Phonetic alignment and phonological association in Tashlhiyt Berber

Abstract

Although, Tashlhiyt Berber uses intonation to mark sentence modality, the location of f0 events is severely constrained by its notorious predominance of consonantal nuclei (e.g. /tssk∫ftstt/ 'you dried it (fem.)'). Here we report on the alignment of f0 peaks in disyllabic target words in polar questions and contrastive statements in the language. Data from four native speakers revealed that questions tend to have later f0 peaks than statements. This was reflected in discrete association patterns when more than one tone bearing unit was available: in questions the f0 peak occurred significantly more often on the final syllable than in statements. Interestingly, if no association distinction was made, there was a difference in alignment of this peak within a tone bearing unit: the peak was aligned significantly later in questions. Thus, discrete phonological association patterns were mirrored by phonetic alignment detail. These data question the traditional dichotomy between phonological association and phonetic alignment.