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Academic Paper

Title:	Asymmetries in the intonation system of the tonal dialect of Maastricht Limburgish
Author:	Carlos Gussenhoven
Email:	click here to access email
Homepage:	http://www.ru.nl/taalwetenschap/medewerkerspagina's/carlos-gussenhoven/
Institution:	Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Linguistic Field:	Phonology
Subject Language:	Limburgish
Abstract:	The lexical tone and intonation contrasts in the Limburgish dialect of Maastricht are remarkable in a number of ways. While a falling pitch contour on an IP-medial syllable signals a non-declarative intonation, on an IP-final syllable it signals a declarative intonation. In addition, although there is a binary tone contrast (Accent 1 vs. Accent 2) and four nuclear intonation contours, only three intonation contours exist for nuclear syllables with Accent 2, while in IP-final position only two intonation contours exist for nuclear syllables with Accent 1, so that the full set of four intonation contours is only observable in IP-medial nuclear syllables with Accent 1. The context-dependent function of the pitch fall and the asymmetries are explained by a grammar in which the OCP is enforced absolutely, and the number of tones per syllable is restricted to two, unless the three tones each represent a different morpheme: OCP, R≫#TTT.

	This article appears in Phonology Vol. 29, Issue 1, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST .

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