The aim of the chapter is to propose a ToBI transcription system for French, F_ToBI. The system is designed in such a way as to (i) be (surface) transparent and easily learnable by researchers working in different theoretical frameworks; and to (ii) make the exchange of data more feasible. It is couched in the Autosegmental Metrical framework and follows the usual ToBI conventions. This is to facilitate research in prosodic typology in particular within Romance, for which ToBI-style systems are often used. F_ToBI is designed to transcribe distinct intonation contours that are generally accepted in the literature on French intonation and which are supported by the analysis of empirical data. While it is inspired by existing theoretical accounts of French phrasing and intonation, it does not follow one single precursor, since its primary goal is to allow for an adequate and comprehensive transcription of French prosody in a cross-dialectal perspective.

Whistled languages are communication systems that convey an open-ended set of messages by transposing selected acoustic aspects of the spoken languages that serve as their source. There are two types: those based on non-tone languages, which transpose F2 patterns, and those based on tone languages, which transpose tone melodies. This paper examines basic phonological and phonetic properties of both types of whistled language, with the goal of eliciting their basic similarities and differences. Pitch variation is found to encode segmental distinctions in the first type of language and tonal distinctions in the second. What is common to both is the central role of amplitude modulations, which provide a frame with respect to which segmental boundaries are defined and major segmental classes are distinguished. Examples are taken from whistled languages based on Spanish, Turkish, Moba and Hmong, among others.

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