Phrase-initial pitch patterns in South Swedish
Susanne Schötz, Lund University, Dept. of Linguistics and Phonetics, Centre for Languages and Literature
Gösta Bruce, Lund University, Dept. of Linguistics and Phonetics, Centre for Languages and Literature
The topic of this paper is the variability of phrase-initial pitch patterns of South Swedish. Central Swedish pitch patterns for phrase-initial accent I both to the East (Stockholm) and to the West (Gothenburg) display an apparent constancy, albeit with distinct patterns: East Central Swedish rising and West Central Swedish fall-rise. In South Swedish, the corresponding pitch patterns can be described as more variable. The falling default accentual pitch pattern in the South is dominating in the majority of the sub-varieties examined, even if a rising pattern and a fall-rise are not uncommon here. There seems to be a difference in geographical distribution, so that towards northeast within the South Swedish region the percentage of a rising pattern has increased, while there is a corresponding tendency for the fall-rise to be a more a frequent pattern towards northwest. The occurrence of the rising pattern of initial accent I in South Swedish could be seen as an influence from and adaptation to East Central Swedish, and the fall-rise as an adaptation to West Swedish intonation.