This study examines the production and use of the rise-fall contour by three Yiddish/English bilinguals in a small American Jewish community. Acoustic analysis shows that the Yiddish rise-falls have higher peaks, larger rise spans, and later Tonal Centers of Gravity compared to a similar intonational contour in English. These results hold for all three speakers despite their diverse linguistic histories. Additionally, evidence is provided that rise-falls with higher peaks have social meaning in both languages. English rise-falls are produced with higher peaks during meetings of a local Yiddish club than during one-on-one interviews, and rise-falls with high peaks are used in both Yiddish and English during an exchange in which one of the speakers discusses his relationship to Passover. The social meaning of the phonetically extreme rise-falls is posited to be the reason why all three speakers have either successfully acquired or maintained phonetic distinctiveness between their English and Yiddish.

这项研究研究了在一个小的美国犹太社区中，三名意第绪语/英语双语者对上升-下降轮廓的产生和使用。声学分析表明，与英语中类似的国际轮廓相比，依第绪语的上升-下降具有更高的峰值，更大的上升跨度和更晚的音调重心。尽管他们的语言历史各不相同，但所有三位演讲者的结果均如此。此外，提供了证据，表明高峰和高峰的上升和下降在两种语言中都具有社会意义。与当地的一对一采访相比，在当地的依地语俱乐部举行会议时，英语的上升高峰更高；在一次交流中，一名演讲者讨论他的观点时，在意第绪语和英语中都使用了峰值高峰。与逾越节的关系。