Building a prosodic profile of European Portuguese varieties: the challenge of mapping intonation and rythm

Abstract

In the present paper we explore a methodology to map prosodic variation in Portuguese, namely intonation and rhythm, which goes beyond the traditional approaches used to represent segmental, lexical or syntactic variation. To find the most adequate mapping method for intonation and rhythm, we tested spatial interaction models for the representation of nuclear contours, and spatial interpolation methods for rhythmic distinctions across varieties. Our results show a non-contiguous distribution of prosodic features, thus not matching the regional areas previously defined on the basis of segmental, lexical or syntactic variation. These results, together with those of previous studies across varieties of other languages, provide growing evidence that the distribution of prosodic features tends to be independent of geography, unlike non-prosodic variation.