Abstract
The distribution of preboundary lengthening within the phrasefinal word is controversial. In CV syllables immediately preceding a prosodic boundary, the acoustic duration of the syllable onset C is less involved than that of the following rime V in the lengthening phenomenon. Moreover, preboundary lengthening might be extended to the stressed/accented rime within the phrase final word. On the other hand, articulatory the constriction gesture for the onset consonant can be lengthened despite not being immediately adjacent to a boundary. In this preliminary study, we explore the effects of prosodic boundary and prominence in Italian, at both acoustic and articulatory level. Bilabial consonants in CV onset position were examined. The consonants were inserted in unstressed (word final) and stressed (penultimate vs. antepenultimate) syllables occurring close to prosodic boundaries of different levels. In final syllables, the acoustic duration of the onset consonant was not affected by the prosodic boundary manipulation whereas the closing gesture duration showed a pattern of lengthening which was stronger for higher level prosodic boundaries. In non-final syllables, no acoustic/articulatory effect was found for onset consonants but only on the stressed vowels in penultimate position. Structural, phonological and phonetic constraints might be at work in determining preboundary lengthening.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 192-196 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Proceedings of the International Conference on Speech Prosody |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 7th International Conference on Speech Prosody, SP 2014 - Dublin, Ireland Duration: May 20 2014 → May 23 2014 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
Keywords
- Articulatory movements
- Italian
- Onset duration
- Pigesture
- Preboundary lengthening
- Prosodic hierarchy