Effects of phrasal position and metrical structure on alignment patterns of nuclear pitch accents in German: Acoustics and articulation

In this production study, we investigate the effects of phrasal position and metrical structure on alignment patterns of nuclear rising pitch accents in German. In the acoustic domain, peak alignment varies across open and closed syllables. In the articulatory domain, these effects of metrical structure disappear. The peak shows a stable coordination pattern with the vocalic target of the accented syllable. However, effects of phrasal position occurred in both domains leading to a leftward shift of the peak towards the accented vowel. We conclude that alignment is best understood as coordinative structures between tones and oral constriction gestures instead of cooccurrence of nearby-landmarks on the acoustic surface.