Variation in the Intonation of Uruguayan Spanish Declaratives
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Phonetics & Phonology
Location
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Start Date
17-10-2024 12:00 PM
End Date
17-10-2024 12:30 PM
Abstract
This study, couched in the Autosegmental-Metrical (AM) Model (Pierrehumbert, 1980) and the Spanish Tones and Break Indices (Sp_ToBI) (Beckman et al., 2002; Hualde & Prieto, 2015), analyzes and compares broad-focus declaratives and narrow-focus declaratives from the Uruguayan departments of Montevideo and Durazno. This study marks the first analysis of Durazno intonation. The present study counts on 50 informants, 30 from Montevideo and 20 from Durazno, with equal numbers of males and females across three adult age groups: 18-35, 36-59, and 60+. The acoustic analysis of F0 reveals patterns that indicate geographic, social, and syntactic variation. Montevideo Spanish intonation pattern after Buenos Aires Spanish (BAS) in its preference for prenuclear L+H* and narrow-focus pitch accent L+H*+L, but does not employ the Italian-inspired nuclear pitch accent H+L*, marking a clear preference for L*, followed by L+H*. Durazno, however, while using prenuclear L+H*, exhibits a clear tendency for prenuclear L+
HLS Abstract
Variation in the Intonation of Uruguayan Spanish Declaratives
MBSC Omaha Room 304
This study, couched in the Autosegmental-Metrical (AM) Model (Pierrehumbert, 1980) and the Spanish Tones and Break Indices (Sp_ToBI) (Beckman et al., 2002; Hualde & Prieto, 2015), analyzes and compares broad-focus declaratives and narrow-focus declaratives from the Uruguayan departments of Montevideo and Durazno. This study marks the first analysis of Durazno intonation. The present study counts on 50 informants, 30 from Montevideo and 20 from Durazno, with equal numbers of males and females across three adult age groups: 18-35, 36-59, and 60+. The acoustic analysis of F0 reveals patterns that indicate geographic, social, and syntactic variation. Montevideo Spanish intonation pattern after Buenos Aires Spanish (BAS) in its preference for prenuclear L+H* and narrow-focus pitch accent L+H*+L, but does not employ the Italian-inspired nuclear pitch accent H+L*, marking a clear preference for L*, followed by L+H*. Durazno, however, while using prenuclear L+H*, exhibits a clear tendency for prenuclear L+