Transcript Accent reduction in two dialects of Japanese

Phonetic manifestation of word
accents in sentence perspetive
-a comparison of Tokyo and Kochi Japanese
Yasuko Nagano-Madsen
Dept. Of Oriental & African Languages,
Göteborg University
Accent is weakened *in the following cases
(for text reading and for learners of Japanese)
*appears at the reduced pitch register/downstep, catathesis
from Kori (1997:189)
1.
When a noun is modified by a preceding ajective
or with the genitive particle no
aoi doresu
watashi no doresu
2.
’a blue dress’
’my dress’
When a predicate verb is modified by a preceding
adverb(ial) element or with the particle .
kinou yonda
hitori de yonda
’I read (it)yesterday’
’I read (it) alone’
3. The second word in a parellel expression :
nihon to amerika ’Japan and USA’
aka ka shiro
’red or white’
4. group of words after a focused word
******************************************
1-3 are syntactically conditioned
4 is pragmatically conditioned
Tokyo vs. Osaka Japanese
• Kori (1989:120)
– In Osaka Japanese, the magnitude of
reduction is not as great as that in Tokyo
Japanese
• Sugito(2001:204-5)
– Tokyo Japanese -> intonation lang.
– Osaka Japanese->(word)accent lang.
Purpose of the present study
• Pilot study to examine dialectal differences
regarding accent manifestation in relation to
syntax (modifier)
• Tokyo vs. Kochi Japanese
• Hypotheses
– 1. Syntax prosody mapping is manifested
less in Kochi dialect (sf. Sugito 2001)
– The magnitude of accent reduction for the
second accent is less in Kochi dialect
– (cf. Kori 1989)
Meterial
1.
NP consisting of a noun modified by another noun with
the genetive particle no
oka’asan no presento
oka’asan no huku’
ne’ko no prezento
ne’o no huku’
2.
’mother’s present’
’mother’s dress’
’present from a cat’
’a dress for cat’
When a predicate verb is modified by a preceding
adverb(ial) element or with the particle .
iso’ide aruita
do’ndon aruita
’I walked fast’
’I walked fast’
• 3. NP(subject) ga V (predicate)
Hanako ga aruita
’Hanako walked (it is Hanako who walked,
not Taro)’
1 and 2 appeared in isolation, as subject
phrase, part of sentence modifier, and in
focal position. 36 sentences.
Speakers and recording
procedure
• Recordings were made in summer 2006
• Speakers were university teachers,
administrative staffs, and students
• 20 – 65 years
• Both male and female speakers
• Speakers took a look of wordlist (5 minutes)
• Slow and fast speaking rates, sometimes
speakers had to re-read the utterance
measurements
• PRAAT
• Accent peaks were measured both in
Hz and semitone
Pitch range in semitone scale
-Chinese (Lin 2004) spontaneous speech
-Japanese (Nagano-Madsen & Ayusawa 2005)
simulated emotional speech by voice actors
Chinese
Japanese
Male
average
Female
average
125.7 Hz
217.9Hz
16.4 st
16.2 st
(N=37)
(N=42)
13.9 st
14.3 st
(N=3)
(N=3)
Results
• Tokyo 4 speakers,
• Kochi 5 speakers
• NP (N no N)
• Ad V
• Sentence modifier
1. Syntax prosody mapping
N no N (98 vs. 94%)
Ad. V (100% vs 90%)
100
90
80
%
Tokyo
Kochi
70
60
50
N no N
Ad V
dialect
Great difference in syntax prosody mapping
was found for sentence modifier (relative
clause)
• Example
• Oka’asan no pure’zento ga todo’ita a’sa datta
• Mother-Gen
present-Nom
arrived morning it was
• =It was the morning when mother’s present arrived.
Tokyo (speaker S.B.)
slow
F0 contours (fast speech) for
oka’asan no pure’zento ga todo’ita a’sa datta
’It was the morning when mother’s present arrived’
fast
Kochi (speaker Y.K.)
slow
QuickTime och en
TIFF (okomprimerat)-dekomprimerare
krävs för att kunna se bilden.
F0 contours (fast speech) for
oka’asan no pure’zento ga to’doita asa’ yatta
’It was the morning when mother’s present arrived’
fast
Sentence modifier consisting of 3 or 4 accents
N no N V N or (N ga) Ad V N
1 unit = no F0 reset
2 units=1 F0 reset
3 units=2 F0 resets
Sentence modifier as one prosodic unit?
80
70
60
%
50
Tokyo
40
Kochi
30
20
10
0
1
2
number of units
3
2. Magnitude of reduction in semitone
NP (N no N)
e.g. oka’asan no pure’zento ’mother’s present’
accent reduction in semitone
Tokyo (average 5.2 semitones)
8
7
6
5
slow
3.4
4
3
2
1
0
YY
my
SB
MM
speaker (capital initial=female speaer)
Kochi Japanese
accent reduction in semitone
Kochi (average 3.5 semitones)
8
7
6
5
slow
4
fast
3
2
1
0
YK
MN
mi
mc
speakers (capital initial=female speaker)
yk
Magnitude of accent reduction (in semitone)
N no N (5.2 vs. 3.5)
Ad V (6.4 vs. 4.2)
NP (subject) ga V (predicate)(2.9 vs. 2.5)
7
reduction in semitone
6
5
4
Tokyo
Kochi
3
2
1
0
N no N
Ad V
NP ga V
Conclusion
• 1. Syntax prosody mapping was
manifested less in the Kochi dialect
• 2. The magnitude of accent reduction
(downstep) was consistently less for the
Kochi dialect.