ABSTRACT

This chapter proposes an intonational model of Georgian positing three prosodic units above the word, marked by a boundary tone. Additionally, it is claimed that previously described High tones on the antepenultimate syllable are a property of an Accentual Phrase, and not linked to a stressed syllable of the word.

No abstract

This study investigates the acoustic properties of ejective, voiced and voiceless aspirated stops in Georgian, a Caucasian language, and seeks to answer two questions: (i) Which acoustic features discriminate the three stop types? and (ii) Do Georgian stops undergo initial strengthening, and if so, is it syntagmatic or paradigmatic strengthening? Five female speakers were recorded reading words embedded in carrier phrases and stories. Acoustic measures include closure duration, voicing during the closure, voicing lag, relative burst intensity, spectral moment of bursts, phonation (H1-H2) and F0. Of these, voicing lag, voicing during the closure, mean burst frequency, H1-H2 and F0 could all be used to discriminate stop type, but stop types did not differ in closure duration or relative burst intensity. Georgian stops did show initial strengthening and showed only syntagmatic enhancement, not paradigmatic enhancement. Stops showed longer closure durations, longer voicing lags, and higher H1-H2 values in higher prosodic positions.

Previous research on infant language discrimination has focused primarily on the role of prosody, specifically rhythmic timing cues. This, however, ignores the potentially useful role that intonation, another aspect of prosody, might play in aiding discrimination. In this article, we investigated how and when American English‐learning infants discriminate between prosodically similar languages, specifically American English and German, focusing on the role of intonation in infant language discrimination. We found that the ability to distinguish American English and German develops between 5 and 7 months. However, 7‐month‐olds failed to discriminate the two languages when the natural pitch variation was replaced by a monotone. Thus, intonation is necessary for infants’ discrimination of American English and German. Based on these results, we argue for a greater role of intonation in supporting language discrimination by infants.