Polar question intonation in Russian speech from Moscow and Perm

Abstract

In Central Standard Russian, polar (yes/no) questions are typically pronounced with a high rise on the nuclear syllable, followed by a fall to low level, starting immediately or shortly after the nuclear syllable. Recent studies suggest that the pitch peak in the rising pitch accent is moving to the first postnuclear syllable in the speech of younger Russians. The difference in peak alignment might be both generational and regional. Most young urban Russians speak with little or no regional traits, but speech from Perm (Ural) is known for a comparably strong local colouring, partly due to its intonation. We compared the prosodic realisation of polar questions produced by 33 adolescents in the capital Moscow and in Perm. In our data, most renderings from both cities have their pitch peak on the first posttonic syllable, but on average, the boys from Perm align the peaks later and use a lower F0 maximum and an overall narrower pitch span than their peers in Moscow. No such significant differences could be found between the girls from Moscow and Perm, suggesting that the girls tend to use an intonation closer to a non-local norm than the boys, at least in this reading task.