The Role of Duration Ratios and Fundamental Frequency in Spontaneous Livonian
The Role of Duration Ratios and Fundamental Frequency in Spontaneous Livonian

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the study of Livonian word prosody. The paper deals with duration ratios and fundamental frequency contours in Livonian. An acoustic-phonetic analysis of the recordings of spontaneous speech by 8 speakers was carried out. The measurements were subjected to statistical treatment, and the results were analysed from the point of view of their role in the Livonian prosodic structure. The paper deals primarily with the role of quantity and tone and their phonetic realisation. Words with a long first syllable (consisting of voiced sounds) containing a half-long or a short vowel in the second syllable were analysed. On the basis of the duration ratios one group of speakers differentiated the two types of words similarly to Estonian Q2 and Q3 words, while the other group did not. Words where stød was expected were differentiated from words where stød was not expected primarily by an earlier F0 peak.

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