THE OSSETIAN LANGUAGE INTONATION: DATA OF THE INSTRUMENTAL STUDY
The article deals with the data of the Ossetian intonation instrumental study. The analysis of the works on the Ossetian phonetics aimed on determining nature, functions and components of intonation showed that only separate intonation fragments such as phrasal, syntagmatic accent, word stress, syntagma structure are described but there is no instrumental study. For the first time an attempt is made to define universal and specific features of Ossetian sentence intonation contour and to identify the perceptual relevance of the melodic contour of simple declarative and interrogative sentences of the Ossetian language. The study showed that most of the discrepancies between the announcer and native speakers' perception are found in the initial segments of simple interrogative sentences. The melodic of these parts is determined by the majority of native speakers as interrogative. This may denote that the question intention is not only in the final part of the general question, but in the initial as well.