Components of an intonational typology

1
Components of an intonational typology

• Gösta Bruce
• Lund University, Sweden

2
Goals

• Ultimate goal
• Typology of intonational variation
• Tonal identity of language / dialect types
• Current goal
• Intonational typology of Scandinavian / Swedish
  dialect types

3
Word accent types à la Gårding

• FAR EAST (Finland Sw.)
• SOUTH (Malmö)
• CENTRAL (Dalarna/Gotl)
• EAST (Stockholm)
• WEST (Göteborg)

4
Swedish tonal typology(Gårding 1973 Bruce
Gårding 1978)

• Discrete dialect types
• Far East, South, Central, East, West
• Single-peaked double-peaked dialects
• criterion accent II one or two pitch peaks
• cf. Norwegian tradition H tone L tone dialects
• criterion stressed syllable of accent I H or
  L

5
Tonal typology after Bruce Gårding
6
Schematic pitch contours of focus
realizationnon-compound accent II words

• acc II word acc II word
• 2nd focus
• SOUTH 1st focus
• CENTRAL
• EAST
• WEST

7
Schematic pitch patterns of compounds

• acc II compound
• SOUTH
• CENTRAL
• EAST
• WEST

short compound
long compound
8
Phonetics and phonology of the Swedish dialects
around the year 2000 (SweDia 2000)

• Departments of linguistics / phonetics,
  Universities of Lund, Stockholm, Umeå
• Bank of Sweden, Cultural Foundation, 1998 -
  2004
• http//www.swedia.nu

9
SweDia 2000

• General goals of the project
• Documentation
• database with speech samples from gt100 Swedish
  dialects (younger, elderly men, women)
• spontaneous speech (interview)
• elicited speech
• Word list (vowels consonants)
• Phrases (prosody)
• Analysis
• description of phonetic features of the dialects
  / accents

10
Example of interpretability of melodic pattern

• High plateau (hat pattern)
• East Swedish (initial) focal accent post-focal
  accent
• Far East, North succession of two accents with
  equal weighting
• Central Swedish compound word, rise in 1ary
  stress fall in 2ary stress

11
Features of a tonal typology

• Utterance intonation
• Focal accentuation
• distinct focal accent
• extra focal peak
• post-focal accents
• Phrasing
• tonal concatenation

• Word intonation
• Word accentuation
• Word accent timing
• Word accent contrast
• Compounding
• 2ary stress pitch synchronization

12
Patterns of tonal concatenation
13
Tentative taxonomy of Swedish intonational
dialect types
14
Interdependencies between tonal featureswithin
the dialect types

• clarity of focus signaling
• post-focal accentuation
• phrasing (tonal concatenation)
• word accent timing

15
Single-peaked dialects

• Wide pitch range of (focal) accent gesture
• equal weighting of successive accents of a phrase
  ( no clear focus signaling)
• phrasing as low plateau / downslope
• possible deaccentuation after focus ( part of
  focus signaling and phrasing)
• relatively LATE word accent timing ( only ONE
  pitch gesture in focus)

16
Double-peaked dialects

• Extra pitch peak in focus
• clear distinction focal / non-focal accent (
  presence / absence of extra peak)
• tonal downstepping of accents after focus ( part
  of focus signaling and phrasing)
• phrasing as high plateau / upslope
• relatively EARLY word accent timing
• ( TWO pitch gestures in focus )

17
Conclusion

• Intonational typology still tentative
• Description of intonational behavior of the
  dialect types uneven
• Highly interesting patterns of interaction
  between tone and intonation to be revealed