Voice Source Dynamics in Intonation

A qualitative analysis of voice source dynamics is presented for utterances varying in focal placement, with falling (F) and rising (R) pitch. Source parameters, F0, EE, UP, RG, OQ and RD were obtained by manual inverse filtering and parameterization. Results for F sentences suggest that focalization depends on the balancing of focal and non-focal portions of the entire IP. Local prominence-enhancing shifts (towards tenser phonation) are complemented by deaccentuation of post-focal material. While the broad trends are similar in F and R contours, the rising F0 of the R sentences appears to counteract the deaccentuation pattern found with the F contours. Thus, focal accentuation yields less source differentiation in the later portions of the IP.