ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2014
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2014

Intonational Phonology of Cuban Spanish: A Preliminary AM Model

Ann Bailey

The present study proposes a preliminary model of intonational phonology for Cuban Spanish in the framework of Autosegmental-Metrical phonology. Data from controlled and semi-spontaneous speech were used to establish the boundary tones and pitch accents which are contrastive in this variety of Spanish. It was found that Cuban Spanish shares various tonal categories with both the Pan Spanish ToBI (Tones and Break Indices) and other Caribbean Island Spanish dialects (Puerto Rican and Dominican), but differ from these dialects in how those pitch accents and boundary tones are used to convey meaning. Cuban Spanish shares its primary prenuclear pitch accents and nuclear contours for imperative statement and narrow focus with the Pan Sp ToBI, but shares the nuclear contours for broad focus, vocative, and wh-questions with Puerto Rican Spanish. Similar to the other Caribbean Island Spanish varieties, the Cuban Spanish boundary tone inventory consists of a subset of the attested boundary tones found in the Pan Sp ToBI, and all three Caribbean varieties share low boundary tones in non-wh questions, a marker of Caribbean Spanish speech.