Abstract
Pitch has an important role in the Estonian three-way quantity system. In short (Q1) and long (Q2) quantity degrees the pitch falls at the end of the primary stressed syllable but in the overlong quantity (Q3), the pitch falls in the first half of the primary stressed syllable. While the primary cue for distinguishing quantity is the temporal structure of the disyllabic foot, pitch is a vital secondary cue for distinguishing Q2 and Q3. Previous perception experiments using modified temporal structure demonstrated quantity cannot be identified by the temporal structure if the pitch cue is contradicting. In this paper we show that the pitch cue can trigger Q3 perception if the temporal structure of the foot is typical for Q2. The pitch contour that triggers Q3 perception falls in the middle of V1, leaving both a high and a low plateau in the primary stressed syllable. Steadily falling pitch in V1, or an early or late fall in V1 favours Q2 perception.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all our test subjects and Einar Meister for helping to find the test subjects. We are also very grateful to Eva Liina Asu-Garcia, and to anonymous reviewers for their comments on this paper, and to Cameron Robert Rule for editing the language of this paper. The present research was partly supported by the Estonian Science Foundation grant No. 7904.
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Lippus, P., Pajusalu, K., Allik, J. (2011). The Role of Pitch Cue in the Perception of the Estonian Long Quantity. In: Frota, S., Elordieta, G., Prieto, P. (eds) Prosodic Categories: Production, Perception and Comprehension. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0137-3_10
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