Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This paper is to investigates tonal variation of Kagoshima Japanese in terms of generational difference of tone production and related social factors, and to discuss the possibility that this variation represents an ongoing change of a systematic shift of accentuation.

Paper long abstract:

Hayata (1999) argues that, while Tokyo Japanese (henceforth TJ) is classified as a ‘Word accent’ (or pitch-accent) dialect, some regional dialects of Kyushu Island employ tone patterns, or ‘Word tone’, to decide tonal contour of words. KJ belongs to this category and has two types of tone pattern. Type A has a pitch prominence (or a high tone) on the penultimate syllable of word (e.g. kaede, ‘maple’, LHL), and Type B does on the final syllable (e.g. momiji, ‘autumn leaves’, LLH). As to pitch movement, these tone types correspond to the pitch-fall (or accented) pattern and the flat (or unaccented) pattern of TJ respectively. However, there is a sharp discrepancy of auditory image of many lexical items between the traditional KJ tone contour and that of TJ, and to resolve this discrepancy, young KJ speakers tend to select the same accentuation types as TJ which can be called as ‘innovative’ KJ. This tonal change seems to have been brought about by dialect contact between KJ and TJ, possibly through mass media broadcast.

By analysing data collected from 30 speakers (10 elderly and 20 young), the following two findings were obtained.

First, the elderly speakers often produce wrong tones in TJ style by mistakenly utilizing TJ tone contours which sounds ‘typical TJ’ to them. This fact suggests that their tone production is heavily influenced by ‘word tone’, not ‘pitch accent’. In contrast, most young speakers are a highly competent bidialectal, producing almost perfect TJ tones with correct pitch-accents. Second, social meaning is a promoting factor of innovative tones. Young people preferring to the youth or pop culture in Tokyo area are the main user of the innovative flat tone, and this seems to be closely related to their media practice. Media broadcast contributes to form language ideology in a local community. Individual differences of tone production could be ascribed to local ideology including their attitude to language varieties.

From these findings, I argue that the accentuation of young KJ speakers is shifting towards the pitch-accent type system like TJ and the ongoing change is motivated by these social factors.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

The mid-western Satsuma dialect prefers closed syllables. The syllable-final consonants are distinctive but, in some cases, semi-neutralized. The analysis of the semi-neutralization extracts two contrastive categories. They let us study vague distinctions that have been difficult to treat so far.

Paper long abstract:

The Satsuma and Ōsumi dialects of Japanese prefer closed syllables when compared to other, major Japanese dialects. The closed syllables in Satsuma and Ōsumi end in (1a) a stop, (1b) nasal, (1c) palatal fricative, or (1d) palatal approximant. Since these syllable-final consonants are distinctive, they can be defined as forming the syllable-final contrastive categories (2a) {Q}, (2b) {N}, (2c) {ç}, and (2d) {j}.

Closed syllables in some words, however, can end in either of the two or more consonants listed in (1). This fact shows that these syllable-final consonants are semi-neutralized in particular words.

Analyzing the syllable-final semi-neutralization between (1a-d), we can further define the following five syllable-final contrastive categories.

(3)

a. {Q,N}: realized as a stop or nasal

b. {ç,j}: realized as a palatal fricative or palatal approximant

c. {N,j}: realized as a nasal or palatal approximant

d. {Q,ç}: realized as a stop or palatal fricative

e. {Q,N,ç}: realized as a stop, nasal, or palatal fricative(/approximant)

Satsuma and Ōsumi are famous for their preference for closed syllables, and the closed syllables have been studied from both phonological and historical perspectives. Previous studies, however, paid no attention to syllable-final semi-neutralization between (1a-d) because its occurrence is restricted both among Japanese dialects and within each particular dialect. Furthermore, it is unclear whether contrastive categories as in (2-3) can be defined as phonemes. This is because traditional phonology has trouble in treating different contrastive categories that share the same realization.

With this issue in mind, this paper tackles the issue of whether (2) and (3) can be defined as phonemes. Through examining the distribution of and distinction between consonants in the mid-western Satsuma dialect, a variation of Satsuma and Ōsumi, I will argue for the existence of semi-neutralized but contrastive phonemic categories.

The syllable-final contrastive categories in (2) are not phonemes because their distinction results from the syllable-final neutralization between consonant phonemes. For the same reason, (3a-c) are not phonemes as well. However, (3d-e) can be defined as phonemes because they are distinguishable from all other consonant phonemes.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how the linguistic prestige of Kansai and Tōhoku dialects influences the representation of these varieties in contemporary Japanese literature.

Paper long abstract:

The representation of dialects in fictional texts often reflects real language attitudes and ideologies towards non-standard varieties (Hodson 2012). This paper focuses on two dialects: Kansai dialect, known for its covert prestige due to cultural and historical importance of its region, and Tōhoku dialect, one of the most ridiculed and stigmatized variety of Japanese (Inoue 1989, Kumagai 2019). A corpus of Japanese novels written after 1980 with the representation of either of those two dialects was analyzed, using an interdisciplinary methodology, which combined methods from perceptual dialectology and literary studies within Fairclough's (1995) three-dimensional framework for discourse analysis. First, the history of the two varieties was discussed, especially their past and present social significance. Next, the fragments featuring the dialects were examined to determine how, through the narration, stylistic devices and linguistic means, an image of each dialect was created. Then particular attention was paid to the social characteristics of the fictional speakers and the situations in which the dialects are used. Finally, after establishing reoccurring patterns in those texts, Kansai and Tōhoku dialect representations were compared to see to how the prestige influence their representation. The research findings showed that while the difference in prestige plays a significant role in the perception of Kansai and Tōhoku dialects, their overall images in contemporary literature are much more diverse than expected.

Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. New York:

Hodson, J. (2014). Dialect in Film and Literature. London: Macmillan International Higher Education. Keigo, H. (1988). Naniwa shōnentanteidan. Tōkyō: Kōdansha.

Inoue, F. (1989). Kotoba-zukai Shin-fukei.Tokyo: Akiyama Shoten.

King, S. et. al (2021). Sounding like a father: The influence of regional dialect on perceptions of masculinity and fatherhood, in: Language in Society , 51(2) , 2022 , pp. 285 – 308.

Kumagai, S. (2019). Tohoku Dialect in NHK Morning Dramas: The Persistent Stigmatization of Tohoku Dialect in Japanese Media. In: Studies in humanities 69 (2), pp. 103-129.

Longman. Heinrich, P. (2012). The Making of Monolingual Japan: Language Ideology and Japanese Modernity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Yi, Y. (1996). "Kokugo" to iu shisō: Kindai Nihon no gengo ninshiki. Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten.