چكيده لاتين
This study examines the impact of chain factors on the alignment and scaling of the nuclear pitch accent in two dialects, Isfahani and Tehrani, and explores the strategies used by speakers of these dialects in response to time pressure arising from the reduction of sonorant rime within the framework of prosodic autosegmental phonology. The findings indicate that the predominant pattern in marking the features of the vowels [+front] and [+back], as well as the impact of syllable structure on alignment and scaling in monosyllabic words in both dialects, was represented as L*+H, occurring in most cases. Results showed that in both dialects, the H tone occurred early across all words and was situated within the onset syllable of the prosodic chain. As the number of syllables increased, the temporal distance between the L tone and H tone decreased over time. Given the fixed position of the L tone, we can conclude that with an increase in syllable structure, the H tone manifested earlier within the prosodic string of the stressed syllable. Thus, the alignment of the peak accent became a distinguishing parameter, and the scaling displayed non-phonemic and non-categorical characteristics. Furthermore, the prevalent pattern in marking nuclear pitch accent due to the impact of affix type on alignment and scaling by speakers of Isfahani and Tehrani dialects was represented as L*+H. The commonality of pitch accent in the target words with the feature of affix type (prefix, suffix) in both dialects was that the L tone was positioned at the onset of the stressed syllable while the H tone was within the prosodic string of the stressed syllable. The distinction of pitch accent was that the H tone in disyllabic and trisyllabic words in the Isfahani dialect aligned with the penultimate syllable, whereas in the Tehrani dialect, the H tone in disyllabic and trisyllabic words aligned with the final syllable. Additionally, the findings revealed that increases or decreases in scaling in both Tehrani and Isfahani dialects led to no differences in semantic and pragmatic categorization, indicating that the pitch height was non-phonemic. Results regarding the effect of time pressure on the temporal parameters of sonorant duration, alignment, and contour pattern showed that alignment was language-specific and contour-specific. Isfahani speakers spent more time producing a falling-rising contour and used an undershoot strategy, whereas Tehrani speakers utilized compression to produce a falling curve. Speakers of both dialects employed shortening or truncation when producing the rising contour. Overall, the variation in the strategies chosen by speakers of the two dialects in response to time pressure was language-specific and dialect-specific.In this research, concerning which hypothesis related to prosodic targets (Segmental Anchoring Hypothesis, the Phonetic Constant Hypothesis ) is confirmed, most of the analyzed data indicated that the alignment of the L tone was constant and predominantly aligned with the onset of the stressed syllable. In contrast, the behavior of the H tone varied depending on the lexical stress pattern—vowel type, syllable type, syllable structure, affix type, and dialect type…and fluctuated either away from or in proximity to the L tone. According to the author’s observations, Segmental anchoring hypothesis is confirmed, indicating the independence of the L and H tone from each other; thus, each of these prosodic tone aligns individually with the phonemic string.
