VARIATION IN PHONETIC REALISATION OR IN PHONOLOGICAL CATEGORIES? INTONATIONAL PITCH ACCENTS IN EGYPTIAN COLLOQUIAL ARABIC AND EGYPTIAN FORMAL ARABIC

This paper uses qualitative and quantitative methods to compare the intonation of formal and colloquial varieties of Egyptian Arabic in a corpus of elicited read speech, to explore the widely held assumption that spoken formal Arabic will have the intonational characteristics of the speaker’s colloquial variety. Speakers are found to use broadly parallel phonological systems in each register, reflected in parallel distribution and type of pitch accents. A quantitative analysis of the pitch target alignment to the segmental string reveals only minor differences in the phonetic realisation of pitch accents across registers

Patterns of prominence, phrasing and tonal events in Spanish news reading : an illustrative case study

The present study examines the patterns in stress, phrasing and intonation found in a Spanish corpus of news read by broadcasters to describe the prosodic strategies that can be considered as genre-distinguishing features. Results indicate that, firstly, the main stress modifications concern the upgrading of unstressed syllables to accented ones, the stress shift to mark word-initial boundaries and the maintenance of adjacent stresses. Secondly, the special features related to phrasing are unexpected pauses, which enhance the prosodic units that offer new information, and the prosodic marking of initial edges of groups with the aim of capturing the listener's attention. Finally, the most relevant tonal events that identify the typical chanting of broadcasters are a recurrent use of rises whose f0 peak coincides with the stressed syllable, a variety of non-falling pitch movements signalling intermediate phrasing, and the use of rising-falling pitch movements to signal ends. All the described prosodic and tonal strategies contribute to obtaining an emphatic style in news reading and are representative of a prosodically marked genre.El presente estudio examina los patrones más comunes en la estructura acentual, la organización prosódica y la entonación en un corpus de noticias leído por profesionales de la radio con el fin de describir las estrategias prosódicas que pueden considerarse como rasgos diferenciadores de un estilo propio. La anotación perceptiva de los fenómenos prosódicos permite, en primer lugar, establecer las principales modificaciones acentuales, que tienen que ver con la acentuación de sílabas átonas, el cambio de posición de acento para marcar el inicio de palabra y el mantenimiento de acentos en sílabas contiguas. En segundo lugar, la singularidad en la organización prosódica se relaciona con la aparición de pausas no justificadas por criterios sintácticos ni prosódicos, pero que enmarcan las unidades que ofrecen nueva información, y el realce del inicio de los grupos prosódicos con el objetivo de atraer la atención del oyente. Finalmente, los eventos tonales más relevantes que identifican la locución de los locutores profesionales son: el uso recurrente de acentos tonales ascendentes cuyo máximo de f0 coincide con la sílaba acentuada, una gran variedad de tonos de trayectoria no descendente en el límite de frases intermedias, y el uso de tonos circunflejos al final de los enunciados de entonación. Las estrategias descritas contribuyen a conseguir un estilo enfático y son representativas de un estilo de habla con esquemas prosódicos propios

Tonal Time in Two Contexts and Two Dialects

En este trabajo se analizan dos problemas relacionados con la asignación tonal: (1) en el contexto de choque tonal de acentos prenucleares y (2) en el contexto del interior de la palabra y los diferentes acentos prenucleares (patrones proparoxítonos, paroxítonos y oxítonos). Los corpus son habla de laboratorio. En (1), por medio de emisiones como El musulmán viejo camina por las calles emitidas por hablantes de Barcelona y de Argentina. En (2), por medio de enunciados como Espárragos blancos con atún marinado emitidos por hablantes de Argentina. Los resultados indican diferencias relevantes entre ambos dialectos: posrealización del tono en los hablantes de Barcelona (acentos prenucleares L* + H) y ausencia de posrealización del tono en hablantes de Argentina (acentos prenucleares H* y L + H*.In this work two problems related with the tonal assignment are analyzed: (1) in the context of tonal clash of prenuclear accents and (2) in the context of within-word and the different prenuclear accents (proparoxytone, paroxytone and oxytone patterns). The corpus is laboratory speech. In (1), by means of emissions as El musulmán camina por las calles ‘The old Muslim walks by the streets’ emitted by Barcelona Spanish and Argentinian speakers. In (2), by means of phrases as Espárragos blancos con atún marinado ‘White asparaguses with marinated tuna’ emitted by Argentinian speakers. The results indicate relevant differences between both dialects: overshooting of the tone on the posaccentual syllable in the speakers from Barcelona (prenuclear accents L * + H) and no effect of tonal overshooting in Argentinian speakers (prenuclear accents H * and L + H *)

Fronteras entonativas en discursos de Tenerife

Guillermo Toledo, "Fronteras entonativas en discursos en Tenerife" The intermediate intonational phrases and the major intonational phrases are analyzed in Spanish broadcasting discourses. The three female informants are from Tenerife: a broadcaster, a journalist and a newsreader. In the intermediate phrases the primary and secondary phonological association are observed taken place in oxytone and paroxytone words. In oxytones the pitch accents show a primary association of the tone with the accented syllable. This accented syllable becomes imbedded in the phrasal accent by secondary association, it results always high. In paroxytones a primary phonological association occurs between the tone and the accented syllable, this syllable appears as low, but by means of an secondary phonological association between the tone and the phrasal accent, the syllable recovers its higher prominence. The final intonational phrases induce low nuclear accents. In this way, it suggests a pragmatic contrast of intermediate phrases cued by continuation rise contours, (the discourse continuity) opposed to the  final phrases marked by  low contours, (the discourse conclusion).   Key words : Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology, Spanish Phrasing, Primary and Secondary Phonological Association, Intonational Meaning and Discourse.The intermediate intonational phrases and the major intonational phrases are analyzed in Spanish broadcasting discourses. The three female informants are from Tenerife: a broadcaster, a journalist and a newsreader. In the intermediate phrases the primary and secondary phonological association are observed taken place in oxytone and paroxytone words. In oxytones the pitch accents show a primary association of the tone with the accented syllable. This accented syllable becomes imbedded in the phrasal accent by secondary association, it results always high. In paroxytones a primary phonological association occurs between the tone and the accented syllable, this syllable appears as low, but by means of an secondary phonological association between the tone and the phrasal accent, the syllable recovers its higher prominence. The final intonational phrases induce low nuclear accents. In this way, it suggests a pragmatic contrast of intermediate phrases cued by continuation rise contours, (the discourse continuity) opposed to the final phrases marked by low contours, (the discourse conclusion).Fil: Toledo, Guillermo Andres. Laval University; Canadá. Universidad del Cine; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Pitch Accent in Korean

Typologically, pitch-accent languages stand between stress languages like Spanish and tone languages like Shona, and share properties of both. In a stress language typically just one syllable per word is accented and bears the major stress (cf. Spanish sábana ‘sheet’, sabána ‘plain’, Panamá). In a tone language the number of distinctions grows geometrically with the size of the word. So in Shona, which contrasts high vs. low tone, trisyllabic words have eight possible pitch patterns. In a canonical pitch-accent language such as Japanese, just one syllable (or mora) per word is singled out as distinctive, as in Spanish. But each syllable in the word is assigned a high or low tone (as in Shona); however, this assignment is predictable based on the location of the accented syllableKeywords: tonal accent, diachrony, phonetic realization, compounds, phonological phrases, loanwords, frequency, reconstructio

Intonation in Spanish declaratives : differences between lab speech and spontaneous speech

The present study compares the intonation of Spanish declarative utterances in lab speech and spontaneous speech. Most studies of Spanish intonation have used lab speech, collected in an experimental setting and often scripted. This allows the researcher to control many factors, but the results cannot be assumed to be representative of spontaneous speech. The present study takes the most characteristic traits of the intonation of declarative sentences in Spanish lab speech and examines whether the same traits exist in spontaneous speech. It is shown that there are notable differences between the intonation of Spanish declaratives in lab speech and spontaneous speech. While some of the differences are minor, others are quite significant. Differences of one degree or another exist in the areas of the presence of F0 rises through stressed syllables, F0 peak alignment, downstepping, final lowering and deaccenting

Dominican Spanish intonation: the east zone dialect

Por medio de un modelo métrico y autosegmental (AM) revisado, se estudian los acentos tonales prenucleares dentro del marco de la sílaba acentuada y el contexto fonético pretónico y postónico. Se analizan por medio de una interfaz entre el componente fonético y fonológico teniendo en cuenta los umbrales perceptivos. Esta metodología permite un taxonomía tonal sin la ambigüedad producida por los fenómenos de superficie en la alineación del pico. Se estudian cinco discursos en español dominicano de la zona este del país. Los resultados indican una frecuencia de aparición relevante de acentos prenucleares (H*, L+H*, H*+L, y (L+H)*+L). Los resultados son similares a los obtenidos en Argentina, Cuba, en la Península Ibérica y en discursos de las Islas Canarias y opuesto a lo obtenido en habla de laboratorio y en habla semiespontánea en el español dominicano del norte.Por medio de un modelo métrico y autosegmental (AM) revisado, se estudian los acentos tonales prenucleares dentro del marco de la sílaba acentuada y el contexto fonético pretónico y postónico. Se analizan por medio de una interfaz entre el componente fonético y fonológico teniendo en cuenta los umbrales perceptivos. Esta metodología permite un taxonomía tonal sin la ambigüedad producida por los fenómenos de superficie en la alineación del pico. Se estudian cinco discursos en español dominicano de la zona este del país. Los resultados indican una frecuencia de aparición relevante de acentos prenucleares (H*, L+H*, H*+L, y (L+H)*+L). Los resultados son similares a los obtenidos en Argentina, Cuba, en la Península Ibérica y en discursos de las Islas Canarias y opuesto a lo obtenido en habla de laboratorio y en habla semiespontánea en el español dominicano del norte

Prosody and recursion

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 317-341).This thesis proposes a recursive mapping of syntactic derivations to prosodic representations. I argue that the prosody of an expression, just like its meaning, is determined compositionally, as originally proposed in Chomsky et al. (1957), Chomsky and Halle (1968). Syntactic structure are cyclically spelled out and assigned a semantic and phonological interpretation. The cyclic approach is motivated based on data from the prosody of coordinate structures, integrating insights from syntax, combinatorics, and semantics. The algorithm distinguishes two ways of prosodically relating the output of cyclic domains: they can either be mapped to prosodic domains that are on a par and match in prosodic status: PROSODIC MATCHING; or the output of one cycle can be prosodically subordinated to another cycle: PROSODIC SUBORDINATION. Together, they derive a metrical structure that encodes information about phrasing, accent placement, and prominence. Scope relations, argument structure, and information structure affect prosodic phrasing indirectly by determining which of the two principles applies and when a syntactic cycle is spelled out. The derived metrical representation is a relational grid (Liberman, 1975).(cont.) It encodes syntactic structure and also the derivational history of how it was assembled. The theory attempts to incorporate insights from recent work on stress and prominence (Cinque, 1993, Arregi, 2002) and prosodic recursion Ladd (1988), Dresher (1994), as well as insights from the research on prosodic phrasing and phrasal phonology (Gussenhoven, 1984, Selkirk, 1986, Truckenbrodt, 1995). Phonetic evidence from on-line production is presented to show that speakers implement the predicted metrical relations and scale boundaries later in the utterance relative to boundaries already produced, a phenomenon dubbed BOUNDARY STRENGTH SCALING.by Michael Wagner.Ph.D