Dutch and English listeners’ interpretation of vowel duration

Dutch and English listeners' interpretation of vowel duration changes was examined in a word transcription task. Listeners were presented with spoken words realized with canonical or altered vowel durations. Dutch listeners often misperceived lengthened short vowels and shortened long vowels, identifying them as the short/long counterpart of the target, whereas English listeners more rarely misidentified words with altered vowel duration. Although Dutch and English are similar prosodically and phonologically, listeners' treatment of vowel duration in clear speech is different across the two languages.