Caroline Smith's main points

At the heart of Smith's (henceforth CS) study is an attempt to describe rhythm adequately in an Articulatory Phonology framework. Two models of vowel and consonant organization are investigated, and CS suggests that these models of gestural coordination may give rise to timing patterns traditionally described as syllable- and mora-timing. If the primitives of phonological statement are gestures, then a gestural understanding of syllable- vs. mora-timing is important, since it helps to make it clearer how a purely gestural definition of “syllable” or “mora” (i.e. one in terms of the primitives of the statement) could be given. Some durational characteristics of rhythmical pieces apparently fall out from the articulatory model. CS's work makes a useful contribution to Articulatory Phonology in exploring the different possible timing relations that can hold between gestures of different types and in relating these to rhythm more generally.

The relationship between consonants and vowels may be more complex than just linear sequencing. Different organization of consonant and vowel gestures in relation to one another gives rise to syllable- vs. mora-timing.

Syllable-timing, as exemplified by Italian, has vowels coordinated with one another and consonants overlaid on to the vowels. CS calls this “vowel-to-vowel timing”, and it seems to be an instantiation of Fowler's (1980) coproduction model. In mora-timing on the other hand, as exemplified by Japanese, consonants are coordinated with vowels and vice versa. CS calls this “combined consonant-and-vowel timing.” Observable differences in vowel duration.