The measurement of rhythm: a comparison of Singapore and British English

This paper investigates the contrasting rhythmic properties of two varieties of English: Singapore English, which is often described as syllable-timed, and British English, which is more usually assumed to be stress-timed. Recordings were made of six speakers of each variety. For each stretch of continuous speech obtained from the recordings, the normalized duration of consecutive syllables (except for the final-syllable) was compared, to derive a variability index (VI). It was found that there is a significantly greater variability in this measure of syllable-to-syllable duration for British English, which supports previous indications that, by comparison, Singapore English might indeed be regarded as being more syllable-timed. Additionally, it was found that there is little evidence of the influence of speaking rate on the measured differences in rhythm, but there is some evidence that the greater frequency of reduced syllables with a schwa in British English contributes to the difference between the two varieties.