Annotation of German Intonation: DIMA compared with other annotation systems

Annotating intonation is a considerable challenge, since not only intonational form but also its meaning are complex in terms of their internal make-up and contextual variation. Since the advent of the autosegmental-metrical approach to intonation in the 1980s, the annotation of intonation has continued to be a matter of debate, witnessed by the current discussion around the proposed International Prosodic Alphabet (IPrA), with a reported need for a more surface-related annotation that serves as a basis for phonological categorisation. The DIMA system accounts for such a level by providing a phonetically informed annotation of an intonation contour that nevertheless reflects its phonological core. DIMA is a consensus system for the annotation of German intonation that analyses intonation at three distinct levels: phrasing, tones and prominences. The present paper compares DIMA with other annotation systems such as GToBI, ToGI, IViE, KIM, RaP, and IPrA.