Durational and tonal correlates of accent in Finnish

The paper reports the first study that explicitly distinguishes the phonetic correlates of sentence accents from those of word stress in Finnish (stress acted as the baseline whose correlates as against of stress were not investigated). Sentences were constructed that successfully elicited no accent, moderate accent, and strong accent on target words. The three degrees of prominence were clearly differentiated phonetically. Mere word stress was not signalled tonally, while accents were signalled mainly tonally. Strong accent involved longer segmental durations than the other degrees of prominence. Timing and extent of the accentual tonal movements were highly uniform across different word structures, and not invariably tied to the initial (stressed) syllables. The data were consistent with a view that the timing of f0 movements was dependent on the moraic structure of target words. This finding seems to be connected with the typologically rare combination of stress (or rhythmic) and quantity systems in the language. r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.