Guillermo Andrés Toledo
Prenuclear pitch accents (primitives of prominence intonation by the association of H(igh) and L(ow) to segments), and tonal synchronization patterns, the relationship between the duration of the accented syllable and the peak timing, have been analyzed. Three laboratory corpora and two materials of spontaneous speech have been acoustically examined. Pitch accents are classified according to micro-spaces determined by psychophonetic differences, the tonal threshold in each accent rules the opposition H versus L. Results indicate higher frequency of pitch accents H*, H* + L and L + H*, and lower and asystematic correlation between accented syllable duration and peak timing. Findings do not support the view that prenuclear pitch accents in Hispanic dialects are constant, an occurrence of L* + H due to overshooting, but the presence of tonal variation4