ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2014
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2014

Realization of Narrow Focus in Hong Kong English declarativesa Pilot Study

Holly S.H. Fung, Peggy P.K. Mok

Narrow focus, i.e., focus on one word, is realized differently in native English and Cantonese. While it is signaled primarily by on-focus F0 changes such as F0 range expansion in English, it is marked essentially by lengthening of duration in Cantonese. Another difference is the pitch of the post-focus elements. While native English demonstrates post-focus F0 compression, Cantonese shows no significant post-focus pitch change. To investigate how narrow focus is realized in Hong Kong English (HKE), an emergent variety of English spoken by native speakers of Cantonese in Hong Kong, a controlled production experiment was conducted with 8 HKE speakers. Results showed that while the HKE speakers did realize foci with significant on-focus F0 range expansion, they exhibited no post-focus compression.