Examines previously published experimental work on rhythm of spoken Spanish to establish whether or not Spanish is a "syllable-timed" language. Analyzes figures from the experiments and concludes that Spanish is neither stress-timed nor syllable-timed, displaying an antirhythmic pattern where each segment has a "standard duration" dependent on its…

Revised version of a paper given at the 83rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of American, April 18-21, 1972, Buffalo, New York; research supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (DD)

Describes studies of voice onset time in Spanish and an acoustic feature termed presence versus absence of an abrupt consonant onset. It is suggested that this feature may be used by the Spanish listener in making a perceptual distinction between voiced and voiceless stop consonants in multiple environments. (Author/KM)

Describes a study investigating the effects of second language learning on voice onset time (VOT) values in production of word initial stop consonants. Production of Spanish and English words by two native Spanish speaking siblings, one delayed in the acquisition of Spanish and both learning English, was compared. (Author/MES)