Table 2.

Cues of rhythm used for segmenting word and syllable boundaries

Language	Timing class	Cues for segmentation
English	stress	duration loudness F0 variation vowel quality
Dutch	stress	suprasegmental cues to stress vowel quality (less salient distinction than in English) [87] pitch movement cues [47]
Finnish	stress	vowel harmony [88] durational contrast of stressed vowel
German	stress	final-syllable lengthening (regardless of stress) [1]
Swedish	stress	word accent fall (F0, duration, loudness) [89] sentence accent rise
French	syllable	durational contrast of consonants [90]
Spanish	syllable	fine-tuned discrimination to final lengthening [20] stress placement
Cantonese	syllable	different silent pause intervals [91]
Mandarin	mixed [syllable and mora (tone)]	lexical tone, determined by F0 height and F0 contour tone duration, relative to sentence position
Brazilian Portuguese	mixed (mora and syllable) [92]	reduced vowels in unstressed position simplified consonant clusters rate-dependent changes in durational contrasts
Japanese	mora (tone)	subsyllabic segmentation [92]

F0 = Fundamental frequency.