Vowel length in Luganda.

Luganda, a language of Uganda, is like other Bantu languages in exhibiting a contrast between short and long vowels. In many positions, however, this contrast is neutralized, for example, before NC clusters, where it is reported that only long vowels appear. This paper investigates the extent to which such long vowels, which are also nasalized, are similar in duration to contrastively long vowels. Based on recordings of four native speakers of Luganda living in the US (two female), we compare the durations of vowels in the following contexts: (i) vowels before NT and ND clusters (N = nasal, T = voiceless stop, D = voiced stop); (ii) short vowels before T, D, N; and (iii) long vowels before T, D, N. Analysis is in progress and will also examine the acoustic properties of different vowels. Preliminary results show that the overall duration patterns of Luganda are consistent with those reported for several other Bantu languages. That is, vowels are indeed lengthened before NT/ND clusters; however, their average duration is somewhat shorter than that of contrastive long vowels (i.e., V: 149 ms; V before NC: 298 ms; V: 392 ms). Implications for the implementation of the vowel length contrast are discussed.