The prosodic hierarchy of Swedish

We give an overview of the phonological properties and processes that define the categories of the prosodic hierarchy in Swedish: the prosodic word (ω), the prosodic phrase (φ) and the intonation phrase (ι). The separation of two types of tonal prominence, big accents versus small accents (previously called focal and word accent , e.g. Bruce 1977, 2007), is crucial for our analysis. The ω in Swedish needs to be structured on two levels, which we refer to as the minimal ω and the maximal ω, respectively. The minimal ω contains one stress, whereas the maximal ω contains one accent. We argue for a separate category φ that governs the distribution of big accents within clauses. The ι governs the distribution of clause-related edge phenomena like the initiality accent and right-edge boundary tones as well as the distribution of nuclear big accents .