Accentual phrase in p’urepecha? exploration from its acoustic parameters

Within the prosodic hierarchy referred to in the works framed in the Autosegmental-Metrical Model of intonation (GOLDSMITH, 1976; PIERREHUMBERT, 1980 AND LADD, 1986) and the prosodic theory (SELKIRK, 1986; BECKMAN; PIERREHUMBERT, 1986; NESPOR; VOGEL 1994), it is described a domain that lies between the word and the intonational phrase (JUN, 2005; DELAIS-ROUSSARIE et al. 2015; GORDON 2005), the accentual phrase. The relevance of this domain is under discussion since it has not been documented recurrently in the prosody of the languages. This article focuses on the phonetic characteristics that indicate a phonetic-phonological marking, which could be related to an accentual phrase in the P’urhepecha of Santa Fe de la Laguna in Michoacán, Mexico. This analysis follows The Autosegmental-Metrical Model framework from a phonetic perspective. The data comes from a reading task of ten P’urhepecha-Spanish bilingual collaborators. The results show that the accentual phrase in P’urhepecha consists in a phonological tonal accent (H*) on the left edge and a phonetic disjuncture tone on the right edge (Lα). This is a preliminary analysis and the first in this language.