Patterns of Intonation in Central Kurdish A Study in Cognitive Phonology

Abstract

The present study attempts to analyze intonation in Central Kurdish, the Sorani variety spoken in Slemani in Iraqi Kurdistan. Intonation refers to pitch fluctuations used by a speaker to express meanings. To carry out the analysis, the study embraces the theory of Cognitive Phonology. The study attempts to claim that there is a relationship between the pitch of a linguistic expression and its meaning. Accordingly, it is hypothesized that the meaning of an utterance is shaped by the particular intonation used by the speaker. The study has two aims. The first is to show that intonation, as a suprasegmental feature, is meaningful in Central Kurdish. The second is to show that using one pattern of intonation instead of another is the result of the construal dimension of perspective. As native Kurdish speakers, the researchers are being used as sources of data. One important finding is that Kurdish intonation is meaningful because using one pattern of intonation instead of another is consequential. A change in tone adds a specific tint of meaning to the utterance in spoken language.