Possible Mutual Influences in the Prosody of Slovene Speech and Slovene Folk Songs

The article tackles the popular topic of the potential interaction of music and language by comparing the prosody of Slovene speech and the melodic and rhythmic properties of the Slovene folk song. The study shows potential connections between tonemicity and interval range, the predictability of word stress and rhythmic accent, and different dialects and their musical traditions. The article thus presents a preliminary study of potential similarities between a specific language and music. Although, due to a lack of research for other languages, it is difficult to guarantee that the results are not coincidental, the study presents a promising first attempt at such a comparison

PERCEPTION OF TONEMICITY IN STANDARD SLOVENE

According to the current Slovene Orthographv (Slovenski pravopis, 2001) and the Standard Slovene Dictionary (Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika, 1995), the Standard Slovene language is characterized not only hy the dynamic but also by the so-called tonemic word accentuation (or intonation rather), also referred to as \u27pitch accent\u27. Features of this \u27tonemicitv\u27 of certain Slovene dialects were first discussed already in the 19th centurv (Škrabec, 1870, Valjavec, 1878-95), further analyzed in detail by Toporišič (1978, 2000) and discussed more recentlv also by Srebot Rejec (2000). The tonemic accent is very difficult to acquire in the process of education because U recjuires the capacity of distinguishing between different pitch levels and pitch movements. As a rule, tonemicity is onlv acquired hy Slovene speakers spontaneously and unconsciously in the process of language accjuisition, of course only in those Slovene dialectal areas in which this accent exists. The paper presents the results of three surveys testing Slovene native speakers\u27 perception of tonemic and non-tonemic intonation, taking into account the subjects\u27 dialectal origin. We tested the \u27acceptabilitv\u27 of tonemic intonation as an element of spoken Slovene used in public presentations, in ajfirmative sentences (ali three surveys) and in yes-no cpiestions (two sur>eys only), because tonemic accent is necessarily in/luenced by sentence intonation. In addition to this, we tested the level of acceptability of intentionallv incorrect intonation of individua/ lexical items within intonation units, in particular using the so-called \u27low-pitched\u27 accent in those lexical items that should be \u27high-pitched\u27 both in tonemic and non-tonemic dialects

The prosody of focus: non-contrastive, contrastive and verum focus in Slovenian, English and Russian

The article presents an approach to information structure that marks focused or topicalized syntactic constituents with the features [foc] and [top], and assumes that the assignment of these information structure features is reflected in prosody. The experimental study measures the fundamental frequency of various Slovenian sentences to identify the characteristic contours of the non-contrastive, contrastive, and verum focus. The findings are compared to those in studies on English and Russian. The results show that the most relevant prosodic characteristics of such structures are the pitch range, the pitch changes on the focus exponent, and the duration of the focus exponent

Possible Mutual Influences in the Prosody of Slovene Speech and Slovene Folk Songs

The article tackles the popular topic of the potential interaction of music and language by comparing the prosody of Slovene speech and the melodic and rhythmic properties of the Slovene folk song. The study shows potential connections between tonemicity and interval range, the predictability of word stress and rhythmic accent, and different dialects and their musical traditions. The article thus presents a preliminary study of potential similarities between a specific language and music. Although, due to a lack of research for other languages, it is difficult to guarantee that the results are not coincidental, the study presents a promising first attempt at such a comparison

Morebitni medsebojni vpliv prozodije slovenskega govora in slovenske ljudske pesmi

Članek na primeru slovenščine obravnava priljubljeno tematiko morebitnega medsebojnega vpliva glasbe in jezika, in sicer s primerjavo prozodije slovenskega govora in melodično-ritmičnih značilnosti slovenske ljudske pesmi. Analiza nakaže morebitne povezave med tonemskostjo in obsegom intervalov, predvidljivostjo naglasov in ritmičnimi poudarki ter, nasploh, povezanost različnih dialektov in njihove glasbene tradicije. Članek tako predstavi preliminarno raziskavo na področju opazovanih podobnosti med točno določenim jezikom in glasbo. Četudi je zaradi manka primerjalnih raziskav za ostale jezike težko zagotoviti, da rezultati niso le naključni, raziskava predstavlja obetaven prvi poskus takšne primerjave

Possible Mutual Influences in the Prosody of Slovene Speech and Slovene Folk Songs

The article tackles the popular topic of the potential interaction of music and language by comparing the prosody of Slovene speech and the melodic and rhythmic properties of the Slovene folk song. The study shows potential connections between tonemicity and interval range, the predictability of word stress and rhythmic accent, and different dialects and their musical traditions. The article thus presents a preliminary study of potential similarities between a specific language and music. Although, due to a lack of research for other languages, it is difficult to guarantee that the results are not coincidental, the study presents a promising first attempt at such a comparison