Intonation Patterns in Tyrolean German: An Autosegmental-metrical Analysis

Intonation is increasingly becoming a central topic in understanding the phonology of spoken language. Geoffrey Barker gives a detailed account of the intonational structure of Tyrolean German, a South Bavarian dialect of German spoken in western Austria and northern Italy, using an autosegmental-metrical theory of intonational phonology. Based on new fieldwork data, he provides a phonetic and phonological analysis of pitch contours in Tyrolean German with the assistance of speech analysis software. He demonstrates that Tyrolean German intonation is fundamentally different from the intonation of non-southern varieties of Standard German due to its distinctive default pitch accent. This book will appeal to both intonologists and dialectologists with its illuminating depiction of the prosodic structure of this southern dialect of German. The accompanying CD enhances the reader’s experience with speech samples corresponding to the appropriate figures in the book.