An acoustical investigation of Danish intonation

Abstract

The relationship between linguistic stress and fundamental frequency and the intonation contours in short declarative sentences, interrogative sentences, and non-terminal clauses in Advanced Standard Copenhagen Danish are established on the basis of acoustical analyses of recordings by four subjects.With proper processing of the tracings (which involves compensating for intrinsic F0 differences between different vowel qualities) and assuming that the same tonal courses are intended in the nonsense and real words of the material, the complex course of the fundamental frequency can be broken down into constituent components which are: (1) the intonation contour (defined solely by the stressed syllables) which is superimposed by (2) the tonal patterns pertaining to the stress group (a stress group is a stressed syllable and all succeeding unstressed syllables) which, in their turn, are superimposed by (3) the tonal movements pertaining to (the vowels of) individual syllables.The intonation contours vary with sentence type from smoothly falling (statements) to level (intonation questions). The stress group patterns are invariant; a low stressed syllable followed by a tail of high falling unstressed syllables, but the absolute distance between the stressed and the first post-tonic syllable decreases progressively from the first to the last stress group in the sentence. The movements within the syllable are generally falling, except for the first stressed syllable in the sentence which is rising, and except also for the last stressed syllable in interrogative sentences if no unstressed syllables follow.