A dialectometric approach to Romanian intonation.

This paper presents the first dialectometric analysis of intonational variation of standard spoken Romanian. The data analysed (26,680 sentences) were gathered within the AMPER-ROM project and the dialectometrical analysis has been carried out with ProDis. The results are consistent with the geolinguistic descriptions of Romanian varieties. ProDis identified two major areas for yes-no questions: a central-eastern one (Moldo-Walachian), with rising contours, and a central-western one (Transylvanian, discontinuously continuing over Bukovina to Bessarabia--the Republic of Moldova--), which presents also falling contours. The study suggests that intonational areas are somehow more conservative of and (relatively) independent from segmental dialectal areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]