Stress clash in Spanish, Catalan, and Friulian from a prosodic perspective

Abstract

Abstract In several languages, two stresses cannot appear adjacently in the speech chain, and a variety of solutions have been found to be used to resolve this disfavored juxtaposition. According to various different authors, a common strategy for solving stress clash is the non-realization of the first stress and, typically, a transfer of all stress parameters to the pre-tonic syllable. This study aims to describe how stress clash is solved in three Romance languages (Spanish, Catalan, and Friulian) and two sentence-types (broad focus statements and information-seeking yes-no questions). The first two languages behave similarly, insofar as length and loudness are not stress-supporting parameters, and F0 maintains the general patterns of the type of sentence. Friulian stands out because length is the main stress parameter and tonic syllables are significantly longer, even when there is a stress clash. F0 also follows the general sentence type pattern, with one exception: declarative sentences in NP1, where the pre-tonic syllable is always higher than its corresponding tonic.