Peak alignment of pre-Peak alignment of pre-nuclear and nuclear accents nuclear and nuclear accents in Argentine Spanishin Argentine Spanish

Laura ColantoniLaura ColantoniUniversity of TorontoUniversity of Toronto

OutlineOutline

Argentine Spanish intonationArgentine Spanish intonation– Controlled speechControlled speech

Buenos Aires Spanish: database for Buenos Aires Spanish: database for speech synthesisspeech synthesis

Catamarca, Mendoza, Misiones, Salta Catamarca, Mendoza, Misiones, Salta and Tucuman Spanish: database for and Tucuman Spanish: database for speech recognitionspeech recognition

– Semi-spontaneous speechSemi-spontaneous speech Corrientes and San Juan Spanish: Corrientes and San Juan Spanish:

Linguistic atlas of ArgentinaLinguistic atlas of Argentina

Buenos Aires SpanishBuenos Aires Spanish

Broad focus declaratives Broad focus declaratives (Colantoni & Grulekian 2004; cf. (Colantoni & Grulekian 2004; cf. also Sosa 1999, Toledo 2000)also Sosa 1999, Toledo 2000)– Pre-nuclear accentsPre-nuclear accents

Peak aligned within the stressed syllablePeak aligned within the stressed syllable Valley aligned within the post-tonic Valley aligned within the post-tonic

syllable syllable

– Nuclear accentsNuclear accents L* (?); valley aligned within the stressed L* (?); valley aligned within the stressed

syllablesyllable

Pre-nuclear accentsPre-nuclear accents

Peak aligned within the stressed syllable Valley aligned within the stressed syllable

H*+L L+H* H*+H L*+L L*+H H+L*

Position in

the

utterance N % N % N % N % N % N %

Total

First 419 91.68 9 1.97 14 3.06 11 2.41 0 0 4 0.88 457

Second 143 91.67 2 1.28 2 1.28 4 2.56 2 1.28 3 1.92 156

Third 26 74.29 1 2.86 5 14.29 1 2.86 2 5.71 0 0 35

Total 588 90.74 12 1.85 21 3.24 16 2.47 4 0.62 7 1.08 648

Table 1: Alignment patterns for pre-nuclear accents according to their relative position in the utterance

Pre-nuclear accents Pre-nuclear accents

Figure 1: Early peak alignment in aplaZO ‘she/he postponed’, extracted from the sentence La justicia aplazó el referendum en el ayuntamiento ‘The court postponed the referendum in the city hall’

Nuclear accentsNuclear accents

H*+L L*+L Other Number of

pitch accents

preceding

N % N % N %

Total

1 56 42.75 55 41.98 8 6.11 131

2 155 32.70 303 63.92 2 0.42 474

3 129 36.65 203 57.67 2 0.57 352

4 22 22.68 72 74.23 0 0.00 97

5 9 29.03 20 64.52 2 6.45 31

Total 371 34.19 653 60.18 14 1.29 1085

Table 2: Alignment patterns in nuclear accents in utterance final intonational contours

Nuclear accentsNuclear accents

Figure 2: Final intonation contour extracted from the sentence Cuando sopla viento norte, cambian su comportamiento “When there is a northern wind, (people) change their behavior”

ProblemsProblems

Pre-nuclear accentsPre-nuclear accents– Early peak alignment: Not frequent but Early peak alignment: Not frequent but

found in other varieties (e.g. Peruvian found in other varieties (e.g. Peruvian Spanish; cf. O’Rourke 2004)Spanish; cf. O’Rourke 2004)

H* vs. L+H*H* vs. L+H* Nuclear accentsNuclear accents

– L* described for other varietiesL* described for other varieties– Probable difference in the magnitude of Probable difference in the magnitude of

downstepdownstep Phonetic or phonological difference?Phonetic or phonological difference?

NB: only BA Spanish; reading styleNB: only BA Spanish; reading style

Other Argentine Other Argentine Spanish varietiesSpanish varieties On-going project (Colantoni, Enbe, and Pérez On-going project (Colantoni, Enbe, and Pérez

Ibáñez)Ibáñez) Data sourceData source

– Database for recognitionDatabase for recognition– 1000 speakers 1000 speakers – Task: sentence-readingTask: sentence-reading

Varieties selectedVarieties selected– CatamarcaCatamarca– MendozaMendoza– MisionesMisiones– SaltaSalta– TucumanTucuman

Pre-nuclear accentsPre-nuclear accents

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Variety

Frequenc

H*

H*+H1

H*+L0

L0+H*

H*+L1

H*+L2

H*+L3

H0+L*

L*

Figure 3: Pre-nuclear accents (alignment patterns) in the five varieties under study

Pre-nuclear accentsPre-nuclear accents

General tendency: General tendency: – Peak aligned within stressed syllablePeak aligned within stressed syllable– Higher degree of variation (when Higher degree of variation (when

compared to BA Spanish) in varieties compared to BA Spanish) in varieties under studyunder study

Cross-dialectal variation:Cross-dialectal variation:– Increasing frequency of low tones Increasing frequency of low tones

aligned within the stressed syllable, aligned within the stressed syllable, especially in Catamarca, Mendoza and especially in Catamarca, Mendoza and TucumanTucuman

Nuclear accentsNuclear accents

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Variety

Frequenc

H*

H*+L0

H*+L1

L*

H0+L*

L0+L*

L*+L0

Figure 4: Nuclear accents (alignment patterns) in the five varieties under study

Nuclear accentsNuclear accents

Mendoza, Misiones, (Tucuman)Mendoza, Misiones, (Tucuman)– Tendency: peak aligned within the Tendency: peak aligned within the

stressed syllablestressed syllable Salta and CatamarcaSalta and Catamarca

– Tendency: low tone aligned within Tendency: low tone aligned within the stressed syllablethe stressed syllable

ProblemsProblems

Differences in the alignment of pre-Differences in the alignment of pre-nuclear accentsnuclear accents

Differences in the alignment of nuclear Differences in the alignment of nuclear accentsaccents– Cross-dialectal variationCross-dialectal variation– Phonetic vs. phonological differencesPhonetic vs. phonological differences

NB: NB: – Reading taskReading task– Instructions (?)Instructions (?)

Semi-spontaneous Semi-spontaneous speechspeech Data:Data:

– Linguistic atlas of ArgentinaLinguistic atlas of Argentina– Female speakers:Female speakers:

Corrientes (4)Corrientes (4) San Juan (2)San Juan (2)

– Narratives (only statements were Narratives (only statements were analyzed)analyzed)

Theoretical questionsTheoretical questions

Differences between formal and Differences between formal and spontaneous speechspontaneous speech

Cross-dialectal differences and Cross-dialectal differences and the AM modelthe AM model

Status of the differences observed Status of the differences observed (i.e. phonological vs. phonetic)(i.e. phonological vs. phonetic)

Alignment and phonological categoriesAlignment and phonological categories

Pre-nuclear accentsPre-nuclear accents

CorrientesCorrientes

Late peak alignmentLate peak alignment– Consistent with previous descriptions Consistent with previous descriptions

of other Spanish varietiesof other Spanish varieties– Similarities with Misiones Spanish Similarities with Misiones Spanish

(Colantoni et al.)(Colantoni et al.) Late peak alignment: second most Late peak alignment: second most

frequent patternfrequent pattern Early peak alignmentEarly peak alignment

– Emphasis and/or contrastive focusEmphasis and/or contrastive focus

Pre-nuclear accents: Pre-nuclear accents: late peak alignmentlate peak alignment

Figure 5: Late peak alignment in miRANdo, ‘looking’, Beron de Astrada (Corrientes)

Pre-nuclear accents: Pre-nuclear accents: early peak alignmentearly peak alignment

Figure 6: Early peak alignment in reIa, ‘to laugh (3ps), San Cosme (Corrientes)

San JuanSan Juan

Late peak alignmentLate peak alignment– Again, pattern observed in other Again, pattern observed in other

Spanish varietiesSpanish varieties– Similarities with Mendoza Spanish Similarities with Mendoza Spanish

(Colantoni et al.)(Colantoni et al.) Late peak alignment: most frequent Late peak alignment: most frequent

pattern for one of the speakers in the pattern for one of the speakers in the studystudy

Pre-nuclear accents: Pre-nuclear accents: late peak alignmentlate peak alignment

Figure 7: Late peak alignment in roBAba, ‘to steal’ (3ps, IMP), Villa Krause (San Juan)

Nuclear accentsNuclear accents

Corrientes and San Corrientes and San Juan SpanishJuan Spanish Corrientes, San Juan vs. Buenos Aires Corrientes, San Juan vs. Buenos Aires

SpanishSpanish– Higher frequency of peaks aligned within Higher frequency of peaks aligned within

the stressed syllablethe stressed syllable San Juan vs. CorrientesSan Juan vs. Corrientes

– Peaks aligned within the stressed syllable Peaks aligned within the stressed syllable more frequently in San Juan than in more frequently in San Juan than in Corrientes; Corrientes;

– Consistent with our previous analysis of Consistent with our previous analysis of Mendoza and Misiones SpanishMendoza and Misiones Spanish

Nuclear accents in San Nuclear accents in San Juan SpanishJuan Spanish

Figure 8: Early peak alignment in pioLIN, ‘thread’, Valle Fertil (San Juan)

Nuclear accents in Nuclear accents in Corrientes SpanishCorrientes Spanish

Figure 9: Early peak alignment in BAIlan, ‘to dance’ (3pp, present), B. de Astrada (Corrientes)

Concluding remarksConcluding remarks

Controlled vs. spontaneous speechControlled vs. spontaneous speech– Preliminary data seem to indicate that Preliminary data seem to indicate that

tendencies observed in controlled speech tendencies observed in controlled speech are also valid for semi-spontaneous are also valid for semi-spontaneous speechspeech

– Problems in the analysis of spontaneous Problems in the analysis of spontaneous speechspeech

Sample sizeSample size Control of contextual factorsControl of contextual factors TranscriptionTranscription

Concluding remarksConcluding remarks

Cross-dialectal studies of Cross-dialectal studies of intonationintonation– Capturing the differences with the Capturing the differences with the

AM modelAM model General tendenciesGeneral tendencies Is it enough?Is it enough?

– Refining the labeling methodRefining the labeling method– Adding duration and intensity analysesAdding duration and intensity analyses

ReferencesReferences

Colantoni, Laura & Gurlekian, Jorge. 2004. Colantoni, Laura & Gurlekian, Jorge. 2004. Convergence and intonation: historical evidence from Convergence and intonation: historical evidence from Buenos Aires Spanish. Buenos Aires Spanish. Bilingualism: language and Bilingualism: language and cognition, cognition, 7, 107-119. 7, 107-119.

O'Rourke, Erin. 2004. Peak alignment in Peru: Spanish O'Rourke, Erin. 2004. Peak alignment in Peru: Spanish in contact with Quechua. In: in contact with Quechua. In: Contemporary Contemporary approaches to Romance approaches to Romance lingusitics. Ed. by J. Auger, J. lingusitics. Ed. by J. Auger, J. Clancy Clements and B. Vance, Bloomington, Indiana. Clancy Clements and B. Vance, Bloomington, Indiana.

Sosa, Juan Manuel. 1999. Sosa, Juan Manuel. 1999. La entonación del español: La entonación del español: su estructura fónica, variabilidad y dialectologíasu estructura fónica, variabilidad y dialectología. . Madrid: Cátedra.Madrid: Cátedra.

Toledo, Guillermo. 2000. H en el español de Buenos Toledo, Guillermo. 2000. H en el español de Buenos Aires. Aires. Langues et Linguistique, Langues et Linguistique, 26, 107-27. 26, 107-27.