Pitch accent typology and intonation in the three dialects of Ryukyuan

• This paper examines the intonation of the three dialects of Ryukyuan from a perspective of lexical pitch accent typology. Together with Japanese, Ryukyuan forms a Japonic language family; it is also an endangered and understudied language despite its typologically interesting features. The three dialects of Ryukyuan differ in their lexical pitch accent types; they have an H*L accent (Shuri), an L*H accent (Nakijin), and no accent (Miyako) respectively. Furthermore, Ryukyuan has obligatory mood suffixes to indicate various sentence types including the presence or absence of the focus. In this paper, we analyze the intonation in the three dialects of Ryukyuan with reference to the syntactic structure and focus manifestation. The results showed both similarities and differences in their prosodic organizations. The importance of a phrasal tone (H- and L-) as well as the similarity between the L*H dialect and the accentless dialect are discussed.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Ryukyuan

lexical pitch accent typology

syntax

focus

mood suffix 1

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)