Focus prominence and tonal alignment in Athenian and Cypriot Greek

Abstract

This study examines the effects of focus prominence production on tonal alignment in Athenian Greek and Cypriot Greek. Information focus has been elicited by using a Wh-Question in utterances with varying number of syllable constituents —from twelve syllables to eighteen— following the constituent under focus prominence. The results indicate significant effects of speech variety on the alignment of tonal targets; utterance length on the other hand showed poor effects on tonal alignment.