Rhythm and speech rate variation in Norwegian dialects

The main goal of this study was to investigate the degree to which Norwegian dialects differ from each other with regard to speech rhythm. To that aim, read sentences were selected from a large database containing recordings from 12 different regions in Norway. Speech rhythm was measured using both vocalic (%V, nPVI-V, ΔV, VarcoV) and consonantal (rPVI-C, ΔC, VarcoC) metrics. Results indicated statistically significant variation in temporal organization in the dialects under scrutiny. At the same time, variation was less strong than found for similar measures for English dialects in other studies. In line with previous research, differences in speech material contributed substantially to variation in rhythm metrics. Further, speech rhythm appeared to be affected by speaker age and, to a lesser degree, speaker sex. In addition, speech rate was shown to vary with the two latter factors, but to be similar across dialects.