What is considered the primary temporal measure of speech?

Duration is indeed considered the primary temporal measure of speech. It refers to the amount of time that various speech sounds or segments are produced. In speech analysis, duration is critical because it contributes to the perception of rhythm, timing, and the overall flow of speech. Variations in duration can affect how speech is understood, as they play a significant role in differentiating between phonemes, syllables, and words. For instance, some languages may rely heavily on the timing of vowel and consonant durations to convey different meanings or to differentiate between similar sounding words.

In contrast, frequency, amplitude, and pitch, while important characteristics of sound, do not capture the temporal aspect of speech as directly as duration does. Frequency refers to the number of cycles per second of a sound wave and is more associated with the tonal quality, while amplitude relates to the loudness of sound. Pitch is the perceptual correlate of frequency, representing how high or low a sound is perceived, but neither frequency nor pitch provides insight into how long particular speech sounds are articulated. Thus, duration stands out as the essential metric for understanding the timing and temporal dynamics of spoken language.