Speaker Age Effects on Prosodic Patterns in Bulgarian

Abstract

We investigated prosodic variability attributable to age in Standard Bulgarian. In readings of The North Wind and the Sun, recorded by two groups of six female speakers aged between 19-23 and 79-88 years, we found significant differences in pitch span, minimum F0, syllable, intonation phrase and pause duration. The older speakers made more pauses, which were also of longer duration. They also realized longer syllables and intonation phrases than young speakers. Both groups used the same inventory of pitch accents and boundary tones, but there were significant differences in the frequency counts of some of the tones: young speakers used pre-nuclear rises with a post-tonic high target, while older speakers preferred rises with a high target within the stressed syllable; the nuclear pitch accent used most frequently by the young speakers was L*, whereas the one preferred by the elderly speakers was L+H*; younger speakers used more phrase accents (especially H-), while older speakers preferred boundary tones (H-% and L-%) and "level" (H-L% and HL-) pitch curves. Our findings suggest that the study of tonal repertoires and frequencies of use could offer interesting insights into age-related differences between speakers.

Vocative Intonation in Language Contact: The Case of Bulgarian Judeo-Spanish

“…4 One possible reason for these different results could be related to the fact that the Bulgarian speakers analyzed in Andreeva and Dimitrova (forthcoming a) were significantly younger. As shown by Dimitrova et al (2018), speaker age has a considerable influence on intonation in Bulgarian.…”

Temporal characteristics of read Bulgarian speech

“…По отношение на темпa на българска реч, доколкото ни е известно, съществуват малко на брой систематични описания. Dimitrova et al (2018) изследват ефекта на възрастта върху редица прозодични параметри при реч, прочетена от две групи от по шест жени на възраст между 19 -23 и 79 -88 години. Те установяват значими разлики в средната дължина на сричките (137.04 ms при по-възрастните и 83.07 ms при младите жени), средната дължина на интонационните фрази (1471.86 ms при по-възрастните и 1180.51 ms при младите жени) и два пъти повече паузи при по-възрастните жени (116), отколкото при младите (68).…”