Pragmatics of syllable lenghthening in metaphonetic Asturian

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze some syllable lengthening phaenomena in oral speech of south-central area of Asturias. In local language converge both vowel harmony and syllable lengthening phaenomena linked to different pragmatic functions, either with stressed and unstressed phonetic units. This phenomena will be analysed attending to different illocutionary types and different pragmatic variables as well as considering their confluence with other kinds of prominence (intensity and pitch) and even incipent cases of grammaticalization.