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THE ORIGIN OF ALTERNATIONS IN INITIAL PITCH IN THE VERBAL PARADIGMS OF THE CENTRAL JAPANESE (KYÔTO TYPE) ACCENT SYSTEMS

ELISABETH DE BOER

1. Introduction Nowadays, the prosodic systems of most modern Japanese dialects can be described as pitch accent systems.1 These pitch accent systems developed as a result of a reduction of the number of tonal oppositions that still existed in earlier stages of the language. In old manuscripts, these original and more numerous tonal oppositions were expressed by means of so- called tone dots, which were in use from the 11th to the early 14th century, when the markings became confused and were abandoned. The value of the tone dots was based on the tone value of Middle Chinese tones, or rather on how Middle Chinese tones were regarded in Japan at the time. As in these earlier stages the pitch of (almost) every syllable was distinctive, the prosodic system of the Japanese language at this stage can be analyzed as a level tone language.2 As the old tone dot material stems from the capital of Kyôto in the (late) Early Middle Japanese (800-1200) and (early) Late Middle Japanese (1200-1600) periods, I refer to this stage in the historical development of Japanese prosodic systems as the Middle Kyôto dialect. The relationship between the tone dot attestations and modern dialectal oppositions is such that for practical purposes we can equate the tone system of the 11th to early 14th centuries with the tone system of Proto Japanese. There is, however, some controversy surrounding the correct interpre- tation of the value of the tone dots. On the one hand there is the prevalent theory, which has been around since the early 1920s, and which has ruled since the 1950s (cf. Kindaichi, 1951), and on the other hand there is what has become known as ‘Ramsey’s theory’, which was published by Samuel

1 In a small number of dialects all pitch distinctions have disappeared. 2 Contour tones were rare, and are usually considered to be the result of contractions. The main two Late Middle Chinese tones that were used to express the pitches of Japanese were the ping tone and the shang tone. Ping was represented by a dot at the lower left corner of a character or kana sign (syllabic graph), and shang was represented by a dot at the upper left corner.  &-*4"#&5)Û%&Û#0&3

Robert Ramsey in 1979, in which the interpretation of the tone dots is the exact reverse of that in the prevalent theory. In my dissertation (2005) I have argued that Ramsey’s reconstruction of the Middle Kyôto pitches, which in general has not found acceptance,3 must have been correct all along. First of all, as Ramsey already pointed out, it explains a large number of prosodic phenomena in the modern dialects for which the prevalent theory oers no explanation. In addition however, it turns out that – contrary to what is usually believed – it is not in contradiction with descriptions of the Middle Chinese tones by Japanese Buddhist monks from the 9th to the late 13th century. (After this period however, the Japanese tone descriptions change radically.) Finally (and this is the most well-known aspect of Ramsey’s theory), it is the only theory that oers an explanation for the peculiar geographical distribution of the dierent accent types in Japan.

2. The two main pitch accent types in Japan and their geographical distribution I will limit myself in this section to an introduction of the two main accentual types of Japan. These are called the Tôkyô type and the Kyôto type. The Kyôto type accent systems are limited to a large area in central Japan, in and surrounding the city of Kyôto, which is the former capital of Japan. Although the Tôkyô type accent systems derive their name from the city of Tôkyô, the Tôkyô type accent systems in fact surround the Kyôto type dialect area on all sides. The Tôkyô type accent system can again be divided into two sub-types, the so-called Chûrin type and the Gairin type. (As we shall see below, the main dierence between the two types is that in the Gairin type certain accent classes have lost the pitch fall and become unaccented.)4 In both the Kyôto type and the Tôkyô type accent systems it is a fall from high (H) to low (L) pitch that is distinctive, and the last H syllable before the pitch fall is regarded as the syllable that carries the accent. This is traditionally marked by means of an apostrophe after the accented

3 As far as I know, there are only two published articles that have expressed support of Ramsey’s reconstruction: Hashimoto (1978), who was familiar with Ramsey’s theory before its publication in 1979, and Kortlandt (1993). 4 In general one can say that the Chûrin type dialects are located closer to the Kyôto type dialect area (Chûrin means ‘middle circle’) while the Gairin type dialects are more peripheral (Gairin means ‘outer circle’) and can be found primarily in northern Honshû and Kyûshû. The pitch accent system of the city of Tôkyô itself belongs to the Chûrin type.