The physical nature of distinctive length in Malayalam vowels has been investigated by means of sound spectrograms made of two informants' speech. Measurements of short and long vowels, in isolation and in connected speech, show that the duration of long vowels is always in the range of twice that of short vowels in comparable environments. The environment of the vowel is also shown to have a significant effect on its duration; both short and long vowels have shorter durations before long consonants than before short ones. Relative duration, specifically a ratio of 2 to 1, is proposed as the acoustic correlate of the long versus short distinction in Malayalam vowels.
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