This paper offers a synchronic description of stress patterns in two conservative varieties of Ti... more This paper offers a synchronic description of stress patterns in two conservative varieties of Tibetan, and a diachronic reconstruction of stress patterns in Proto-Tibetan. For both Balti and Rebkong Amdo, stress falls on the second syllable (σ2) of disyllabic non-verbs — nouns, adjectives, and numerals. Through the method of “historical comparative prosody”, σ2 stress is likewise reconstructed for disyllabic non-verbs in Proto-Tibetan. Disyllabic verbs are never stressed on σ2. For Balti, robust evidence shows that they are stressed on the first syllable (σ1). Limited data for Rebkong Amdo suggests the same pattern. Thus σ1 stress is tentatively reconstructed for verbs in Proto-Tibetan. These reconstructed Proto-Tibetan stress patterns are of diachronic significance. They have reflexes in the tone patterns of the modern spoken varieties of Tibetan (Caplow 2009); in future research, it may be possible to trace them back to prosodic patterns higher up in the Tibeto-Burman and Sino-Ti...
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissert... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, The role of stress in Tibetan tonogenesis: A study in historical comparative acoustics. by ...
In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives... more In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives, and numerals) are stressed on the second syllable (σ2). Fundamental frequency is a robust correlate of this σ2 stress pattern; vowel duration is a weak and inconsistent cue for stress, while intensity does not play a role. Verbs, in contrast, are stressed on the first syllable (σ1); F0, intensity, and vowel duration all contribute to conveying syllable prominence. These findings differ from previous descriptions of Balti in distinguishing stress patterns by lexical category. Further, this is the first work to provide an acoustic characterization of the correlates of stress in Tibetan. As one of the most phonologically conservative varieties of Tibetan, Balti can be considered to preserve the prosodic and acoustic characteristics of Proto-Tibetan. This study thus offers crucial information towards reconstructions of Proto-Tibetan and Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and towards development of hypot...
In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives... more In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives, and numerals) are stressed on the second syllable (σ2). Fundamental frequency is a robust correlate of this σ2 stress pattern; vowel duration is a weak and inconsistent cue for stress, while intensity does not play a role. Verbs, in contrast, are stressed on the first syllable (σ1); F0, intensity, and vowel duration all contribute to conveying syllable prominence. These findings differ from previous descriptions of Balti in distinguishing stress patterns by lexical category. Further, this is the first work to provide an acoustic characterization of the correlates of stress in Tibetan. As one of the most phonologically conservative varieties of Tibetan, Balti can be considered to preserve the prosodic and acoustic characteristics of Proto-Tibetan. This study thus offers crucial information towards reconstructions of Proto-Tibetan and Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and towards development of hypot...
... In (30) it is clear that yala (here with vowel assimi-lation) is used rather than ya: because... more ... In (30) it is clear that yala (here with vowel assimi-lation) is used rather than ya: because Jung Bahadur's army is not simply traveling in some direction (upward) but is working its way to a specific destination. Page 52. 36 Nancy J. Caplow (30) reduplicated form (JB33-34) PW ...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2013
Pitch is well-known both to animate human discourse and to convey meaning in communication. The s... more Pitch is well-known both to animate human discourse and to convey meaning in communication. The study of the statistical population distributions of pitch in discourse will undoubtedly benefit from methodological improvements. The current investigation examines a method that parameterizes pitch in discourse as musical pitch interval H measured in units of cents and that disaggregates the sequence of peak word-pitches using tools employed in time-series analysis and digital signal processing. The investigators test the proposed methodology by its application to distributions in pitch interval of the peak word-pitch (collectively called the discourse gamut) that occur in simulated and actual spontaneous emotive narratives obtained from 17 middle-aged African-American adults. The analysis, in rigorous tests, not only faithfully reproduced simulated distributions imbedded in realistic time series that drift and include pitch breaks, but the protocol also reveals that the empirical distributions exhibit a common hidden structure when normalized to a slowly varying mode (called the gamut root) of their respective probability density functions. Quantitative differences between narratives reveal the speakers' relative propensity for the use of pitch levels corresponding to elevated degrees of a discourse gamut (the "e-la") superimposed upon a continuum that conforms systematically to an asymmetric Laplace distribution.
This paper offers a synchronic description of stress patterns in two conservative varieties of Ti... more This paper offers a synchronic description of stress patterns in two conservative varieties of Tibetan, and a diachronic reconstruction of stress patterns in Proto-Tibetan. For both Balti and Rebkong Amdo, stress falls on the second syllable (σ2) of disyllabic non-verbs — nouns, adjectives, and numerals. Through the method of “historical comparative prosody”, σ2 stress is likewise reconstructed for disyllabic non-verbs in Proto-Tibetan. Disyllabic verbs are never stressed on σ2. For Balti, robust evidence shows that they are stressed on the first syllable (σ1). Limited data for Rebkong Amdo suggests the same pattern. Thus σ1 stress is tentatively reconstructed for verbs in Proto-Tibetan. These reconstructed Proto-Tibetan stress patterns are of diachronic significance. They have reflexes in the tone patterns of the modern spoken varieties of Tibetan (Caplow 2009); in future research, it may be possible to trace them back to prosodic patterns higher up in the Tibeto-Burman and Sino-Ti...
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissert... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, The role of stress in Tibetan tonogenesis: A study in historical comparative acoustics. by ...
In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives... more In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives, and numerals) are stressed on the second syllable (σ2). Fundamental frequency is a robust correlate of this σ2 stress pattern; vowel duration is a weak and inconsistent cue for stress, while intensity does not play a role. Verbs, in contrast, are stressed on the first syllable (σ1); F0, intensity, and vowel duration all contribute to conveying syllable prominence. These findings differ from previous descriptions of Balti in distinguishing stress patterns by lexical category. Further, this is the first work to provide an acoustic characterization of the correlates of stress in Tibetan. As one of the most phonologically conservative varieties of Tibetan, Balti can be considered to preserve the prosodic and acoustic characteristics of Proto-Tibetan. This study thus offers crucial information towards reconstructions of Proto-Tibetan and Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and towards development of hypot...
In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives... more In Balti Tibetan, spoken in Baltistan, northern Pakistan, disyllabic non-verbs (nouns, adjectives, and numerals) are stressed on the second syllable (σ2). Fundamental frequency is a robust correlate of this σ2 stress pattern; vowel duration is a weak and inconsistent cue for stress, while intensity does not play a role. Verbs, in contrast, are stressed on the first syllable (σ1); F0, intensity, and vowel duration all contribute to conveying syllable prominence. These findings differ from previous descriptions of Balti in distinguishing stress patterns by lexical category. Further, this is the first work to provide an acoustic characterization of the correlates of stress in Tibetan. As one of the most phonologically conservative varieties of Tibetan, Balti can be considered to preserve the prosodic and acoustic characteristics of Proto-Tibetan. This study thus offers crucial information towards reconstructions of Proto-Tibetan and Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and towards development of hypot...
... In (30) it is clear that yala (here with vowel assimi-lation) is used rather than ya: because... more ... In (30) it is clear that yala (here with vowel assimi-lation) is used rather than ya: because Jung Bahadur's army is not simply traveling in some direction (upward) but is working its way to a specific destination. Page 52. 36 Nancy J. Caplow (30) reduplicated form (JB33-34) PW ...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2013
Pitch is well-known both to animate human discourse and to convey meaning in communication. The s... more Pitch is well-known both to animate human discourse and to convey meaning in communication. The study of the statistical population distributions of pitch in discourse will undoubtedly benefit from methodological improvements. The current investigation examines a method that parameterizes pitch in discourse as musical pitch interval H measured in units of cents and that disaggregates the sequence of peak word-pitches using tools employed in time-series analysis and digital signal processing. The investigators test the proposed methodology by its application to distributions in pitch interval of the peak word-pitch (collectively called the discourse gamut) that occur in simulated and actual spontaneous emotive narratives obtained from 17 middle-aged African-American adults. The analysis, in rigorous tests, not only faithfully reproduced simulated distributions imbedded in realistic time series that drift and include pitch breaks, but the protocol also reveals that the empirical distributions exhibit a common hidden structure when normalized to a slowly varying mode (called the gamut root) of their respective probability density functions. Quantitative differences between narratives reveal the speakers' relative propensity for the use of pitch levels corresponding to elevated degrees of a discourse gamut (the "e-la") superimposed upon a continuum that conforms systematically to an asymmetric Laplace distribution.
Uploads
Papers by Nancy Caplow