ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the acoustic aspects of stress in Welsh. Most work to date on the acoustic correlates of stress has been done on English. As a preliminary investigation of the acoustic correlates of stress in Welsh, recordings were made of a native Welsh speaker reading a list of Welsh words and sentences. Prepausal vowels were found to be significantly longer than non-prepausal vowels. The consonants were divided into four categories: after stressed vowel, after unstressed vowel, before stressed vowel, and before unstressed vowel. The only significant length difference found within these categories was the greater length of consonants after stressed vowels compared to consonants after unstressed vowels. In any attempt to explain the strange behaviour of stress in Welsh, it is important to consider a historical development, the 'Old Welsh Accent Shift'. Subsequent phonetic experiments into the acoustic correlates of stress showed that intensity was by no means the most reliable cue to stress.
