Vide Nordin Nobuoka: Formant Dynamics and Word Accents in Central Swedish

Studies of intrinsic F0 has mostly investigated static vocalic aspects, while the interactions between F0 and formant movements is a largely unexplored field. This thesis explores the interactions between movements in F0 and formants in Central Swedish, a dialect with word accent pitch contours and diphthongized vowels. Interactions between creaky voice and formant movement, and creaky voice and word accents are also studied. A reading elicitation task was used as material for the present study. The results showed that F0 movement may affect the degree of diphthongization; that F0 movements and diphthongized offglides tended to cooccur; and that accent II may facilitates greater formant movements in certain vowels in central Swedish. The results lended nothing conclusive about the interactions between creaky voice and formant movements, but showed that creaky voice is more likely to appear on accent I words. Insertions of labial approximants during /ʉː/, /uː/, and /oː/ were found in the studied material.