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St’át'imcets intonation contours: a preliminary study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2016

Marion Caldecott
Marion Caldecott*
Affiliation:
University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Acoustic research on the prosody and intonation of Northwest Coast languages has until recently been under-researched. This paper joins the growing body of research on the subject and reports on the results of the first study of intonation in St’át'imcets (Lillooet Salish; Northern Interior Salish). It tests the generalization proposed by Davis (2007) that information structure is not correlated with prosody in Salish languages by comparing the intonation contours of declaratives and yes/no questions. Specifically, I ask two questions: is nuclear accent rightmost? And are yes/no questions associated with higher pitch, as predicted by the Universality of Intonational Meaning? Results are comparable to those reported for other Salish languages, namely Koch (2008, 2011) on Nɬeʔkepmxcín, Jacobs (2007) on Skwxwú7mesh and Benner (2004, 2006) and Leonard (2011) on SENĆOŦEN. Nuclear accent is associated with the rightmost stressed vowel, regardless of focus, and while no speaker signals yes/no questions with a final rise, each has higher pitch within typologically common parameters.

Résumé

Les recherches acoustiques portant sur la prosodie et l'intonation des langues de la côte nord-ouest ont, jusqu’à très récemment, été peu nombreuses. Cet article complémente ces recherches et présente la première étude de l'intonation du St’át'imcets (le salish Lillooet; le salish de l'Intérieur du nord). L'article a pour but de tester la généralisation de Davis (2007) selon laquelle il n'y a pas de corrélation entre la structure de l'information et la prosodie dans les langues salish, en comparant l'intonation des phrases déclaratives et des phrases interrogatives totales. Deux questions de recherche nous préoccupent : Est-ce que l'accent tonique est à droite? et Est-ce que les phrases interrogatives totales sont caractérisées par un ton plus aigu, tel que prédit par l'Universalité du sens intonationnel? Nos résultats sont similaires à ceux obtenus dans des études portant sur d'autres langues salishiennes, en particulier Koch (2008, 2011) pour le Nɬeʔkepmxcín, Jacobs (2007) pour le Skwxwú7mesh et Benner (2004, 2006) et Leonard (2011) pour le SENĆOŦEN. L'accent tonique est associé à la dernière voyelle accentuée, peu importe le focus, et alors qu'aucun locuteur n'emploie un ton final aigu dans une phrase interrogative totale, chacun a un ton plus aigu dans le cadre de paramètres typologiques communs.

Keywords

St’át'imcetsLillooetNorthern Interior SalishprosodyintonationSt’át'imcetsLillooetsalish de l'Intérieur du nordprosodieintonation
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , July 2016 , pp. 119 - 155
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2016 

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Footnotes

*

I am so grateful to my wonderful language consultants Aggie Patrick, Carl Alexander and Laura Thevarge. Special thanks to Henry Davis, Karsten Koch, and Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins for their generous expertise and feedback. Thanks also to Doug Pulleyblank, the anonymous reviewers, and the audience at ICSNL 50 for feedback on previous drafts of this paper. Any errors are my own.

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