Possible phrase-final tonal configurations in American English

(Revised system)

The tables below represent the same soundfiles and the same images as on the main page (with the original system). However, the organization of the tables here mirrors that of the ToBI tails diagram prepared for the ToBI Tutorial (Veilleux, Shattuck-Hufnagel, & Brugos 2006) in consultation with Mary Beckman based on graphics by Julia Hirschberg.

The representation here differs from the ToBI tails diagram in two major ways. First, the third row of the diagram, representing the sequence of H* followed by !H*, is not included here. (That pattern requires a sequence of two stressed syllables, but Menomonee and no have only one stressed syllable each.) Second, the renditions of the contours in the bottom row (H+!H*) differ from the diagram in several ways.

For this particular set of utterances, the two systems were mapped onto each other as follows:

Old New
L+H*_H-L% L+H*_!H-L%
L+H*_H-H% L+H*_!H-H%
L*+H_H-L% L*+H_!H-L%
L*+H_H-H% L*+H_!H-H%
H+L*_L-L% H+!H*_L-L%
H+L*_L-H% H+!H*_L-H%
H+L*_H-L% H+!H*_H-L%
H+L*_H-H% H+!H*_H-H%
H*+L_H-L% H*_!H-L%
H*+L_H-H% H*_!H-H%

To download an individual soundfile, right-click on the audio player. All of the soundfiles can be downloaded at once in this zip file (2.33 MB).

(Back to original system page)


"Menomonee"

L-L%

L-H%

H-L%

H-H%

!H-L%

!H-H%

H*

L*

N/A N/A

L+H*

(No recording yet) (No recording yet)

L*+H

(No recording yet) (No recording yet)

H+!H*

(No recording yet) (No recording yet)


"no"

L-L%

L-H%

H-L%

H-H%

!H-L%

!H-H%

H*

L*

N/A N/A

L+H*

(No recording yet) (No recording yet)

L*+H

(No recording yet) (No recording yet)

H+!H*

(No recording yet) (No recording yet)