Can speech pitch perception be measured language-independently?

Recently, a test battery was developed to assess perception of F0 in linguistic, but language-independent, contexts by listeners from different language backgrounds. Test validation using Dutch, Italian and Romanian listeners generally showed comparable performance. In this study we present cross-language results on how F0 contributes to prominence perception in the Dutch (a Germanic language) and Italian and Romanian (Romance languages), and on how F0 trades off with duration, a second important cue to prominence. We discuss implications of these results for the language-independent set-up of the test battery.