“Prosodic geography” of Russian dialects: Yes-no questions, non-finality, echo-questions

An analysis of dialectal phrase prosody in yes-no questions, echo-questions, and unmarked non-finality, based on data from sixty-two Russian as well as four Ukrainian and two Belarusian varieties, reveals that they, on the one hand, show considerable similarity, sharing a rising pitch accent and a low final boundary tone in yes-no questions and echo-questions. On the other hand, some significant dialectal distinctions emerge: 1) In the north-eastern area, a high phrase tone is used for all these purposes, while the prosodic structure of yes-no questions and unmarked non-finality differs in that the final boundary tone is higher (H %) in yes-no questions than in non-final prosodic phrases (!H %); 2) South-western dialects (as well as Ukrainian and Belarusian) stand out for their use of a complex stepwise pitch accent H*+^H* and a rising pitch accent with extra-early timing H*; 3) In the south-east, the rising pitch accent with late timing L*+H prevails; 4) The central varieties are characterized primarily by pitch accents (L+)H* and (L+H)*; 5) The north-western idioms show some basic similarities with the north-eastern dialects (the same rising pitch accent L+H*) as well as with the south-western ones (the same low phrase accent L-). Overall, the principal prosodic distinction among the Middle and Southern Russian dialects concerning the prosody of yes-no questions and non-finality is the timing of the rising pitch accent, which is significantly earlier in the East as compared to the West, while Northern Russian idioms utilize this distinction for marking the question–statement opposition. These northern dialects, therefore, differ only in the phrase accent’s type: it is low for eastern and high for western varieties, with the central dialect occupying an intermediate position and lacking phrase accent.