on the interaction between intonational prominence and phrasing – evidence from swedish gösta...

On the interaction between intonational prominence and phrasing – evidence from Swedish

Gösta BruceLund University

Sweden

23-04-18 http://project.sol.lu.se/simulekt/ 2

SIMULEKT

• Simulating intonational varieties of Swedish (SIMULEKT)

• Joint research project Lund - KTH supported by the Swedish Research Council (2007-2009)

• Lund: Gösta Bruce, Susanne Schötz• KTH: Björn Granström, Laura Enflo,

Jonas Beskow


Goals

• Gain more precise knowledge about the major intonational varieties of Swedish– Our assumption: prosody – fundamental

constituent of distinct native accents of Swedish

• Develop the Swedish prosody model theoretically and experimentally


Methods

• Analysis and description of recorded speech:– prosodic (tonal and temporal) patterns – coordination of prosody and segmentals

• Simulating prosody using SPEECH SYNTHESIS:– resynthesis of recorded speech – “real” speech synthesis

• Focus on seven main varieties: – South, Göta (West), Svea(East), Dala, Gotland, North,

and Finland Swedish


Map of Sweden and the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland


Scandinavian word prosody

• Stress – like in many Germanic languages

• Word accent – in most Scandinavian dialects– stød / non-stød in Danish [dynamic]– accent I / accent II in Norwegian and

Swedish [tonal]


Word accent types à la Gårding

• FINLAND Swedish (Helsinki)

• SOUTH Swedish (Malmö)

• GOTLAND-DALA Swedish

• SVEA Swedish (Stockholm)

• GÖTA Swedish (Göteborg)


Geographical distribution of word accent types (SweDia)


Features of the prosody model

• Word prosody– Timing characteristics of word accents– Pitch patterns of compound / simplex words

• Utterance prosody– Intonational prominence levels– Concatenation patterns


Utterance intonation

• Intonational prominence levels– clear distinction focal / non-focal accentuation

(= 2 prominence levels)– no clear distinction focal / non-focal accentuation

i.e. equal prominence (= 1 prominence level)

• Concatenation patterns – tonal concatenation between prominent words of a

phrase (pitch patterns of phrasing)


Patterns of tonal concatenation

high plateau low plateau

upslope downslope


Comparison Svea & North Swedish

• Main idea of my paper:Two major intonational varieties of a language – Svea and North Swedish – may be superficially similar in terms of (for example) pitch patterns of citation forms of words

but still fundamentally distinct in terms of features of intonational prominence & phrasing


Two speech databases

• SweDia 2000 (Bank of Sweden, 1998-2003)

≈ 1200 speakers of Swedish from >100 communities (Sweden & Finland)

• elicited and spontaneous speech

• SpeechDat (EU project, reference data for ASR)

≈ 5000 speakers (from all over Sweden)• read, telephone transmitted speech • two prosodically interesting sentences


SpeechDat

Mobiltelefonen är nittiotalets stora fluga, både bland företagare och privatpersoner

[mʊˈbiːlteleˌfoːnən|eˈnitːiˌtɑːlətsˈstuːɹaˈflʉːɡa‖ˈboːdəblanˈfœːɹəˌtɑːɡaɹəɔpɹiˈvɑːtpəˌʂuːnəɹ]

’The mobile phone is the big hit of the nineties both among business people and private persons’


Compound: mobiltelefonenNorth Sw Svea Sw


Two-word phrase: stora flugaNorth Sw Svea Sw


Complex phrase: både bland företagare och privatpersoner

North Sw Svea Sw


Perception test: Background• Svea and North Swedish: similar pitch patterns in citation forms

(accent I och II, focussed)

• Potentially distinct in terms of intonational prominence & phrasing:1. no. of intonational

prominence levels (focal/non-focal accent)

2. patterns of tonal concatenation


Perception test: Material

• Standard Swedish male speaker

real words reiterant speech


Perception test: Test design

• Production-based perception test• Computer program (Susanne Schötz) with clickable square on

the screen (Praat script, java) • Cursor positions (x,y) govern 2 stimulus parameters:

– x: no. of intonational prominence levels (Point 1 och 3)– y: patterns of tonal concatenation (Point 2)


Perception test: Results

• Mean and median values


Tonal representation

North SwedishLexical tones

accent I ˈ

L+H

accent II ˈ L+H

acc II comp. ˈ…ˌ L+H

Postlexical tonesinitial boundary Lfinal boundary L

Svea SwedishLexical tones

accent I ˈ

H+L

accent II ˈ H+L

acc II comp. ˈ….ˌ H+L

Postlexical tonesfocal accent Hinitial boundary Lfinal boundary L


North Swedish

mʊˈbiːlteleˌfoːnən

L (H) L + H L

ˈst uː ɹaˈfl ʉː ɡ a

L + H L + H L

Svea Swedish

mʊˈbiːlteleˌfoːnən

L H + L H L

ˈst uː ɹa ˈfl ʉː ɡ a

H+L H+L H L

Tonal representation: compound & two-word phrase


Tonal representation: complex phrase

ˈboːdəblanˈfœːɹəˌtɑːɡaɹəɔpɹiˈvɑːtpəˌʂuːnəɹ

L + H L + H L + H L

ˈboːdəblanˈfœːɹəˌtɑːɡaɹəɔpɹiˈvɑːtpəˌʂuːnəɹ

H + L H + L H H + L L

North Swedish

Svea Swedish


The Swedish intonation model

• Updated and revised (Bruce 2007)– a tentative taxonomy of Swedish intonational varieties:

Intonational variety: South Göta Gotl.-Dala

Svea North Finl.Sw.

Prosodic feature:

Timing characteristics of word accents

late early late early late no distinct.

Pitch patterns of compounds

same same distinct distinct distinct same

Intonational prominence levels

one two one two one one

Concatenation patterns low up down high down down

on the interaction between intonational prominence and phrasing – evidence from swedish gösta...

Documents

finland swedish slide

swedish tonal slide

speakers of swedish

swedish prosody model

swedish research council

parts of finland slide

jonas beskow slide

equal prominence