Plural.
• Liss, J.M., White, L., Mattys, S.L., Lansford, K., Lotto, A.J., Spitzer, S.M., & Caviness, J.N. (2009). Quantifying speech rhythm abnormalities in the dysarthrias [pdf file]. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 52, 1334-1352.
• White, L., & Mattys, S.L. (2007). Calibrating rhythm: First language and second language studies [pdf file]. Journal of Phonetics, 35, 501-522.
• White, L., & Mattys, S.L. (2007). Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages [pdf file]. In P. Prieto, J. Mascaró & M.-J.Solé (Eds.), Segmental and Prosodic issues in Romance Phonology. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory series (pp. 237-257). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Please contact Laurence White if you have any questions regarding the spreadsheet.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Mietta Lennes for creating the Praat script and making it publicly available, together with additional Praat scripts. Thanks also to Esther Grabe for producing a spreadsheet, for calculating PVI scores, from which the spreadsheet above has been adapted.