Abstract

This paper investigates the average fundamental frequency of eight peripheral vowels in Belgian Standard Dutch in order to examine whether a vowel gradient exists with respect to Intrinsic Vowel Pitch (IF0). The results show that IF0 exists in Belgian Standard Dutch and amounts to 3.26 semi-tones. It is found that the assumed gradience in the degree of openness/tongue height is only reflected to a certain extent in vowel F0: mid vowels have intermediate values between those of high and low vowels and there is no significant difference between the close-mid and open-mid vowels. This suggests that gradience in the degree of opening in vowel articulation does not correspond directly to a gradient change in F0, but that the mechanical coupling between articulation and the laryngeal system has a non-uniform effect on intrinsic vowel F0.

Publication Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Publisher Keywords:	intrinsic vowel pitch, prosody, vowel systems
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Language & Communication Science

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