Nuclear pitch accent in American English dialects: Truncation and compression

Abstract

Dialects of the same language can differ in their use of prosody. We explored realization of nuclear pitch accent in female speech in three regional varieties of American English: Ohio, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. We found that both OH and WI speakers truncate the F0 contours while NC speakers compress them in identical environments. Our second question pertained to the effects of obstruent voicing in syllable coda on the F0 of the preceding nuclear vowel. We admitted three possibilities for the effects of a voiceless coda: shortened vowel duration may (1) “clip” the F0 contour and reduce the dialectal differences; (2) maintain the dialectal differences by preserving the F0 contour shapes found before a voiced coda; or (3) some dialects may “clip” and some may preserve the F0 contour. The results supported the third option. Ohio and Wisconsin speakers “clipped” the F0 contour so that F0 terminal values before a voiceless coda were higher than before a voiced coda. However, North Carolina speakers not only preserved the contours but their F0 terminal values before a voiceless coda were substantially lower than before a voiced coda. The effects of coda voicing on F0 fall were found to augment the dialectal differences.