Microprosodic timing rules for Italian consonant clusters

Consonant durations as single sounds and in double and triple clusters, both in intervocalic and boundary positions, have been measured on spectrograms of 100 nonsense words uttered five times in sentence frames by a professional speaker. Inherent durations, retrieved in single unstressed condition, appear consistently related to manner of articulation. Consonant durations in double clusters undergo to general lengthening in intervocalic and general shortening in initial positions, whereas lower effects were acknowledged in both cases by widening the clusters. Finally, variations have been expressed by modification coefficients of the inherent durations, obtaining rules which approximate measured values within a range lower than their Standard Deviation.