Grabe, E., Post, B., Nolan, F., & Farrar, K. (2000). Pitch accent realization in four varieties of British English. Journal of Phonetics, 28(2), 161–185.
Presentation: Sally
Summary: Belinda
In intonation languages, the realization of a pitch accent varies with effects such as compression and truncation. This study therefore aims to investigate the different pitch accent realizations in four varieties (Cambridge, Newcastle, Leeds, and Belfast) of British English. In the experiment, the informants were asked to read nonsense surnames in an intonational phrase and produce either a rising or a falling accent on the test words. The nonsense surnames were taken from Grabe (1998), with different lengths of the vowels (Sheafer, Sheaf, and Shift). Results showed that duration became shorter when the words were shorter. However, for the Newcastle English, the monosyllabic words did not differ significantly from each other. The authors tried to use the rate of F0 change as an indicator for compression or truncation. Results showed that in Cambridge and Newcastle English, the rate of F0 change increased as words became shorter, suggesting compression. For Leeds and Belfast English, however, the rate of F0 change either did not change significantly, hence suggesting truncation. F0 excursion on two-syllable words was significantly larger than that on one-syllable words. Hence the results showed that truncation and compression involve the time domain only. The authors concluded that English is neither a compression nor truncation language; the application of truncation and compression is more variety-specific than language-specific.
