Stress in modern Welsh
The first chapter reviews twentieth- century work on stress, considering stress from several points of view: as intensity, pitch and rhythm. The weaknesses of some approaches are pointed out. Some past work on isochrony is summarised and the metrical theory of stress introduced. The problem presented by stress in Welsh is introduced informally. The second chapter describes a series of measurements and experiments carried out to investigate stress in Welsh. Acoustic measurements are made of Fo, intensity, duration, and lengths of rhythmic feet. It is concluded that stress in Welsh is determined by rhythm rather than inherent acoustic cues. Statistical anal ysis of further measurements of feet reveal s the effects of syllabification and also supports the previous findings. Perceptual experiments using native speaker judgements of resynthesised speech are presented and analysed; it is concluded that Welsh stress is linked with rhythm and with consonantal length (the consonant after a stressed vowel being longer than one after an unstressed vowel), while it has no direct link with pitch- prominence as such. The third chapter outl ines a theoretical framework based on the 'metrical' theory of stress, and proceeds
Williams, Briony Jane
Welsh linguistics
Stress in modern Welsh. The first chapter reviews twentieth- century work on stress, considering stress from several points of view: as intensity, pitch and rhythm. The weaknesses of some approaches are pointed out. Some past work on isochrony is summarised and the metrical theory of stress introduced. The problem presented by stress in Welsh is introduced informally. The second chapter describes a series of measurements and experiments carried out to investigate stress in Welsh. Acoustic measurements are made of Fo, intensity, duration, and lengths of rhythmic feet. It is concluded that stress in Welsh is determined by rhythm rather than inherent acoustic cues. Statistical anal ysis of further measurements of feet reveal s the effects of syllabification and also supports the previous findings. Perceptual experiments using native speaker judgements of resynthesised speech are presented and analysed; it is concluded that Welsh stress is linked with rhythm and with consonantal length (the consonant after a stressed vowel being longer than one after an unstressed vowel), while it has no direct link with pitch- prominence as such. The third chapter outl ines a theoretical framework based on the 'metrical' theory of stress, and proceeds
stress modern welsh first review work stress consider stress several point_view intensity pitch rhythm weakness approach point_out past work summarise metrical theory stress introduce problem present stress welsh introduce informally second_describes series measurement carry investigate stress welsh acoustic measurement make intensity duration lengths rhythmic foot conclude stress welsh determine rhythm rather inherent acoustic_cue statistical measurement foot reveal effect also support previous finding perceptual use native_speaker speech present analyse conclude welsh stress link rhythm consonantal length consonant stress vowel longer vowel direct link pitch prominence such third theoretical_framework base metrical theory stress proceeds