Accent and intonation in a Malagasy dialect

• Main Author: Raoniarisoa, Noro
• Published: Bangor University 1990
• Subjects: 410; Merina dialect investigation
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.278101

Chapter 1 is an introduction to the Malagasy language and gives a historical background of how the notion of accent was introduced in the description of Malagasy phonology. Chapter 2 deals with Malagasy words, their formation, their accent patterns and the rules which have been so far claimed to govern the accent patterns and the accent shift in Malagasy. New explanations are given concerning the stress shift in native Malagasy words as well as in loan words. Chapter 3 covers a series of experiments on the judgment of accent (in words and in sentences) conducted by the present author on different groups of listeners namely, linguistically trained and untrained speakers of different Malagasy dialects and Malagasy speakers' judgment of accent in a foreign language (Welsh-English). Acoustic measurements of accent as judged by the informants are reported in Chapter 4 and evaluated statistically. Chapter 5 discusses a previous theory of the Malagasy accent based on syntax. Evidence is given against such a theory. A new theory is given in chapter 6, according to which accent in Malagasy is determined by intonation. Semantics seem to play a major role in delimiting intonation-groups.