The yes-no question contour in Brazilian Portuguese

The main goal of this paper is to provide a phonological analysis of neutral yes-no questions in Brazilian Portuguese in seven varieties (Paraíba, Sergipe, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul), most of them spoken along the Atlantic Coast. The analysis followed the autosegmental-metrical framework (Ladd, 2008), and the P-ToBI system for intonational labeling (Frota et al., 2015a; Frota, Oliveira, Cruz, & Vigário, 2015c). The distribution of the nuclear contour indicates a geographical continuum, where a rising contour is found in the North and a rising-falling contour in the Center-Southern regions.