The Interactive atlas of Catalan intonation website contains a whole series of oral materials in audio and video format intended to provide the basis for further in-depth studies of Catalan prosody. These materials are organized according to the standard geographical dialect areas designated for Catalan, namely Central Catalan, Western Catalan and Balearic Catalan (the Balearic Islands are Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera). For the moment, linguistic data are available only for the different varieties making up the Balearic Catalan language domain (see. maps of dialects), namely:

• Majorca: Palma, Manacor, Binissalem, Sineu, Pollença and Sóller.
• Minorca: Maó, Ciutadella and es Migjorn.
• Ibiza (Eivissa): Eivissa city, Sant Josep and Santa Eulàlia.
• Formentera: Sant Francesc Xavier.

Regarding the selection of locales, it was decided to include: a) the capital cities of each island, and b) all population centers that are relatively large and have particular or unique dialectal characteristics relative to the variety of Catalan spoken in the islands.

In terms of content, for each population center selected, data was obtained by means of three main methods:

 

A. Intonation survey

Examples of different types of utterance (roughly 48 contours per locale) were taken from among the responses to an intonation survey. This survey was based on that used by Prieto (2001) and is designed to evoke everyday situations. It is an inductive method in which the researcher presents the subject with a series of situations (such as “You go into a shop you have never been in before and ask the shop assistant if they sell sugar”) and then asks him or her to respond accordingly. This method is especially useful because it allows the researcher to obtain a wide range of intonation contours that are difficult to obtain with other methods.

To date, 35 subjects have been surveyed in the abovementioned locales within the Balearic Catalan linguistic domain. Subject surveyed were mostly women aged between 25 and 45 years (see “Subject characteristics”).

The survey consisted of approximately 48 situations, each intended to elicit a particular type of utterance. Utterances were organized as follows (see intonation survey for a description of the type of sentence elicited in each section of the survey):

• Declaratives
• Absolute interrogatives
• Partial interrogatives
• Reiterative questions
• Requests and orders
• Vocatives

The intonation pattern for each utterance is described in a file which contains the fundamental frequency contour as measured using the Pitchworks program, the audio file, a description of the melodic curve, the ToBI prosodic labeling (see Cat-ToBI), an interpretation (in Catalan) of the utterance, and a plot of the intonation contour.

 

B. Map Tasks

The Map Task is a validated technique in which two subjects cooperate to complete a specified task. It is designed to cause the subjects to produce particular interrogative patterns. Each of the two subjects has a map of an imaginary town marked with buildings and other specific elements such as fountains and monuments. A route is marked on the map of one of the two participants (to see this version of the map, use this link: mapa-giver1, mapa-giver2), and that person has the role of the instruction-giver. The version of the same map held by the other participant (see mapa-follower1, mapa-follower2) differs from that of the instruction-giver in that it does not show the route to be followed. The second participant therefore has to ask the instruction-giver questions in order to be able to reproduce the same route on his or her own map.

Roughly 30 records have been obtained thus far by means of this method. An audio recording of the performance of the Map Task and its corresponding orthographic transcription (see transcription criteria) can be accessed for each locale. The participating subjects were women aged between 20 and 35 years with a secondary or university education.

 

C. Videotaped conversations

The source for the third set of data is the Audio-visual archive of Catalan dialects of the Balearic Islands, a project directed by Jaume Corbera. The Archive contains audio-visual materials representing approximately 100 hours of conversation. They are for the most part conversations among groups of relatives or friends brought together by the researcher. Though participants knew they were being videotaped, the researcher him or herself did not actively participate, and the fact that the conversations took place within an informal group of friends or relatives facilitated the spontaneity and flow of speech. The people recorded for the Archives were 111 men and 73 women, all aged over 60 years.

A representative segment of conversation has been chosen for each locale and posted on this website. The segment is available in both audio and video formats (although the video format has restricted access) and the corresponding orthographical transcription (see transcription criteria) is also provided.

 

 

Persones enquestades

Enquesta d’entonació

 

Mallorca

Palma

Maria Bauzà Seguí: 29 anys
Mònica López Chicano: 23 anys

Sineu

Maria Magdalena Genovart Sansó: 19 anys

Binissalem

Maria Josep Ferrà i Serra: 24 anys

Manacor

Magdalena Rigo: 21 anys

Sóller

Antònia Albertí Navarro: 40 anys
Fina Vicens Abat: 29 anys

Pollença

Maria Antònia Palou Serra: 36 anys
Úrsula Perelló Cerdà: 29 anys

 

Menorca

Ciutadella

Maria Benejam, 43 anys
Esperança Pons, 33 anys
Leonor Pons, 32 anys

Migjorn Gran

Teresa Orfila, 40 anys
Margarita Camps, 41 anys

Maó

Conxa Juanola, 40 anys
Mònica Bisbal, 30 anys

Eivissa

Ciutat d’Eivissa

Maria Joan: 21 anys.
Elsa Torres: 29 anys.
Carme Balanzat: 50 anys.
Neus Sagristà: 22 anys.

Santa Gertrudis

Neus Serra: 21 anys.

Sant Josep

Fina Ribas: 22 anys.
Lídia Torres: 32 anys.

 

Formentera

Sant Francesc Xavier

Marina Mayans: 21 anys.
Àngels Ferrer: 21 anys.