The Length of Czech Vowels Produced by Polish Speakers in Stress Groups of Different Quantity Structures
Abstract
The chapter is a part of a wider study on the acquisition of Czech in an L2 function in groups of speakers with various L1s. One of the structural phenomena that makes Czech difficult for non-native speakers at the sound structure level is its vowel quantities.
We present a number of findings from our pivotal work focusing on the performance of Polish native speakers. Based on a set of six-syllabic sequences, we look for aspects with a potential impact on the difficulty of quantity production.
The number of long and short vowels in a sequence is checked, as is the way the sequence is split into two words (stress groups). This seems to have a greater impact on long vowel production.
The word (stress group) is the initial unit of production. After this, the location of long vowels is most important.
The error rate is significantly increased by the occurrence of two long vowels consecutively.