Goizuetako azentuaz zerbait gehiago: oharmena

Abstract

As we have shown in previous work, in the Basque dialect of Goizueta both the position of the stress and the tonal contour that the stressed syllable bears are lexically contrastive. In this paper we report on a perception test designed to examine the robustness of these contrasts. 40 native speakers of Goizueta Basque, including a balanced representation of both genders and two age groups, were asked to identify a number of recorded stimuli by selecting a picture. The stimuli included singular/plural pairs contrasting in tone as well as lexical minimal pairs (e.g arrántza'braying'/arràntza'fishing'). The percentage of correct identifications was very high for both age groups; in fact, slightly higher for the younger group. We conclude that pitch-accent contrasts are stable in Goizueta and serve to convey lexical and grammatical meaning. The Basque dialect of Goizueta has thus preserved prosodic contrasts that in all likelihood were once common in a much larger geographical area.