Grave accent

Abstract: Accent patterns in Narpes, Ostrobothnia are investigated in this paper. It is a commonly held assumption that the acute/grave distinction is not manifested in most Finland-Swedish dialects and that the acute accent is generalized. The native informants in this study also share this assumption. However, informal listening has suggested that this may not be the case. Recordings of two native older men and two native younger men were analyzed in terms of F0 contours. The results suggest that the tonal pattern in words, which receive acute accent in Standard Swedish, differ from that in words which receive grave accent in a systematic way. This difference resembles that found in Standard Swedish accent distinction, in particular the Uppland dialects. It is suggested that a weakening of the acoustic correlates of the accent distinction has led to the loss of the phonological distinction but without a complete loss of the patterns that were once used distinctively.

Abstract: Previous studies have suggested that most Swedish 17-18-month-olds do not have a productive command of the grave vs. acute tonal word accent contrast. The present paper raises the question whether the accent contrast is more firmly established in Swedish 24monthers. Auditory observations on 6 Swedish and 6 American English children suggest that a majority of Swedish disyllabic word productions have the two-peaked grave accent, and that accents are usually assigned to words according to the adult norm. Also, the Swedish children produced grave and acute words with F0 contours synchronized with the segmental tier as expected. Both the grave and the acute contours deviated markedly from those produced by the American English control subjects; in particular, the Swedish contours were more dynamic and reached more extreme values than the American English contours. This is taken to reflect the need to preserve a sufficient contrast between the phonologically distinct word accents. It is tentatively concluded that acquisition of the Swedish word accent contrast typically takes place during the 18-24 months age interval.

Abstract: F0 measurements were made of disyllabic words produced by several Swedish and American English 18- and 24-month-olds. The Swedish 24- and 18-monthers produced accent contours that were similar in shape and timing to those found in adult speech. The Swedish 18monthers, however, produced very few words with the acute accent. It is concluded that most Swedish children have acquired a productive command of the word accent contrast by 24 years of age and that, at 18 months, most children display clear tonal ambient-language effects. The influence of the ambient language is evident in view of the F0 contours produced by the American English children whose timing of F0 events tended to be intermediate between the Swedish grave and acute contours. The relative consistency with which grave accent contours were produced by the Swedish 18-monthers suggest that some children are influenced by the ambient language well before that age.