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

Syllable Weakening in Kagoshima Japanese An Element-Based Analysis

This paper examines syllable weakening or nisshōka (入声化) in Kagoshima Japanese (KJ), where high vowel apocope feeds lenition, leading to correspondences such as Tōkyō Japanese (TJ) [kaki] ‘persimmon’ and Kagoshima [kaʔ]. The traditional pattern noted in the literature is quite clear. Apocope elides stem-final /u/ or /i/. The preceding onset is lenited in one of four ways: 1) stops and affricates are debuccalised (/kaki/ > [kaʔ] ‘persimmon’); 2) fricatives undergo voicing neutralisation (TJ [kazu] > KJ [kas] ‘number’); 3) nasals undergo place loss (TJ [kami] > KJ [kaɴ] ‘paper’); 4) rhotics undergo gliding (TJ [maru] > [maj] ‘round’). This paper presents an initial analysis of the data within Element Theory representational framework

Savosavo word stress: A quantitative analysis

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of stress in Savosavo (Papuan isolate), an endangered language spoken on Savo Island (Solomon Islands. Acoustic analyses comprise the measurements of F0, duration, and intensity for each syllable in a dataset carefully selected from elicited speech from one speaker only, aiming to test the effect of increasing morphological complexity on stress realization in a system that displays some variation. Statistically significant variation is found in all correlates between stressed and unstressed syllables, thus fitting with widely attested manifestations of stress cross-linguistically. Findings were further tested with a re-synthesis tool, to confirm our initial hypotheses. Our results demonstrate that the current annotation scheme is a reliable representation of the data, and that the qTA component embedded in PENTAtrainer2 is effective in modelling F0 contours, even with less controlled data as input. We will argue for the usefulness of instrumental phonetic investigations in describing lesser-known languages, to enhance our understanding of the characterization of the prosodic systems of the world’s languages.Findings were further tested with a re-synthesis tool, to confirm our initial hypotheses. Our results demonstrate that the current annotation scheme is a reliable representation of the data, and that the qTA component embedded in PENTAtrainer2 is effective in modelling F0 contours, even with less controlled data as input. We will argue for the usefulness of instrumental phonetic investigations in describing lesser-known languages, to enhance our understanding of the characterization of the prosodic systems of the world’s languages