Speech rhythm vowel durations highly variable: language sounds stress-timed Languages with vowel reduction: English, Dutch, German If vowel durations similar: language sounds syllable-timed Languages such as French and Spanish which do not have vowel reduction Low and grabe 1995. Ramus et a/ 2000Speech rhythm ◼ If vowel durations highly variable: language sounds ‘stress-timed’ ◼ Languages with vowel reduction: English, Dutch, German ◼ If vowel durations similar: language sounds ‘syllable-timed’ ◼ Languages such as French and Spanish which do not have vowel reduction Low and Grabe 1995, Ramus et al 2000