Tone choice and voice quality of dispreferred turns in the English of Finns

Authentic Finnish-English speech data was collected as part of an English conversation class in a Finnish college. Intonation was coded utilizing the framework involving ‘tone’, ‘key’ and ‘termination’. A categorization of voice quality was chosen (e.g., ‘modal voice’, ‘creak’, ‘breathy’, and ‘tense’). The tempo of speech was transcribed with such descriptors as, e.g., ‘fast’ and ‘slow’. The majority of dispreferred turns in the data represented mitigated disagreement, with structural complexity (involving, e.g., wordiness). The p tone was predominant: a low/mid key often accompanied mitigated disagreement. The r and r+ tones were virtually absent in the mitigated dispreferred turns. Instead, the speakers often used a very lax/breathy voice quality and a slow/decelerating tempo, often resulting in creak near a transition relevant place.