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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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"Vowel devoicing" is a widely observed phenomenon in Japanese. It
occurs more frequently in the Tokyo dialect (standard Japanese) and
less frequently in the Osaka dialect. Previous studies have suggested
that the frequency of devoicing is highly related to the speaking habits
of the speakers and how carefully they pronounce their words. It has
been said the speakers of the Tokyo dialects pronounce vowels less
carefully than the speakers of the Osaka dialects. The present study
examines the relation between vowel duration and the occurrence of
vowel devoicing.
The results showed the relative duration of the
vowel in a mora in a non-devoicing environment was significantly shorter
for Tokyo speakers, who consistently showed vowel devoicing, than for
the Osaka speakers who did not show vowel devoicing. However, the vowel
duration of the Osaka speakers who showed devoicing in fast speech
is not necessarily longer than that of Tokyo speakers. Furthermore,
the duration of /i/ of Tokyo speakers was constantly short regardless
of speech rate, while that of /e/ varies corresponding to speech rate.
This finding indicates that Tokyo speakers categorically differentiate
the pronunciation of high- and non-high vowels. Phonetic and phonological
aspects of vowel devoicing are discussed based upon the present results
and those of our physiological study.
Bibliographic reference. Fujimoto, Masako / Kiritani, Shigeru (2003): "Vowel duration and its effect on the frequency of vowel devoicing in Japanese: a comparison between Tokyo- and Osaka dialect speakers", In ICPhS-15, 3189-3192.