Data was collected from 45-minute conversational interviews of 20 Cubans, who arrived in the United States in 1980, to analyze vocalic processes in Cuban Spanish. Four vocalic processes found in Cuban Spanish (raising and devoicing of unstressed vowels, lengthening of stressed vowels, and diphthongization of stressed mid vowels) were examined. Vowels are considered to be composed of three elementary particles: "a" (aperture), "i" (palatality), and "u" (labiality). Raising is characterized as an instance of decay, in which an aperture particle is lost. Devoicing is described as the addition of the "devoicing" punctuator "o" beneath particles. Lengthening is characterized by the repetition of a particle following the "space" punctuator. Finally, diphthongization, an instance of fission, is represented by the addition of a tonality particle, with the "half-moon" punctuator to indicate non-syllabicity, after the "space" punctuator. In addition, these vocalic processes are related to recent studies in experimental phonetics, which suggest that a length difference is emerging between stressed and unstressed syllables, thus calling into question the traditional classification of Spanish as a syllable-timed language. Contains 29 references. (GLR)