14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14) San Francisco, CA, USA August 1-7, 1999

Timing of F₀ Peaks ond Peak Lag

Francis Nolan, Kimberley Farrar

Department of Linguistics, University of Cambridge, UK

In this paper we discuss the phenomenon of ‘peak lag’, where H* tones are not aligned with the accented syllable. The timing of F₀ peaks has been shown to depend on a number of factors, such as the segmental structure and foot-size. This paper presents the results of a study using data collected in four locations in the British Isles1. Whilst confirming some of the results found in previous studies of this phenomenon, our findings indicate that there is a further factor contributing to peak lag, namely the presence of preceding unstressed syllables, or anacrusis. The results also highlight differences between varieties of British English with respect to the occurrence of peak lag.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Nolan, Francis / Farrar, Kimberley (1999): "Timing of F₀ peaks ond peak lag", In ICPhS-14, 961-964.