Suomen kielen prominenssien foneettisesta toteutumisesta

• Kari Suomi

Avainsanat: aksentti, prominenssi, prosodia, sanapaino, typologia

Abstrakti

Phonetic realisation of prominence in Finnish (englanti)

2/2005 (109)

Phonetic realisation of prominence in Finnish

The article reports the results of studies on the phonetic realisation of prominence in Finnish. The results reveal that the mora is an important metrical unit in Finnish. It is shown that although the Finnish word stress system is phonologically exceptional among syllabic trochee languages, it is not exceptional phonetically, since if the first syllable of a word is light, stress is realised partly during the second syllable. It is observed that stress is realised by means of durations, so that a segment has a longer duration when contained within the sequence of the first two morae of a metrical foot than later in the same foot. In a primarily stressed foot the durational differences are larger than in a secondarily stressed foot.

The study results show that, contrary to what is often claimed, word stress by itself is not realised tonally. It is found that sentence accent is realised mainly in the sequence delimited by a words first two morae. Accent is realised as a tonal rise-fall: a rise during the words first mora, and most of the fall during the second mora. In strong accent, the rise-fall tone is more extensive than in moderate accent, and durations are lengthened in strong accent but not in moderate accent.

The writer shows that the motivation for certain durational variations in the first two syllables from one word structure to the next is to guarantee that the accentual rise-fall occurs in a uniform manner independently of word structure. It is observed that word length has no effect on segment durations. Finally, it is argued that in a language such as Finnish, with its particular quantity system and moraic alignment of prominence, durational variations in the first two syllables from one word structure to the next and independence of segment durations in terms of word length are necessary if the tonal realisation of accent is to be uniform.

Kari Suomi