Inuktitut and the concept of word-level prominence

• Main Authors: Arnhold, Anja, Elfner, Emily, Compton, Richard
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2023
• Subjects: Baffin Island; Baffin; inuit; Inuit–Yupik; inuktitut; Qikiqtaaluk; Qikiqtaaluk nigiani; Unangan; Yupik
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198840589.003.0005; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/50558348/oso-9780198840589-chapter-5.pdf

Abstract This chapter addresses the question of word prominence in Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, a part of the Inuit dialect continuum constituting a branch of the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan language family. The Inuit language is an extreme example of polysynthesis, with productive noun and verb incorporation that can be applied recursively, along with extensive word-internal modification. The main analysis is based on original data from South Baffin Island (Qikiqtaaluk Nigiani) Inuktitut, but the chapter also examines the literature on other varieties from across the language family. We present acoustic analyses of three potential correlates of stress or prominence: duration, fundamental frequency and intensity. Duration of syllables increased at the end of the word, while fundamental frequency and intensity dropped at the right word edge. Word-internally, no alternating or other regular patterns appeared. Comparing these results to hypotheses of what would be expected for metrical stress systems and other types of word prominence, we conclude that there is no indication that South Baffin Island Inuktitut has stress or another type of word-level prominence. Instead, in line with previous research on Inuit prosody, we find that the language regularly marks the borders of words and other prosodic constituents.