Timing relationships between prosodic and segmental control in Osaka Japanese word accent.

This paper examines onset times of prosodic and segmental transitions with corresponding sternohyoid muscle activity in the speech of Osaka Japanese. The synchronization between prosodic and segmental control occurs in words combining a close vowel followed, directly or indirectly, by an open vowel with High-Low accent, including words with devoiced accented vowels. Both segmental and prosodic control mechanisms are associated with the activity of the sternohyoid muscle. We discuss how the observed segmental-prosodic timing relation can be interpreted in terms of muscle contraction control. Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel