.
Hard Template is sometimes too restricted to find regular rhythm
pattern words so that we use a rather loose template, the Soft
Template that is categorized according to the presence or absence of
voicing (V, U) as described in Table 5.1. In Japanese, a
vowel followed by a voiced consonant in the same syllable is generally
shorter than an equivalent vowel followed by an unvoiced consonant of
the same place of articulation. Moreover, vowel duration is more
influenced by the preceding consonant than the following. At any rate,
it is clear that Japanese vowel sounds are much affected by the
voicing of preceding and following consonants. Typical examples of
the Soft Template for two, three, and four mora words are shown in
Figure 5.13, Figure 5.12, and Figure 5.14,
respectively. Although it categorizes consonants into only two groups,
they also show a stable standard deviation .
図 5.12: Rhythm patterns by Soft Template of 3-mora word
図 5.13: Rhythm patterns by Soft Template of 2-mora word
図 5.14: Rhythm patterns by Soft Template of 4-mora word
