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  • 9 - Rhythms of Phones, Syllables, and Words in Connected Speech

  • from Section 2 - Acoustic and Sublexical Rhythms
  • Edited by Lars Meyer, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Antje Strauss, University of Konstanz
  • Book:
    Rhythms of Speech and Language
    Published online:
    23 April 2026
    Print publication:
    07 May 2026, pp 147-157
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  • Summary

    In speech, linguistic information is encoded in hierarchically organized units such as phones, syllables, and words. In auditory neuroscience, it is widely accepted that syllables in connected speech are quasi-rhythmic, and the rhythmicity makes them suitable to be encoded by theta-band neural oscillations. The rhythmicity of phones or words, however, is more controversial. Here, we analyze the statistical regularity in the duration of phones, syllables, and words, based on large corpora in English and Mandarin Chinese. The coefficient of variation (CV) of unit duration is slightly lower for syllables than phones and words, consistent with the idea that syllables are more rhythmic than phones and words, but the difference is weak. The mean duration of phones, syllables, and words matches the timescales of alpha-, theta-, and delta-band neural oscillations, respectively.