The mora and the syllable in KiMvita (Mombasa Swahili) and Japanese.

This thesis deals mainly with aspects of the phonology of KiMvita, the Swahili dialect spoken in Mombasa, and has special reference to moraic nasals. The KiMvita analysis is then compared to that of Standard Japanese. The framework of moraic theory that is employed is based on Hyman's (1985) "Weight Theory". The theories of Feature Geometry (FG) and Lexical Phonology (LP) are also employed in the analysis. Nasal+Consonant (N+C) sequences occur in two ways in KiMvita: (i) a sequence of a moraic nasal and a consonant; (ii) a prenasalized obstruent. The analysis of the varying expressions of nasality, either as a moraic segment or as an element of a complex segment shows considerable dependence upon the morphology concerned. In addition to N+C sequences, the analysis of Consonant+Glide (C+G) sequences turns out to be great relevance; these two different types of composite segment differ in underlying representation as well as in surface syllabification. Here too LP enables us to distinguish two distinct surface forms (light diphthongs and complex consonants) in terms of lexical vs. post-lexical levels. Syllable construction in this study crucially requires both an onset and a nucleus. Processes of syllabification will be discussed based on this theoretical requirement together with the following two assumptions: (i) strictly left-to-right syllabification; (ii) priority of the Onset Creation Rule. This study proposes that the accent bearer both in KiMvita and Japanese is not the syllable, which is generally claimed in the literature, but the mora - though this may be associated with a syllable node. Moraic nasals are generally associated with the second mora of a bimoraic syllable word-intemally in both KiMvita and Japanese. However, there is one significant difference in the status of the second mora in these two languages: it may bear accent in KiMvita, while it may not in Japanese. As far as these two languages are concerned, the phonetic evidence suggests that the actual segment duration could explain why such a difference occurs

Lexical quantity in Japanese and Finnish

Despite the fact that Finnish and Japanese differ from each other typologically, remarkable similarities between them can be heard. The most obvious common phonetic feature may be the linguistically distinctive quantity in both vowels and consonants. In the present study I investigated the similarities and differences of lexical quantity in Finnish and Japanese. So far, no large systematic phonetic comparative study on these two languages exists. As background, I discuss the sound systems of each language, including segments, phonotactics, syllable structures, as well as rhythm and timing issues, all being closely related to quantity. The major experiments were concentrated on production and perception of quantity: (1) the segmental, syllabic and word durational ratios of bisyllabic nonsense words with /C1V1(V1)C1(C1)V1(V1) / structure (2-5 moraic words) were measured and (2) using synthetic speech stimuli, the perceptual boundary ranges in equivalent structures were compared and correlated with three fundamental frequency and intensity patterns in order to observe their influence on quantity perception. In addition, I conducted perception tests on the Finnish /(C)VnC1(C1)V / structure with the Japanese speakers, and compared th

Phonetic Realizations in the Miyako Dialects : A Preliminary Investigation

Hokusei Gakuen UniversityFirst Published: August 1, 2012 (in Japanese

Representing the moraic nasal in Japanese: evidence from Tōkyō, Ōsaka and Kagoshima

This article reconsiders the nature and representation of the moraic nasal in Japanese dialects, which is largely assumed to be a consonantal mora (Ito 1987, Vance 2008, Labrune 2008) or a variable segment (Yoshida S. 1996, 2003; Yoshida Y. 1999). I examine phonological processes and phonetic descriptions of the Tōkyō, Ōsaka and Kagoshima varieties of Japanese and show that previous representations do not capture all of the facts. I propose that N is best represented variously as a nasal consonant, a syllabic nasal or a nasal vowel depending on the dialect. I frame this account within the theory of Strict CV (Lowenstamm 1996) and I present new representations for N, taking into account segmental and prosodic behaviour of this segment. The overarching contribution is an analysis where the tonal status of N in Japanese dialects is directly derived from the status of nuclear positions that N is associated to or adjacent to, without reference to feature sensitive rules

European Approaches to Japanese Language and Linguistics

In this volume European specialists of Japanese language present new and original research into Japanese over a wide spectrum of topics which include descriptive, sociolinguistic, pragmatic and didactic accounts. The articles share a focus on contemporary issues and adopt new approaches to the study of Japanese that often are specific to European traditions of language study. The articles address an audience that includes both Japanese Studies and Linguistics. They are representative of the wide range of topics that are currently studied in European universities, and they address scholars and students alike

Junctural Alignment in Kyoto Japanese Compound Nouns

Descriptively, in Tokyo Japanese compound words whose second member measures up to four moras in length, compound accent is placed on the syllable immediately preceding or following the boundary, or "juncture," between compound members. The length of the second member of the compound determines which of the two possible syllables is accented. Kubozono (1995) proposes an analysis with a constraint which requires that compound accent be aligned with the juncture. However, Ito and Mester (2018) account for compound accent location without reference to the juncture.Kyoto Japanese compound accent placement is similar to that of Tokyo Japanese (Nakai 2002) with a crucial difference: compound accent is placed on the mora, not the syllable, immediately preceding or following the juncture. This results in a discrepancy in which compound accent is placed on the first mora of a heavy syllable in some cases and on the second mora of a heavy syllable in other cases. I demonstrate that this discrepancy makes alignment to the juncture indispensable for Kyoto Japanese and that general left and right alignment constraints relativized to three levels of recursive word (maximal, minimal, any) cannot by themselves place compound accent in the correct location in all cases

The proximate unit in Korean speech production: Phoneme or syllable?

We investigated the “proximate unit” in Korean, that is, the initial phonological unit selected in speech production by Korean speakers. Previous studies have shown mixed evidence indicating either a phoneme-sized or a syllable-sized unit. We conducted two experiments in which participants named pictures while ignoring superimposed non-words. In English, for this task, when the picture (e.g., dog) and distractor phonology (e.g., dark) initially overlap, typically the picture target is named faster. We used a range of conditions (in Korean) varying from onset overlap to syllabic overlap, and the results indicated an important role for the syllable, but not the phoneme. We suggest that the basic unit used in phonological encoding in Korean is different from Germanic languages such as English and Dutch and also from Japanese and possibly also Chinese. Models dealing with the architecture of language production can use these results when providing a framework suitable for all languages in the world, including Korean

Research Report on Miyako Ryukyuan : General Study for Research and Conservation of Endangered Dialects in Japan

National Institute for Japanese Language and LinguisticsFrench National Centre for Scientific ResearchKyoto UniversityHiroshima UniversityUniversity of the RyukyusHokusei Gakuen UniversityHitotsubashi UniversityHitotsubashi UniversityHitotsubashi UniversityFirst Published: August 1, 2012 (in Japanese

Pitch Contour of Japanese Traditional Verse

In this thesis I conduct experiments to investigate how pitch pattern is realized in Japanese Traditional Verses. My observation consists of four parts: (i) investigation of lexical pitch and accentual combinations of Contemporary haiku in prose and in verse (ii) investigation of lexical pitch and accentual combinations of Basho’s traditional haiku (iii) observation of Nonsense haiku and (iv) pitch range measurements of Contemporary haiku in prose and in verse. As a result, the following characteristics are found: Japanese speakers (i) tend to recite Contemporary haiku that include familiar lexemes with expected pitch patterns, compared with Basho’s Traditional haiku that include more lexemes unfamiliar to the subjects (ii) have two major pitch template choices, which I term “Plateau” and “Default”, when reciting Nonsense verses, and the occurrences of these pitch patterns are supported by Japanese phonological notions such as default-accent, downstep or declining, and (iii) tend to read haiku in verse with a wider pitch range than that in prose. This thesis shows that a generalization of poetic recitation performance among human languages is as valuable as a study of poetic forms from texts. The findings from the observations suggest that diversity among speakers’ recitations of Japanese verses is also phonologically explainable, and sheds light on the studies of prosody and metrical theory in general linguistics