ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2024
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2024

A phonological model of Atara Imere intonation

Adam Chong, Coppe van Urk

In this study, we provide a preliminary Autosegmental-Metrical model of the intonational phonology of Atara Imere (Polynesian; Vanuatu). Our initial analysis suggests that Atara Imere has three tonally marked prosodic units above the prosodic word: (i) Accentual Phrase (AP), (ii) Intermediate Phrase (ip), and (iii) Intonational Phrase (IP). We confirm previous observations that lexical prominence occurs on the antepenultimate mora, and this position is marked primarily with a LH* pitch accent. The right edge of AP boundaries are primarily marked by a L tone (La), though we also find evidence for a less frequent H boundary tone (Ha). So far, we have found evidence for one ip boundary tone: a high tone (H-) marking the right edge of larger syntactic units. Finally, IP boundaries are marked by either L% or H%. Focus and intonational patterns of different sentence types are also discussed.