Rhythm of Basque varieties
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59866/eia.v2025i70.318Keywords:
Basque varieties, rhythm, stress, syllable, moraAbstract
In this research, we analyze rhythm across Basque varieties, a topic that remains largely understudied. While the scarce studies available to date classify the Basque language as syllable-timed, some studies argue that it might approach other rhythmic classes, such as mora-timed. It has also been discussed if there are differences among Basque varieties. In fact, the different Basque varieties exhibit phonological alternations such as deletions, syncopes or apheresis. As all of these partially affect their syllabic structure, they could lead to cross-dialectal differences in their rhythm. The goal of this paper is thus to systematically analyze the varieties of Bermeo, Bilbo, Donostia and Baztan. Our results show that the different varieties do not differ in their percentages of vocalic intervals (V %), but do differ significantly in the standard deviation of their consonant intervals (ΔC), specifically between the varieties spoken in Baztan and Donostia. Furthermore, they suggest that, in certain aspects, these Basque dialects are closer to other languages classified as mora-timed than to the languages traditionally classified as syllable-timed.
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