The “Frog Melody”: A variation of the Scania Swedish tone accent 2 melody to encourage children

Abstract

Swedish is known for having two lexically diverse tone accents, called accent 1 and accent 2 in modern literature. The choice between the two accents is determined by the language system, and the distribution rules for the accents vary between varieties [1]. The most important function of the tone accents is their use as pitch accents in prominence signalling in utterances [1], [2]. The accent melodies associated with the two accents also differ between varieties [1]. In this paper, a first tonal and functional outline of a variation of a Scania Swedish tone accent 2 melody is presented, with the working name “frog melody”. Interestingly, this variation seems to be associated with attitudinal meanings in addition to prominence signalling. The “frog melody” changes the association between accent melody tones and syllables, while remaining a clear case of the (South-eastern) Scania Swedish accent 2 type.