ABSTRACT
Stress-timing appears to operate for all types of English spoken by native speakers, possibly with the exception of those strongly influenced by Creoles, such as the English of the West Indies. Some types of English employed as a second language (e.g. the English used by many Indians and Africans) absorb the syllable-timing of the mother tongue of the speakers, but such varieties can be very difficult for others to understand. As has been shown, stress-timing is achieved mainly by lengthening certain vowels at the expense of others: vowels tend to be lengthened in stressed syllables and shortened in unstressed syllables.
