Catalina Torres | University of Zurich, Switzerland (original) (raw)
Papers by Catalina Torres
Acoustic, phonetic, and phonological features of Drehu vowels, 2024
This study presents an acoustic investigation of the vowel inventory of Drehu (Southern Oceanic L... more This study presents an acoustic investigation of the vowel inventory of Drehu (Southern Oceanic Linkage), spoken in New Caledonia. Reportedly, Drehu has a 14 vowel system distinguishing seven vowel qualities and an additional length distinction. Previous phonological descriptions were based on impressionistic accounts showing divergent proposals for two out of seven reported vowel qualities. This study presents the first phonetic investigation of Drehu vowels based on acoustic data from eight speakers. To examine the phonetic correlates of the proposed phonological vowel inventory, multi-point acoustic analyses were used, and vowel inherent spectral change (VISC) was investi- gated (F1, F2, and F3). Additionally, vowel duration was measured. Contrary to reports from other studies on VISC in monophthongs, we find that monophthongs in Drehu are mostly steady state. We propose a revised vowel inventory and focus on the acoustic description of open-mid /ɛ/ and the central vowel /ə/, whose status was previously unclear. Additionally, we find that vowel quality stands orthogonal to vowel quantity by demonstrating that the phonological vowel length distinction is primarily based on a duration cue rather than formant structure. Finally, we report the acoustic properties of the seven vowel qualities that were identified.
Central Pame (cent2145), also known by its endonym Xi'iui, is a threatened Otomanguean language s... more Central Pame (cent2145), also known by its endonym Xi'iui, is a threatened Otomanguean language spoken in central Mexico. An earlier impressionistic account described Central Pame as having an asymmetric 5-vowel system with one more front than back vowels. This study examines a set of monophthongal, oral vowels in the language. We explore the acoustic phonetic characteristics in different speakers who are bilingual (with Spanish). Results confirm that five vowel qualities can be determined acoustically. Results show three front /i, e, ɛ/, one central vowel /ɐ/ and one back vowel /o/. We find that the realisations of the front vowel /e/ differ between speakers, with young female speakers showing a more fronted vowel. The evidence suggests a vowel chain shift is taking place in front vowels.
This study investigates a potential ongoing sound change in the language Drehu [ > dZehu], spoken... more This study investigates a potential ongoing sound change in the language Drehu [ > dZehu], spoken by a small community in the South Pacific. We focus on the voiceless and voiced stop series in the language. Data from teenage female and male speakers was analysed in relation to voice onset time (VOT), percent voicing, and self reported language proficiency and attitudes. We find that the velar stops show substantial aspiration and de-voicing, led by female speakers. The voiceless velar stop shows the greatest VOT duration whereas voiced velars display the greatest devoicing. Interestingly, female and male speakers' increased use of VOT and devoicing are differently correlated to their language attitudes. This shows that in this small and rural community, the same features may have different socio-linguistic associations.
This study presents an acoustic investigation of word level prosody in the Oceanic language Vera'... more This study presents an acoustic investigation of word level prosody in the Oceanic language Vera'a. The analysis is based on a corpus of speech data collected during fieldwork from multiple speakers. A previous description of Vera'a suggests the language has lexical stress but its acoustic realisation was not further investigated. This study provides the first instrumental examination of five acoustic measures and their relation to prominence marking. The evidence indicates that vowels in the last syllable of the root are more prominent. However, these observations are restricted to some acoustic parameters.
This study investigates prosodic correlates of phrasing in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Ca... more This study investigates prosodic correlates of phrasing in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. The analysis is concerned with the demarcation of prosodic levels in the language, namely the Accentual Phrase and the Intonation Phrase. First impressionistic descriptions of Drehu state there is fixed word initial stress, however recent experimental evidence does not support this claim. Instead, it has been suggested that Drehu could be an edge-marking language which relies on right boundary marking. To determine whether the patterns recorded in the literature are borne out, the phonological and phonetic realisation of post-lexical word level prosody is investigated. An experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which fundamental frequency (F0) and duration contribute to boundary marking in Drehu. The results show that F0 cues mark the right boundary of two prosodic levels, the AP and IP, and that the strength of the boundary is related to its level in the prosodic hierarchy. Preboundary lengthening also cues IP boundaries but not AP boundaries.
Prosodic phrasing is a topic that has received considerable attention over the last decades. Howe... more Prosodic phrasing is a topic that has received considerable attention over the last decades. However, most research has dealt with well studied (mostly European) languages, and quantitative production studies of under-resourced languages are underrepresented. To better inform the field of intonational phonology, more data from a more diverse set of languages is needed. This study investigates pitch range modulations in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. Recent experimental work suggests Drehu is edge-marking and the right-edge is prosodically salient. In this study, the phonological and phonetic realisation of prosodic boundary marking is investigated. To determine whether pitch range modulations contribute to phrasing, the intonational marking of noun phrases of different sizes is analysed. An experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which fundamental frequency (F0) modulations contribute to the signalling of right-boundaries and if these are associated with the marking of different prosodic levels. The results show evidence for pitch range adjustments between a phrase initial low tone and a phrase final high tone depending on the position in the noun phrase. These modulations show a blocking of downstep and suggest pitch range adjustments could be indicative of an intermediate phrase (ip) level.
This study presents two experiments aimed at investigating tune-to-text alignment and pitch scali... more This study presents two experiments aimed at investigating tune-to-text alignment and pitch scaling in Lifou French, a variety spoken by bilingual speakers of French and Drehu. Descriptions of New Caledonian French have focussed on language use of European descendants or the variety spoken in the urban region, neglecting emergent varieties spoken by the indigenous population in rural areas, like the island Lifou. Due to the reduced inventory of pitch accents, dialectal variation in French intonation has proved to be difficult to detect, which has led to the assumption that French has a relatively homogeneous intonation system across its varieties. This study shows that fine-grained phonetic differences in speaking tempo and at the level of tonal alignment as well as in the scaling of AP-final peaks can be attributed to dialectal variation.
Clause chains are a syntactic strategy for combining multiple clauses into a single unit. They ar... more Clause chains are a syntactic strategy for combining multiple clauses into a single unit. They are reported in many languages, including Korean and Turkish. However, they have seen relatively little focused research. In particular, prosodic features are often mentioned in descriptions of clause chaining, however there have been vanishingly few investigations. Corpus-based studies of the prosody of clause chains in two unrelated languages of Papua New Guinea report that they are typically produced as a sequence of Intonation phrases united by pitchscaling of the L% boundary tones in each clause with only the final, finite, clause descending to a full L%. The present study is the first experimental investigation of the prosody of clause chains in Pitjantjatjara. This paper focuses on one type of clause chain found in the Australian Indigenous language Pitjantjatjara. We examine a set of 120 clause chains read out by three native Pitjantjatjara speakers. Prosodic analysis reveals that these Pitjantjatjara clause chains are produced within a single Intonational Phrase. Speakers do not pause between the clauses in the chain, there is consistent linear downstep throughout the phrase and additionally phrase final lowering occurs at the end of the utterance. This differs from previous impressionistic studies of the prosody of clause chains.
This study investigates fundamental frequency alignment to segmental landmarks in Drehu, an Ocean... more This study investigates fundamental frequency alignment to segmental landmarks in Drehu, an Oceanic language. We present a production experiment that aimed to evaluate the marking of prosodic prominence, and in particular, the tonal marking of prominence, within the autosemental-metrical phonology, since stress and prominence system of the language has not been phonetically investigated. A rate manipulation paradigm was chosen to test the segmental anchoring hypothesis, namely to see whether prominence lending tonal movements exhibit a constant slope due to rate manipulation and whether tonal targets can be associated to segmental anchoring points in the speech stream. We find, that a rising tonal movement, between a word initial low (L), and a word final high (H) tone, is the most frequent tonal pattern. The word initial L tone seeks to align with the left edge whereas the H tone, at the right edge, seeks to anchor to the last full syllable. In fast speech, tonal targets are produced closer together but the slope remains constant in both speech rates. High tones seek to anchor to the word-final syllable, yet not to any specific segment which suggests a weak version of the segmental anchoring hypothesis applies.
This study investigates intonational properties related to the marking of boundaries of different... more This study investigates intonational properties related to the marking of boundaries of different kinds of constituents of a French variety spoken in the South Pacific. Lifou French represents an under-studied regional variety from New Caledonia and is spoken by bilingual speakers of French and Drehu, an Oceanic language. Within autosegmental metrical phonology the status of the intermediate phrase (ip) in French has been subject to debate. This study focuses on right boundary marking to examine whether phonetic cues can be related to the realisation of different types of prosodic breaks, namely the Accentual Phrase (AP) and the ip. Pitch scaling patterns within and across APs support the existence of the ip based on data from this largely undocumented variety. Interestingly, the phonetic realisation of right boundary marking shows differences from the Standard variety of French.
This study investigates the realization of informational focus in Drehu, an Oceanic language from... more This study investigates the realization of informational focus in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. Stress in Drehu has informally been described as being demarcative and always falling on the first syllable of words. Our analysis of post-lexical accentuation shows a tendency for salient cues to be realized on a phrasal level. Results show a preference for marking the right edge with longer acoustic duration of final syllables and more extreme pitch movements. This evidence stands in contrast with the stress pattern reported in the literature and suggests a more detailed investigation of stress realization in Drehu is needed.
This paper investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) in Lifou French by bilingual... more This paper investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) in Lifou French by bilingual speakers of Drehu and French. In French prominence is marked within a phrasal domain and the AP represents the lowest tonally marked prosodic constituent. Although still controversial, increasingly, there have been contributions arguing for a further prosodic level, the intermediate phrase (ip) between the AP and the Intonation Phrase (IP). In this study, it is shown that Lifou French uses the same tonal patterns as found for Standard French. Additionally , further evidence for the existence of another prosodic level after the AP is found. However, while in Standard French an increased F0 rise and final vowel lengthening have been shown to mark the ip-boundary, an expanded pitch span represents the more salient cue to mark this in Lifou French.
Conference Presentations by Catalina Torres
Conference: ICPhS 2019 Satellite Workshop Intonational Phonology of Typologically Rare or Underst... more Conference: ICPhS 2019 Satellite Workshop Intonational Phonology of Typologically Rare or Understudied Languages
This study investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) and the intermediate phrase ... more This study investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) and the intermediate phrase (ip) in Lifou French (LF) by bilingual speakers of Drehu and French. In French prominence is marked within a phrasal domain and the AP represents the lowest tonally marked prosodic constituent. Although still controversial, increasingly, more contributions argue for a further prosodic level, the intermediate phrase (ip) between the AP and the Intonation Phrase (IP). It is shown that LF uses the same tonal patterns as Standard French (SF). Further evidence for the existence of another prosodic level (ip) after the AP is also found. However, the phonetic realization of the boundary tone differs in both varieties and an expanded pitch span represents the more salient cue to mark this in LF.
Acoustic, phonetic, and phonological features of Drehu vowels, 2024
This study presents an acoustic investigation of the vowel inventory of Drehu (Southern Oceanic L... more This study presents an acoustic investigation of the vowel inventory of Drehu (Southern Oceanic Linkage), spoken in New Caledonia. Reportedly, Drehu has a 14 vowel system distinguishing seven vowel qualities and an additional length distinction. Previous phonological descriptions were based on impressionistic accounts showing divergent proposals for two out of seven reported vowel qualities. This study presents the first phonetic investigation of Drehu vowels based on acoustic data from eight speakers. To examine the phonetic correlates of the proposed phonological vowel inventory, multi-point acoustic analyses were used, and vowel inherent spectral change (VISC) was investi- gated (F1, F2, and F3). Additionally, vowel duration was measured. Contrary to reports from other studies on VISC in monophthongs, we find that monophthongs in Drehu are mostly steady state. We propose a revised vowel inventory and focus on the acoustic description of open-mid /ɛ/ and the central vowel /ə/, whose status was previously unclear. Additionally, we find that vowel quality stands orthogonal to vowel quantity by demonstrating that the phonological vowel length distinction is primarily based on a duration cue rather than formant structure. Finally, we report the acoustic properties of the seven vowel qualities that were identified.
Central Pame (cent2145), also known by its endonym Xi'iui, is a threatened Otomanguean language s... more Central Pame (cent2145), also known by its endonym Xi'iui, is a threatened Otomanguean language spoken in central Mexico. An earlier impressionistic account described Central Pame as having an asymmetric 5-vowel system with one more front than back vowels. This study examines a set of monophthongal, oral vowels in the language. We explore the acoustic phonetic characteristics in different speakers who are bilingual (with Spanish). Results confirm that five vowel qualities can be determined acoustically. Results show three front /i, e, ɛ/, one central vowel /ɐ/ and one back vowel /o/. We find that the realisations of the front vowel /e/ differ between speakers, with young female speakers showing a more fronted vowel. The evidence suggests a vowel chain shift is taking place in front vowels.
This study investigates a potential ongoing sound change in the language Drehu [ > dZehu], spoken... more This study investigates a potential ongoing sound change in the language Drehu [ > dZehu], spoken by a small community in the South Pacific. We focus on the voiceless and voiced stop series in the language. Data from teenage female and male speakers was analysed in relation to voice onset time (VOT), percent voicing, and self reported language proficiency and attitudes. We find that the velar stops show substantial aspiration and de-voicing, led by female speakers. The voiceless velar stop shows the greatest VOT duration whereas voiced velars display the greatest devoicing. Interestingly, female and male speakers' increased use of VOT and devoicing are differently correlated to their language attitudes. This shows that in this small and rural community, the same features may have different socio-linguistic associations.
This study presents an acoustic investigation of word level prosody in the Oceanic language Vera'... more This study presents an acoustic investigation of word level prosody in the Oceanic language Vera'a. The analysis is based on a corpus of speech data collected during fieldwork from multiple speakers. A previous description of Vera'a suggests the language has lexical stress but its acoustic realisation was not further investigated. This study provides the first instrumental examination of five acoustic measures and their relation to prominence marking. The evidence indicates that vowels in the last syllable of the root are more prominent. However, these observations are restricted to some acoustic parameters.
This study investigates prosodic correlates of phrasing in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Ca... more This study investigates prosodic correlates of phrasing in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. The analysis is concerned with the demarcation of prosodic levels in the language, namely the Accentual Phrase and the Intonation Phrase. First impressionistic descriptions of Drehu state there is fixed word initial stress, however recent experimental evidence does not support this claim. Instead, it has been suggested that Drehu could be an edge-marking language which relies on right boundary marking. To determine whether the patterns recorded in the literature are borne out, the phonological and phonetic realisation of post-lexical word level prosody is investigated. An experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which fundamental frequency (F0) and duration contribute to boundary marking in Drehu. The results show that F0 cues mark the right boundary of two prosodic levels, the AP and IP, and that the strength of the boundary is related to its level in the prosodic hierarchy. Preboundary lengthening also cues IP boundaries but not AP boundaries.
Prosodic phrasing is a topic that has received considerable attention over the last decades. Howe... more Prosodic phrasing is a topic that has received considerable attention over the last decades. However, most research has dealt with well studied (mostly European) languages, and quantitative production studies of under-resourced languages are underrepresented. To better inform the field of intonational phonology, more data from a more diverse set of languages is needed. This study investigates pitch range modulations in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. Recent experimental work suggests Drehu is edge-marking and the right-edge is prosodically salient. In this study, the phonological and phonetic realisation of prosodic boundary marking is investigated. To determine whether pitch range modulations contribute to phrasing, the intonational marking of noun phrases of different sizes is analysed. An experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which fundamental frequency (F0) modulations contribute to the signalling of right-boundaries and if these are associated with the marking of different prosodic levels. The results show evidence for pitch range adjustments between a phrase initial low tone and a phrase final high tone depending on the position in the noun phrase. These modulations show a blocking of downstep and suggest pitch range adjustments could be indicative of an intermediate phrase (ip) level.
This study presents two experiments aimed at investigating tune-to-text alignment and pitch scali... more This study presents two experiments aimed at investigating tune-to-text alignment and pitch scaling in Lifou French, a variety spoken by bilingual speakers of French and Drehu. Descriptions of New Caledonian French have focussed on language use of European descendants or the variety spoken in the urban region, neglecting emergent varieties spoken by the indigenous population in rural areas, like the island Lifou. Due to the reduced inventory of pitch accents, dialectal variation in French intonation has proved to be difficult to detect, which has led to the assumption that French has a relatively homogeneous intonation system across its varieties. This study shows that fine-grained phonetic differences in speaking tempo and at the level of tonal alignment as well as in the scaling of AP-final peaks can be attributed to dialectal variation.
Clause chains are a syntactic strategy for combining multiple clauses into a single unit. They ar... more Clause chains are a syntactic strategy for combining multiple clauses into a single unit. They are reported in many languages, including Korean and Turkish. However, they have seen relatively little focused research. In particular, prosodic features are often mentioned in descriptions of clause chaining, however there have been vanishingly few investigations. Corpus-based studies of the prosody of clause chains in two unrelated languages of Papua New Guinea report that they are typically produced as a sequence of Intonation phrases united by pitchscaling of the L% boundary tones in each clause with only the final, finite, clause descending to a full L%. The present study is the first experimental investigation of the prosody of clause chains in Pitjantjatjara. This paper focuses on one type of clause chain found in the Australian Indigenous language Pitjantjatjara. We examine a set of 120 clause chains read out by three native Pitjantjatjara speakers. Prosodic analysis reveals that these Pitjantjatjara clause chains are produced within a single Intonational Phrase. Speakers do not pause between the clauses in the chain, there is consistent linear downstep throughout the phrase and additionally phrase final lowering occurs at the end of the utterance. This differs from previous impressionistic studies of the prosody of clause chains.
This study investigates fundamental frequency alignment to segmental landmarks in Drehu, an Ocean... more This study investigates fundamental frequency alignment to segmental landmarks in Drehu, an Oceanic language. We present a production experiment that aimed to evaluate the marking of prosodic prominence, and in particular, the tonal marking of prominence, within the autosemental-metrical phonology, since stress and prominence system of the language has not been phonetically investigated. A rate manipulation paradigm was chosen to test the segmental anchoring hypothesis, namely to see whether prominence lending tonal movements exhibit a constant slope due to rate manipulation and whether tonal targets can be associated to segmental anchoring points in the speech stream. We find, that a rising tonal movement, between a word initial low (L), and a word final high (H) tone, is the most frequent tonal pattern. The word initial L tone seeks to align with the left edge whereas the H tone, at the right edge, seeks to anchor to the last full syllable. In fast speech, tonal targets are produced closer together but the slope remains constant in both speech rates. High tones seek to anchor to the word-final syllable, yet not to any specific segment which suggests a weak version of the segmental anchoring hypothesis applies.
This study investigates intonational properties related to the marking of boundaries of different... more This study investigates intonational properties related to the marking of boundaries of different kinds of constituents of a French variety spoken in the South Pacific. Lifou French represents an under-studied regional variety from New Caledonia and is spoken by bilingual speakers of French and Drehu, an Oceanic language. Within autosegmental metrical phonology the status of the intermediate phrase (ip) in French has been subject to debate. This study focuses on right boundary marking to examine whether phonetic cues can be related to the realisation of different types of prosodic breaks, namely the Accentual Phrase (AP) and the ip. Pitch scaling patterns within and across APs support the existence of the ip based on data from this largely undocumented variety. Interestingly, the phonetic realisation of right boundary marking shows differences from the Standard variety of French.
This study investigates the realization of informational focus in Drehu, an Oceanic language from... more This study investigates the realization of informational focus in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. Stress in Drehu has informally been described as being demarcative and always falling on the first syllable of words. Our analysis of post-lexical accentuation shows a tendency for salient cues to be realized on a phrasal level. Results show a preference for marking the right edge with longer acoustic duration of final syllables and more extreme pitch movements. This evidence stands in contrast with the stress pattern reported in the literature and suggests a more detailed investigation of stress realization in Drehu is needed.
This paper investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) in Lifou French by bilingual... more This paper investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) in Lifou French by bilingual speakers of Drehu and French. In French prominence is marked within a phrasal domain and the AP represents the lowest tonally marked prosodic constituent. Although still controversial, increasingly, there have been contributions arguing for a further prosodic level, the intermediate phrase (ip) between the AP and the Intonation Phrase (IP). In this study, it is shown that Lifou French uses the same tonal patterns as found for Standard French. Additionally , further evidence for the existence of another prosodic level after the AP is found. However, while in Standard French an increased F0 rise and final vowel lengthening have been shown to mark the ip-boundary, an expanded pitch span represents the more salient cue to mark this in Lifou French.
Conference: ICPhS 2019 Satellite Workshop Intonational Phonology of Typologically Rare or Underst... more Conference: ICPhS 2019 Satellite Workshop Intonational Phonology of Typologically Rare or Understudied Languages
This study investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) and the intermediate phrase ... more This study investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) and the intermediate phrase (ip) in Lifou French (LF) by bilingual speakers of Drehu and French. In French prominence is marked within a phrasal domain and the AP represents the lowest tonally marked prosodic constituent. Although still controversial, increasingly, more contributions argue for a further prosodic level, the intermediate phrase (ip) between the AP and the Intonation Phrase (IP). It is shown that LF uses the same tonal patterns as Standard French (SF). Further evidence for the existence of another prosodic level (ip) after the AP is also found. However, the phonetic realization of the boundary tone differs in both varieties and an expanded pitch span represents the more salient cue to mark this in LF.