JOURNAL ARTICLE

Acoustic analysis of lexical stress in Greek preschool children.

  • Published In: Journal of Monolingual & Bilingual Speech (JMBS), 2023, v. 5, n. 1. P. 59 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Papakyritsis, Ioannis; Adamopoulou, Panagiota; Kerouli, Ioanna; Sifaki, Maria 3 of 3

Abstract

The article focuses on the acoustic analysis of lexical stress in Greek preschool children, comparing their use of stress cues to that of adults. Lexical stress in Greek carries significant functional load and is primarily signaled by vowel duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency (F0) variation. The study found that while children aged 4;7 to 6;4 use vowel intensity cues similarly to adults, they rely less on vowel duration and more on pitch variation (F0) to mark stress, particularly in real words. Additionally, children exhibited more extensive devoicing of unstressed vowels, a form of vowel reduction that enhances stress prominence. These findings suggest that Greek preschoolers employ acoustic cues for lexical stress differently than adults, highlighting the developmental trajectory of prosodic features in Greek language acquisition.

Additional Information

  • Source:Journal of Monolingual & Bilingual Speech (JMBS). 2023/01, Vol. 5, Issue 1, p59
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:History
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:2631-8407
  • DOI:10.1558/jmbs.23559
  • Accession Number:164823457
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Journal of Monolingual & Bilingual Speech (JMBS) is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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