Yläsatakuntalainen intonaatiokuvio

• Eeva Yli-Luukko

Avainsanat: fonologia, hämäläismurteet, keskusteluntutkimus, murteentutkimus, prosodia

Abstrakti

Intonation pattern in upper Satakunta [html] (englanti)

1/2001 (105)

Eeva Yli Luukko ([e-mail])

INTONATION PATTERN IN UPPER SATAKUNTA

The typical intonation pattern of a speaker of the Tyrv dialect in the upper Satakunta region of western Finland is acoustically almost the mirror image of the declination model: the pitch rises steadily in a series of peaks and is followed by a sharp fall after the final peak. This final drop in pitch is distinct and easy to hear, especially if its intensity remains strong. Following this sharp fall in pitch there is a low plateau of one or two (sometimes more) syllables before the end of the sequence. The writer calls this phenomenon, composed of the fall and the plateau, the L-curve. The progressively rising intonation is a particular feature of the Tyrv dialect, but the final element, the L-curve, is found extensively amongst the western Hme dialects.

The writer first describes the acoustics of the Tyrv dialect intonation pattern using the diagrams compiled by Aarni Penttil in his analysis of the dialect in 1958. The diagrams demonstrate firstly that the FO contour and intensity are independent of each other. Secondly, the diagrams illustrate a tonal division into two levels: a lower level covering short sentences, phrases and individual words, and an upper level for units of one or more sentences. At the end of this unit is the L-curve.

To investigate the function of the L-curve, the writer conducted an auditive analysis of one multi-part narrative in which a male speaker born in upper Satakunta in 1886 describes how he got married. The L-curve almost always appeared in a critical element of the narrative or a section of it. If it appeared elsewhere it was, nevertheless, connected with a significant matter in the narrative (e.g. a key person, an important location) or otherwise concerned an affective matter (e.g. alcohol, a broken promise). In a question-answer sequence the L-curve would conclude a precise and emphatic reply.

The L-curve was related to sentence stress in that the fall was always in a word with sentence stress. The textual focus marked by the L-curve was, however, generally longer than one word, comprising instead the entire tonal unit ending in the L-curve.