14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14)

San Francisco, CA, USA
August 1-7, 1999


F0 Declination in Brazilian Portuguese in Read and Spontaneous Speech

João Antônio de Moraes

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro/CNPq, Brazil

The presence and magnitude of F0 declination in Brazilian Portuguese is investigated in three different speech styles: spontaneous speech, connected read speech and non-connected read speech. Analysis of F0 curves shows that declination is clearly detectable in non-connected read speech. Stress plays a crucial role in the concrete realization of declination in this style. Three distinct lines are proposed to represent the declination space. The topline, connecting poststressed syllables, and the baseline, connecting prestressed syllables, define the limits of local pitch movements. Stressed syllables occupy an intermediate level. In connected read speech declination is less visible. A possible explanation for this is the higher level of expressiveness and the presence of more complex syntactic patterns in the material analyzed. In spontaneous speech, the massive presence of discourse factors prevents declination to surface in about half the cases.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Moraes, João Antônio de (1999): "F0 declination in Brazilian Portuguese in read and spontaneous speech", In ICPhS-14, 2323-2326.