The effect of non-conclusive melodic rises on Czech speech sounding French

This paper is based on a study of first language attrition in Czechs living in France, which reveals that Czech expatriates in France use prominent rises in non-conclusive intonation patterns in their na-tive language. We manipulated the speech of six expatriates by reducing the fundamental frequency (f0) range of non-conclusive rises in a phrase, and the speech of six Czech control speakers by ex-panding the f0 range to mimic the French-like prominent rises. The manipulations served, alongside filler items, as the basis for a perception test in which 37 native Czech listeners assessed how much the speakers' pronunciation manifested marks of a long-term stay in France. The results confirmed our hypothesis that expanding the control speakers' f0 range would increase the perceived effect of French. However, reducing the f0 range in the expatriate group did not yield lower French-effect rat-ings, most likely due to the presence of other pronunciation features in their speech.