Pitch range modulations in an edge-marking language

Abstract

Prosodic phrasing is a topic that has received considerable attention over the last decades. However, most research has dealt with well studied (mostly European) languages, and quantitative production studies of under-resourced languages are under-represented. To better inform the field of intonational phonology, more data from a more diverse set of languages is needed. This study investigates pitch range modulations in Drehu, an Oceanic language from New Caledonia. Recent experimental work suggests Drehu is edge-marking and the right-edge is prosodically salient. In this study, the phonological and phonetic realisation of prosodic boundary marking is investigated. To determine whether pitch range modulations contribute to phrasing, the intonational marking of noun phrases of different sizes is analysed. An experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which fundamental frequency (F0) modulations contribute to the signalling of right-boundaries and if these are associated with the marking of different prosodic levels. The results show evidence for pitch range adjustments between a phrase initial low tone and a phrase final high tone depending on the position in the noun phrase. These modulations show a blocking of downstep and suggest pitch range adjustments could be indicative of an intermediate phrase (ip) level.