An acoustic study of Tetsǫ́t’ıné stress: Iambic stress in a quantity-sensitive tone language (original) (raw)
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Languages are often categorized as having either predictable (fixed or quantity-sensitive) or non-predictable stress. Despite their name, fixed stress languages may have exceptions, so in fact, their stress does not always appear in the same position. Since predictability has been shown to affect certain speech phenomena, with additional or redundant acoustic cues being provided when the linguistic content is less predictable (e.g., Smooth Signal Redundancy Hypothesis), we investigate whether, and to what extent, the predictability of stress position affects the manifestation of stress in different languages. We examine the acoustic properties of stress in three languages classified as having fixed stress (Turkish, French, Armenian), with exceptions, and in one language with non-predictable-stress, Brazilian Portuguese. Specifically, we compare the manifestation of stress in the canonical stress (typically "fixed") position with its manifestation in the non-canonical (exceptional) position, where it would potentially be less predictable. We also compare these patterns with the manifestation of stress in Portuguese, in both the "default" penultimate and the less common final position. Our results show that stress is manifested quite similarly in canonical and non-canonical positions in the "fixed" stress languages and stress is most clearly produced when it is least predictable.
Investigating Different Linguistic Levels in the Case of Stress Pattern in
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In the framework of contrastive linguistics the purpose of this article is to demonstrate the points of divergence and convergence in the case of stress pattern in French and Persian. The term stress is used in phonetics to refer to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. The current research seeks to answer the following questions: what are the most typical kinds of stress in both languages? What are the most substantial components of this supra segmental feature in both languages? Research methodology is descriptive-analytical.
Acoustic correlates of secondary stress in Estonian
Speech Prosody 2018, 2018
The present study aims to add to the growing body of recent work addressing the acoustic correlates of secondary stress. Here the focus is on Estonian, a quantity language where the primary stress is fixed on the first syllable of the word and the placement of secondary stresses is determined by morphological constraints but typically coincides with oddnumbered syllables. Words consisting of five and six CV syllables were analysed with respect to various acoustic measures relating to duration, pitch, and spectral characteristics. The results show that in Estonian secondary stress does not acoustically differ from unstress, calling into question the usefulness of the concept. This finding supports earlier results for several other languages (e.g. Hungarian, Brazilian Portuguese) where phonological secondary stress has been postulated but is not realised phonetically. It also underlines the crucial role of the primary stressed foot in the prosodic system of Estonian.
Acoustic Correlates of Lexical Stress in Persian
This paper examines the effects of lexical stress on intensity and duration in Persian both in the presence of the intonational prominence contrast and in the abstraction from the compounding accent condition. A production study was conducted in which 10 speakers produced Persian lexical and reiterant disyllabic minimal stress pairs spoken with and without an accent in a fixed carrier sentence. Duration, overall intensity, and spectral levels in four contiguous frequency bands were measured. Results showed a significant difference in overall intensity and spectral tilt between accented and unaccented syllables. However, no significant differences were found for these measures between stressed and unstressed syllables in the absence of the accent contrast. In contrast, duration proved the most reliable correlate of stress, as Persian speakers produced stressed syllables consistently longer than their unstressed counterparts independent of the accompanying intonational prominence cont...