Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:09:00.928Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lexical tone and stress in Goizueta Basque

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2008

José Ignacio Hualde ,
Oihana Lujanbio  and
Francisco Torreira
José Ignacio Hualde
Affiliation:
Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese & Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at [email protected]
Oihana Lujanbio
Affiliation:
Linguistika eta Euskal Ikasketak Saila, Euskal Herriko [email protected]
Francisco Torreira
Affiliation:
Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, University of Illinois at [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research in the past few decades has shown that Northern Bizkaian Basque possesses a pitch-accent system of the Tokyo Japanese type, with a contrast between lexically accented and unaccented words. There is, however, a separate area of the Basque-speaking territory where we also find tonal accent phenomena: Western Navarre. In comparison with Northern Bizkaian, the Western Navarrese prosodic system has remained under-studied and ill-understood. In this paper, which focuses on the Western Navarrese Basque variety spoken in the town of Goizueta, we demonstrate that both stress and tone are lexically contrastive in this prosodic system. Words can be stressed on either the first or the second syllable of the stem and the stressed syllable is lexically specified as bearing one of two contours, in a way that is reminiscent of other European pitch-accent languages. We show that stress is consistently cued by both duration and relative intensity. Pitch contours are used for an independent contrast in accent type. The existence of contrastive tone in Western Navarrese Basque, in addition to contrastive stress, was not previously known. Basque may be one of the few languages where both Tokyo-type and Swedish-type lexical pitch-accent systems are concurrently attested and can still be phonetically and phonologically investigated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boersma, Paul & David Weenink. 2006. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (version 4.4.34). http://www.praat.org/ (24 May 2007).Google Scholar
Bruce, Gösta. 1977. Swedish word accents in sentence perspective. Lund: Gleerup.Google Scholar
Elordieta, Gorka. 1997. Accent, tone and intonation in Lekeitio Basque. In Fernando, Martínez-Gil & Morales-Front, Alfonso (eds.), Issues in the phonology and morphology of the major Iberian languages, 3–78. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Elordieta, Gorka & Hualde, José Ignacio. 2003. Tonal and durational correlates of accent in context of downstep in Lekeitio Basque. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33, 195–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaminde, Iñaki. 1998a. Euskaldunen azentuak. Bilbao: Labayru Ikastegia.Google Scholar
Gaminde, Iñaki. 1998b. Nafarroako azentu ereduen sailkapena. In Camino, Iñaki (ed.), Nafarroako hizkerak: Nafarroako Euskal Dialektologiako Jardunaldietako agiriak, 23–48. Pamplona-Iruñea: Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea.Google Scholar
Godjevac, Svetlana. 2000. An autosegmental/metrical analysis of Serbo-Croatian intonation. Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics 54, 79–142.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. 1991. Basque phonology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. 1997. Euskararen azentuerak. Donostia-San Sebastián & Bilbao: Supplements of Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo & Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. 1999. Basque accentuation. In van der Hulst, Harry (ed.), Word prosodic systems in the languages of Europe, 947–993. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio. 2007. Historical convergence and divergence in Basque accentuation. In Gussenhoven, Carlos & Riad, Tomas (eds.), Tones and tunes: Studies in word and sentence prosody, vol. 1, 291–322. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio, Elordieta, Gorka & Elordieta, Arantzazu. 1994. The Basque dialect of Lekeitio. Bilbao & Donostia-San Sebastián: Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea & Supplements of Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo.Google Scholar
Hualde, José Ignacio, Elordieta, Gorka, Gaminde, Iñaki & Smiljanić, Rajka. 2002. From pitch-accent to stress-accent in Basque. In Gussenhoven, Carlos & Warner, Natasha (eds.), Laboratory Phonology VII, 547–584. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ibarra, Orreaga. 1994. Ultzamako hizkera: Inguruko euskalkiekiko harremanak. Pamplona-Iruñea: Nafarroako Gobernua.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, William. 1972. Nominative-ergative synchretism in Basque. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca ‘Julio de Urquijo’ 6, 67–109.Google Scholar
Olano, Mikel. 2000. Gipuzkoa ondoko bi hizkera nafar: Areso eta Leitzako paradoxa. In Zuazo, (ed.), 123–147.Google Scholar
Ormaechea, Nicolás. 1918. Acento vasco. Revista Internacional de los Estudios Vascos 9, 1–15.Google Scholar
OrmaecheaNicolás [Ormaetxea, Nikolas] Nicolás [Ormaetxea, Nikolas]. 1958. Leitza'ko mintza-doiñua. Euskaltzaindian sartzerakoan Ormaetxea jaunak egindako itzaldia eta Mitxelena jaunaren erantzuna. Euskera (2nd period) 3, 29–36.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team. 2006. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org (24 May 2007).Google Scholar
Riad, Tomas. 1998. Towards a Scandinavian accent typology. In Kehrein, Wolfgang & Wiese, Richard (eds.), Phonology and morphology of the Germanic languages (Linguistische Arbeiten 386), 77–109. Tübingen: Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smiljanić, Rajka. 2002. Lexical, pragmatic and positional effects on prosody in two dialects of Croatian and Serbian: An acoustic study. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Smiljanić, Rajka & Hualde, José Ignacio. 2000. Lexical and pragmatic functions of tonal alignment in two Serbo-Croatian dialects. In Chicago Linguistic Society 36, 1, 469–482.Google Scholar
Zuazo, Koldo (ed.). 2000. Dialektologia gaiak. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Diputación Foral de Alava/Arabako Foru Aldundia.Google Scholar
Zubiri, Juan Joxe. 2000. Arano eta Goizuetako hizkera. In Zuazo, (ed.), 85–120.Google Scholar
Zubiri, Juan Joxe & Perurena, Patziku. 1998. Goizueta eta Aranoko hizkerak. Pamplona-Iruñea: Nafarroako Gobernua & Goizuetako eta Aranoko Udalak.Google Scholar