Italian vowels have a shorter duration before a geminate than before a singleton consonant, but a longer duration in syllables carrying stress. We asked whether children can produce the differentiation in vowel duration in singleton/geminate contexts reported for adults and whether their production changes depending on position of primary stress. Italian children (three-to-six-year-olds) and adults performed a nonword repetition. Each nonword appeared in four contexts, with the stressed/unstressed vowel preceding/following the singleton/geminate: /paˈpaso/, /papˈpaso/, ˈpapaso/, /ˈpappaso/. Acoustic analyses on the duration of the vowel preceding (V1) and following (V2) the medial consonant showed a type of consonant by age group interaction: the difference in vowel duration between children and adults was greater for geminate than singleton contexts, and was greater when the vowel carried stress. When V1 carried stress, its duration was shorter in the geminate than in the singleton in adults and older children, not in younger children.

意大利语元音在双音之前的持续时间比在单辅音之前的持续时间短，但带有重音的音节的持续时间较长。我们询问儿童是否可以在成人报告的单音/双音环境中产生元音持续时间的差异，以及它们的产生是否根据主要应力的位置而变化。意大利儿童（三到六岁）和成人进行了非单词重复。每个非单词出现在四种上下文中，重读/非重读元音在单元/双元之前/之后：/paˈpaso/、/papˈpaso/、ˈpapaso/、/ˈpappaso/。对内侧辅音之前 (V1) 和之后 (V2) 元音持续时间的声学分析显示了一种按年龄组交互作用的辅音类型：儿童和成人之间的元音持续时间差异在双语环境中比在单语环境中更大，并且更大当元音带有重音时。当V1承受压力时，在成人和年龄较大的儿童中，双胎的持续时间比单胎的持续时间短，但在年幼的儿童中则不然。