Cross-variety Rhythm Typology in Portuguese

This paper aims at proposing a measure of speech rhythm based on the inference of the coupling strength between the syllable oscillator and the stress group oscillator of an underlying coupled oscillators model. This coupling is inferred from the linear regression between the stress group duration and the number of syllables within the group, as well as from the multiple linear regression between the same parameters and an estimate of phrase stress prominence. This technique is applied to compare the rhythmic differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese in two speaking styles and three speakers per variety. Compared with a syllable-sized normalised PVI, the findings suggest that the coupling strength captures better the perceptual effects of the speakers’ renditions. Furthermore, it shows that stress group duration is much better predicted by adding phrase stress prominence to the regression. Index Terms: rhythmic variability, rhythm typology, coupledoscillators