Title: WPP, No. 106: Intonational Phonology of Georgian
Abstract: UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics No. 106, pp. 41-57 Intonational Phonology of Georgian Sun-Ah Jun, Chad Vicenik, & Ingvar Lofstedt ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) Abstract This paper proposes a prosodic structure and the tonal pattern of Georgian, the national language of Georgia. The language has three prosodic units above the Word: Intonation Phrase (IP), Intermediate Phrase (ip), and Accentual Phrase (AP). All these units are marked by a boundary tone, but an AP in Georgian is unique typologically in that it has pitch accent linked to a stressed syllable and phrase accent (H+L) linked to an antepenultimate syllable of an AP. Contrary to previous studies on Georgian stress, we claim that this High tone on the antepenult is a property of an AP, not linked to a stressed syllable of a word. This phrase accent occurs in questions and focus phrases, suggesting its connection to an emphatic meaning. The intonation of a declarative sentence consists of a sequence of rises, with a lowering of f0 peaks over the utterance. The height of the f0 peak/valley and the tonal pattern of an AP mark a prosodic grouping of words, which often matches a semantic/syntactic grouping of words. 1. Introduction Georgian, also known as Kartuli ena, is the national language of Georgia, a country located in the Caucasus. It is a member of the South Caucasian language group, and is spoken by over 4 million people (Hewitt 1995). Georgian is well known for its complex morphology and segmental properties, but not much is known about its intonation. The language is claimed to have stress, although its exact realization is debated in the literature. Robin and Waterson (1952) examined ‘a word in isolation’ data from one speaker, and proposed the following rules for stress assignment. They added that stress is weak in Georgian and is realized through high pitch. Number of syllables in word Location of stress 1 st syllable 1 st or 2 nd syllable 2 nd or on 1 st & 3 rd syllables 1 st & 3 rd or on 2 nd & 4 th syllables 1 st & antepenult (primary stress) Slightly different stress assignment rules were proposed in Aronson (1990). See (2). Number of syllables in word 4 or fewer 5 or more Location of stress 1 st or antepenult syllable 1 st & antepenult syllables
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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