A dialectometrical analysis of intonation in the catalan-speaking area

This paper presents the results of a dialectometrical analysis of the intonation of broad focus statements and information-seeking yes-no questions in Catalan. The dialectometrical analysis technique aims at gropuing the data basing on the distances among them. The first step of the analysis consists in calculating a distance matrix. Such distances are then represented, by means of Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), in a metric space having the lowest possible number of dimensions. In this space, the proximity between objects is represented with the highest degree of fidelity. Another way of representing the results of the analysis is the dendrogram, a tree which also reflects the groupings of the cases. Dialectometry represents an interesting and useful quantitative analysis technique that can offer an alternative view to dialectology. Yes-no questions headed by the unstressed particule que represent the orational modality that most clearly distinguishes the dialectal areas, as shown in previous studies.