Acoustic correlates of the French Accentual Phrase in Lifou (New Caledonia)

Abstract

This paper investigates the realization of the Accentual Phrase (AP) in Lifou French by bilingual speakers of Drehu and French. In French prominence is marked within a phrasal domain and the AP represents the lowest tonally marked prosodic constituent. Although still controversial, increasingly, there have been contributions arguing for a further prosodic level, the intermediate phrase (ip) between the AP and the Intonation Phrase (IP). In this study, it is shown that Lifou French uses the same tonal patterns as found for Standard French. Additionally, further evidence for the existence of another prosodic level after the AP is found. However, while in Standard French an increased F0 rise an..