Chapter 8
Interrogative intonation in monolingual Amazonian Spanish
The case of Spanish spoken in the cities of Pucallpa and Iquitos
This article studies the interrogative intonation of Peruvian Amazonian Spanish spoken by monolinguals in the cities of Pucallpa and Iquitos. Despite the fact that the varieties have different linguistic substrata and that they are located hundreds of miles apart, both behave alike intonationally. In contrast to other varieties of Spanish, they have a strong preference for a rising-pitch accent with an early peak that occurs in both pre-nuclear and nuclear positions. When the rising-pitch accent with a late peak occurs, it is restricted mostly to the first non-nuclear position. The results also confirm Garcia’s (2011) finding about the existence of a rising-pitch accent with an extended peak in Pucallpa Spanish. Both dialects employ four heights in their tonal boundaries.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Socio-linguistic background, language consultants and data collection
- 3.Basic theoretical assumptions
- 4.Intonation of absolute questions
- 5.Intonation of pronominal questions
- 6.Intonation of echo questions
- 7.Discussion and conclusion
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Acknowledgements
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Notes
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References