The many shapes of H*

Abstract

We examined individual and task-related variability in the realization of Greek nuclear H* followed by L-L% edge tones. The accents (N = 748) were elicited from native speakers of Greek, producing scripted and unscripted speech, and examined using functional Principal Components Analysis. The accented vowel onset was used for landmark registration to capture accent shape and the alignment of the fall. The resulting PCs were analysed using LMEMs (fixed factors: speaker; task type (scripted, unscripted); accented syllable distance from the analysis window offset, to examine the effects of tonal crowding). Tonal scaling and the steepness of the fall (reflected in PC1 and PC2 respectively) changed by task in ways that differed across speakers. PC3, which captured accent shape, also varied by speaker, reflecting shape differences between a rise-fall and (the expected) plateau-plus-fall realization. Tonal crowding did not have consistent effects. In short, the overall accent shape and the alignment of the accentual fall varied by speaker and task. These results hint at substantial variability in tonal realization. At the same time, they indicate that tonal alignment is not as consistent as is sometimes portrayed and thus it should not be the sole criterion for tone categorization.