Tonal alignment patterns in Catalan nuclear falls

This paper investigates the coordination relations between f0 turning points and segmental landmarks in falling pitch accents in Catalan. Ten Central Catalan speakers participated in the production experiment, for a total of 500 target pitch accents. Results indicate that while the beginning of the falling accent gesture (H) is tightly synchronized with the onset of the accented syllable, the end of the falling gesture (L) is more variable. This contrast has also been reported in rising accents between the alignment behavior of f0 valleys and peaks. It has been suggested that the asymmetry between alignment patterns in syllable-initial vs. syllable-final position might be attributable to general properties of intergestural coordination (Gao, 2006; Prieto and Torreira, 2007). Second, the data reveal a clear effect of syllable structure: while in open syllables the end of the fall is aligned roughly with the end of the accented syllable, in closed syllables it is aligned somewhat later but well before the coda consonant. Thus the L turning point is not aligned with the offset of the accented syllable, and coda consonants seem to have a ‘transparent’ behavior. This same effect of coda consonants on alignment has been reported in crosslinguistic studies of rising accents. A potential perceptual explanation for these effects is Houseʹs (1990) idea that in order to produce a perceptually acceptable rising (or falling) tone in a syllable with a final nasal, speakers would have to implement the most dynamic portion of the contour during the production of the vowel.