El euskera como lengua de ritmo intermedio en el continuo isosilábico-isomoraico: una comparación con el español y el japonés / Basque as a language with intermediate rhythm in the isosyllabic-isomoraic continuum: A comparison with Spanish and Japanese

Abstract

The current study employs multiple techniques (C%, V%, DC, DV, nPVI C, nPVI V, Varco DC, Varco DV) designed to detect rhythmic similarities and differences in order to compare the linguistic rhythm of Basque to those of Spanish and Japanese. The analysis of the productions of 24 Spanish/Basque bilinguals (twelve with Basque as their L1 and twelve as their L2), and nine native speakers of Japanese revealed that, although Spanish and Basque have generally been considered syllable-timed languages, the latter resembles moraic languages due to the length and variability of its vocalic intervals. At the same time, the similarities of the rhythmic properties of the euskaldunberri speakers (Basque as L2) and the euskaldunzaharra speakers (Basque as L1) suggest that inter-linguistic rhythmic transfers are not noticeable and that rhythmic characteristic in Spanish and Basque are connected to their respective syllabic preferences and not to phonological or phonetic processes implemented by the speakers.