2024/07/01 by Kumiko Sato · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Linguistics and language evolution #Phonetics and Phonology Research
paper · doi:10.15084/0002000276
openalex publication_date 2024/07/01 · openalex created_date 2026/04/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/28
Syllables containing the consonant /r/ (henceforth, /r/ syllables) often undergo sound alternation to a moraic nasal called hatsuon and to moraic consonants called sokuon in the natural Japanese discourse. This alternation is found throughout Japan and unevenly distributed geographically (Uwano 1989); furthermore, the frequency and environment vary among dialects (Ohashi 1974, Hino 1984, Tatsuki 2019). Using the Corpus of Japanese Dialects, this study reports the actual situation of /r/ syllables alternation of various verbs found in natural Japanese discourse of the Kanto and Tohoku regions. The following points are highlighted: (i) The alternation occurs from Kanto to Tohoku, but it occurs more frequently toward Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ibaraki and less frequently away from them; (ii) the frequency of alternations is generally correlated, but not in all dialects; and (iii) in the alternation environment, dialectal variations are observed.