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Chapter 8 - Intonation in Germanic

from Part I - Phonology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2020

By
Mary Grantham O’Brien
Edited by
Michael T. Putnam  and
B. Richard Page
Michael T. Putnam
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
B. Richard Page
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
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Summary

This contribution focuses on the basic features and the linguistic functions of intonation primarily in the standard varieties of Germanic languages including German, Dutch, English, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. It begins with an introduction to intonation generally including a discussion of phonetic and phonological analyses of intonations, the meanings of intonation contours, and the range of data sources used in analyses. It then introduces the commonalities across utterance types in the Germanic languages and then presents the specific features of intonation in each of the languages. Some discussion of dialectal variation is also included. Research into perception – including listener interpretation of intonation contours – is also included.

Keywords

intonationpitch contourprosodyintonation phrasepitch accentboundary tonedeclarativeinterrogativespecial contours
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics , pp. 167 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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