Pointed and plateau-shaped pitch accents in North Frisian

Abstract

Our study presents the initial results of an analysis of North Frisian intonation, based on a spontaneous interview corpus of Fering, the dialect of the island of Föhr off the west coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The corpus was recorded more than 50 years ago during fieldwork for language documentation and conservation purposes. We selected a small part of this corpusinterviews of 10 elderly speakers -and conducted multiparametric F 0 and duration measurements, focusing on nuclear rising-falling pitch accent patterns. We found strong evidence for a phonological pitch-accent distinction that relies on the difference between a pointed and a plateau-shaped F 0 peak. We suggest that the two pitch accents be represented as L+H* and H*+L, and we discuss our findings with regard to possible communicative functions, implications for intonational typology, and the trade-off between F 0 range and F 0 peak extension in conveying pitch height.

Question Word Intonation in Tashlhiyt Berber: Is ‘high’ good enough?

“…In order to quantify this high region, we used a heuristic measure inspired by earlier work on pitch contour plateaux (plateaux being defined as extended regions characterized by minimal pitch displacement). In specific cases, plateaux have been taken to be a phonological accent category in contrast to a clear single F0 peak (Niebuhr and Hoekstra, 2015;Knight, 2008;Knight and Nolan, 2006). For example, to quantify high plateau accents in British English, Knight (2008) and Knight and Nolan (2006) use the start and end of a region delimited by 4% of F0 values in Hertz below the absolute maximum.…”

“…For example, to quantify high plateau accents in British English, Knight (2008) and Knight and Nolan (2006) use the start and end of a region delimited by 4% of F0 values in Hertz below the absolute maximum. A slightly different measure is adopted by Niebuhr and Hoekstra (2015), who use a 1 semitone difference criterion around the peak in their discussion of North Frisian plateaux. 9 As Knight and Nolan (2006) suggest that there is little difference between plateaux delimited by 4% and 6% Hertz values around the maximum, we chose 6% difference values in F0 below the peak as plateau onset and offset in the present study, noting that in most of our speakers' ranges, 6% in Hertz values is very similar to the 1 semitone criterion used by Niebuhr and Hoekstra (2015).…”

“…A slightly different measure is adopted by Niebuhr and Hoekstra (2015), who use a 1 semitone difference criterion around the peak in their discussion of North Frisian plateaux. 9 As Knight and Nolan (2006) suggest that there is little difference between plateaux delimited by 4% and 6% Hertz values around the maximum, we chose 6% difference values in F0 below the peak as plateau onset and offset in the present study, noting that in most of our speakers' ranges, 6% in Hertz values is very similar to the 1 semitone criterion used by Niebuhr and Hoekstra (2015). Figure 4 schematically depicts the adopted plateau measurements (start and end point).…”

The ToBI Transcription System: Conventions, Strengths, and Challenges

“…Laura C. Dilley and Mara Breen et al 2012;D'Imperio 2000;Niebuhr 2007b), (iii) evidence against a nonmonotonic interpolation function account of F0 turning points on metrically nonprominent syllables Dilley and Heffner 2013;Ladd and Schepman 2003), (iv) the lack of invariant timing in bitonal pitch accents (Dilley, Ladd, and Schepman 2005), (v) characterization of pointed versus plateau-shaped pitch accents (Niebuhr and Hoekstra 2015), and several others. Fi nally, we pre sent the rhythm and pitch (RaP) prosodic transcription system as an AM + -based empirical tool that can be extended toward the goal of developing an international prosodic alphabet (IPrA; Hualde and Prieto 2016).…”

9. Rethinking reduction and canonical forms

“…(In the light of the effort code of Gussenhoven 2002, this would probably be the case.) Niebuhr and Hoekstra (2015) showed in a production study that Northern Frisian speakers produce intonation plateaux rather than higher intonation peaks under expressive conditions (including contrastive focus). Is this also a case of intonational reduction?…”