The phonetic realization of focus in West Frisian, Low Saxon, High German, and three varieties of Dutch

Abstract

This study examines the effects of different kinds of focus and of focus constituent size on the phonetic realization of accent peaks in declarative sentences in varieties of continental West Germanic. Speakers were drawn from six populations along the coastal line of the Netherlands, covering Zeelandic Dutch, Hollandic Dutch, West Frisian, Dutch Low Saxon, German Low Saxon, and Northern High German. Our findings suggest that focus structure has systematic effects on segmental durations, the scaling and timing of the accentual f0 gesture, and on the alignment of f0 targets relative to the beginning of the accented syllable. However, the difference between neutral focus and corrective focus has more systematic effects than variation of the size of the focused constituents in corrective focus. In addition, speakers from different places were found to adopt different strategies in signaling these focus structures. Speakers of Hollandic Dutch and West Frisian expanded the pitch span on the accented word, whereas speakers of Low and High German rescaled single targets of the accentual f0 gesture, and speakers of Zeelandic Dutch mixed both strategies.