Phoneticians study acoustic speech signals. But what about the aspects of speech where the signal is silent? The present study investigated speakers’ pausing behavior in their native and non-native
speech. Pausing measures were applied in order to study between-speaker and within-speaker
variability, where within-speaker variability was introduced by recording speakers in their native
Zurich German, and in their second languages English and French. Results showed that pausing
measures in the form of pause numbers and pause durations are speaker-specific. Furthermore, this
speaker-specificity became evident across different languages. Results are discussed in the context of
forensic voice comparison.