Verb tonal structure (absolute values in Hz) INTERROGATIVE INTONATION AND VARIABILITY IN SOME TARRAGONA, BARCELONA, LLEIDA AND TORTOSA DIALECTS OF CATALAN Dorota T. Szmidt, Sabela Labraña Universitat de Barcelona Acknowledgement: MCI, ref. FFI /FILO The AMPER project The AMPER Project, promoted by the Centre de Dialectologie at the Stendhal-Grenoble3 University (France) since the 1990’s, aims to describe and assign different prosodic samples of Romance languages to an extensive multimedia atlas (Contini, 2005). In Catalonia, the development of the project for Spanish and Catalan (both being co-official languages in this region) under the direction of E. Martínez Celdrán is known as AMPERCAT. Methodology 54 information-seeking yes-no questions for each dialect (3 repetitions of a set of 18 sentences including 9 with an expansion in the subject: S+SC+V+O and 9 with an expansion in the object: S+V+O+OC). Female speakers (between 25 – 50 years old) without university education. Goldwave, AMPER06, PRAAT. Goal Comparison of the intonation patterns of information- seeking yes-no questions in four Catalan dialects: Lleida, Tortosa, Tarragona and Barcelona. Conclusion 1.As far as pitch is concerned, all four dialects have an rising nucleus and present variability in pre-nucleus. 2. All dialects present the first peak in the subject in S+SC+V+O sentences whereas in S+V+O+OC sentences F0 rises throughout the subject and reaches the first peak in the verb. The Lleida dialect is distinguished from the others by the inclusion of additional peaks in each instance. 3. The principal differences between all dialects are in the verb structure. In Tortosa and Barcelona dialects, the verb is accented in S+SC+V+O and S+V+O+OC sentences. In Tarragona dialect it is also accented in S+V+O+OC sentences but deaccented in the S+SC+V+OC sentences. In Lleida dialect, we observe a sharp fall in the tonic syllable that results in 2 peaks in the verb, on the tonic and post-tonic syllables.. 4. As for the duration and intensity, the increment of the duration in the final syllables compensates for their minor intensity. References Contini, M. (2005): «2e Séminaire international du projet AMPER, Projet AMPER, Géolinguistique-Hors Série n. 3, Grenoble, Centre de Dialectologie, Université Stendhal Grenoble 3, p Fernández Planas, A.M. (2003): «Aspectos generales acerca del proyecto internacional AMPER en España», Est. de Fonét. Exper., XVII, Fernández Planas, A.M., Carrera Sabaté J. ; Román Montes de Oca, D., Martínez Celdrán E., (2006): «Declarativas e interrogativas en Tortosa y Lleida. Comparación de su entonación » Estudios de Fonética Experimental, XV, p Lindblom.B.(1968): «Temporal organisation of Syllable production», in Herrera y Butragueño (eds): La tonía: dimensiones fonéticas y fonológicas, CM, Méx.DF, Martínez Celdrán, E. (et al) (2005): «Approche de la carte prosod. dial. de la langue cat. en Cat.», Pr. AMPER, Géolinguistique-Hors Série 3, Prieto, P. (2001): «L’entonació dialectal del català: el cas de les frases interrogatives absolutes», Actes del Novè Col·loqui d’Estudis Catalans a Nord-Amèrica, in Bover A., Lloret M-R& Vidal-Tibbits M. (eds.), Barcelona, Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, p Pradilla M.A. & Prieto P.(2002): «Entonación dialectal catalana: la interrogación absoluta neutra en catalán central y en tortosí», in Colantoni et Steele (eds): Sel. Proc. of the 3rd Conf. on LASP, Toronto, Casc.Proc.Pr., Szmidt D.T, Labraña Barrero S., Castellví J., Aguilar L. (2008): «Intonation des phrases interrogatives avec l’expansion du sujet et avec l’expansion de l’objet du catalan barceloní », Géolinguistique 10, Université de Grenoble, BarcelonaTarragona S+SC+V+O: El capità protestant no porta el passaport? S+V+O+OC :El capità no porta el passaport pintoresc? Lleida and Tortosa Results Pre-tonic syllable Tonic syllablePost-tonic syllable Lleida Tortosa Tarragona Barcelona S+V+O+OC Pre-tonic syllable Tonic syllablePost-tonic syllable Lleida Tortosa Tarragona Barcelona S+SC+V+O