:Clipping:

The reduction in vowel (or other sonorant) duration due to environmental factors. Two sorts of clipping are usually recognised:

Pre-fortis clipping: a fortis (voiceless) sound following in the same syllable causes the preceding vowel to be shorter than it would be in other environments. Thus, for example, in many accents of English the vowel in beat is shorter than that in bead. In some languages (English is an example) this sort of clipping is an important cue to the voicing status of a following consonant.


The vertical blue lines mark the beginning and end of the vowel segment
The measurements are approximate.


Rhythmic clipping: where the presence of other syllables in the same foot causes a vowel to be reduced in duration compared to a vowel where the syllable is not accompanied by other syllables in the foot. An example from English: the vowel in the first syllable of beater is shorter than that in beat.


The vertical blue lines mark the beginning and end of the vowel segment
The measurements are approximate.