DOCSLIB.ORG

Masterarbeit / Master's Thesis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Masterarbeit / Master's Thesis MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master’s Thesis “Dating the split of the Japonic language family. The Pre-Old Japanese corpus” verfasst von / submitted by Patrick Elmer, BA MA angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2019 / Vienna 2019 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 599 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium Indogermanistik und historische degree programme as it appears on Sprachwissenschaft UG2002 the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Melanie Malzahn, Privatdoz. Table of contents Part 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 8 1.1 The Japonic language family .............................................................................................. 9 1.2 Previous research: When did Japonic split into Japanese and Ryūkyūan .......................... 11 1.3 Research question and scope of study .............................................................................. 15 1.4 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 16 Part 2: Language data ................................................................................................ 19 2.1 Old Japanese .................................................................................................................... 19 2.1.1 Kojiki ......................................................................................................................... 19 2.1.2 Nihon Shoki .............................................................................................................. 20 2.1.3 Man’yōshū .................................................................................................................. 20 2.1.4 Other sources of Old Japanese .................................................................................... 20 2.2 Ryūkyūan ......................................................................................................................... 21 2.3 Japonic language fragments .............................................................................................. 22 2.3.1 Pre-Old Japanese and the Gishi-Wajinden .................................................................. 22 2.3.2 Japonic language fragments from the Korean peninsula ............................................. 24 Part 3: Reconstructions ............................................................................................. 28 3.1 Historical Chinese phonology .......................................................................................... 28 3.1.1 Sound inventory of Later Han Chinese ...................................................................... 31 3.1.2 Sound inventory of Middle Chinese ........................................................................... 32 3.2 Old Japanese .................................................................................................................... 33 3.2.1 Phonology .................................................................................................................. 33 3.2.2 Transcription of vowels and diphthongs .................................................................... 35 3.2.3 Vowel in free forms and bound forms ........................................................................ 36 3.2.4 The development of voiced obstruents ....................................................................... 37 3.2.5 Phonology and allophones ......................................................................................... 38 3.2.6 Sound changes between Old Japanese and Modern Japanese ..................................... 39 3.3 Ryūkyūan phonology ....................................................................................................... 40 3.4 Proto-Japonic .................................................................................................................. 41 3.4.1 Sound inventory ......................................................................................................... 41 3.4.2 The Proto-Japonic vowel system ................................................................................ 42 3.4.3 Vowel raising .............................................................................................................. 43 3.4.4 Accent ........................................................................................................................ 44 3.5 Japonic fragment corpus .................................................................................................. 47 3 Part 4: Analysis ......................................................................................................... 53 4.1 Toponyms ........................................................................................................................ 53 4.1.1 Northern Kyūshū (Tsushima, Iki, Matsuro, Ito) ........................................................ 53 4.1.2 Other toponyms (Na, Fumi and Toma) ..................................................................... 57 4.1.3 Yamatai or Yamaichi .................................................................................................. 59 4.1.4 Yamaichi 邪馬壹 ........................................................................................................ 59 4.1.5 Yamato 邪馬臺 ........................................................................................................... 60 4.1.6 Kona 狗奴 .................................................................................................................. 60 4.2 General observations of the Chinese transcription practices ............................................ 62 4.3 Titles ............................................................................................................................... 64 4.3.1 Himiko 卑彌呼 and Himikuko 卑彌弓呼 ................................................................... 64 4.3.2 Pinamori .................................................................................................................... 71 4.3.3 Piko ............................................................................................................................ 72 4.3.4 Kwo ............................................................................................................................ 72 4.3.5 Ma .............................................................................................................................. 73 4.3.6 Wake .......................................................................................................................... 75 Part 5: Conclusion .................................................................................................... 78 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 83 Appendix A: Abstract (English) ..................................................................................... 91 Appendix B: Abstract (German) ................................................................................... 92 4 List of figures Figure 1: Geographic distribution of the Ryūkyūan languages (adapted from Heinrich and Ishihara 2017:166) .................................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 2: Language tree of the Japonic language family (Pellard 2011:58) ................................ 10 Figure 3: “Pre-Old Japanese distinctions preserved in Ryūkyūan” (adapted from Pellard 2011:59) .................................................................................................................................................. 14 Figure 4: Japonic language tree assuming a split before the Pre-Old Japanese data ................... 16 Figure 5: Japonic language tree assuming a split after the Pre-Old Japanese data ..................... 16 Figure 6: Graphic overview of The Account of the Eastern Barbarians ......................................... 23 Figure 7: Map of the Korean peninsula and the wider East Asian region during the time of the Koguryŏ kingdom (adapted from Beckwith 2004:xxii) .............................................................. 26 Figure 8: Syllables transcribed with graphemes in the Old Japanese corpus .............................. 39 Figure 9: Proto-Japonic tone correspondences for dissyllables (adapted from Pellard 2011:61) 45 Figure 10: Accentual types of Japanese ...................................................................................... 46 Figure 11: Historical map of northern Kyūshū (adapted from Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai 1965:lxii–lxiii) ........................................................................................................................... 57 List of tables Table 1: Early Middle Chinese initials (adapted from Pulleyblank 1991:15) ............................. 32 Table 2: Middle Chinese initials (adapted from Baxter 1992:45) .............................................. 32 Table 3: Grapheme system of Old Japanese (adapted from Frellesvig 2010:27) ......................... 34 Table 4: Comparison of OJ transcription systems (based on Frellesvig et al. 2019) ................... 35 Table 5: Apophony in OJ nouns ..............................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Interpreter
    Japan: grasping for hope in a new imperial era | The Interpreter https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-grasping-hope-ne... Tets Kimura Japan has three New Year’s Days this year. 1 January, the calendar new year was the obvious beginning, then followed 1 April, the start of the financial and academic year that is famously symbolised by seasonal cherry blossoms – and now 1 May, the once-only celebration of the first day of what will be known as the Reiwa era of imperial reign. The transition from the current Heisei era to the next era of Reiwa will occur as the Reigning Emperor has decided to abdicate his position to the Crown Prince, even though this was not constitutionally permissible. No Emperor has stepped down from the position in Japan in the last 200 years, but it was the Emperor’s wish to do so as he found it difficult to be responsible in his role at his age. He is 85. Tuesday will be his last day as the Emperor, and under the “one generation, one title” rule, the era of Heisei will consequently end. According to the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, 58% of Japanese think Japan will move to a better direction in the new era of Reiwa, whereas 17% see a negative future. The current era of Heisei started on 8 January 1989, a day after the Showa Emperor passed away. When the dramatic Showa era (1926-1989) ended, a time in which Japan experienced wars, the Allied Occupation, and the rapid post- Second World War recovery, Japan decided to name the following imperial reign period Heisei.
    [Show full text]
  • Speech by Ōno Genmyō, Head Priest of the Horyu-Ji Temple “Shōtoku Taishi and Horyu-Ji” (October 20, 2018, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo)
    Speech by Ōno Genmyō, Head Priest of the Horyu-ji Temple “Shōtoku Taishi and Horyu-ji” (October 20, 2018, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) MC Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming today. The town of Ikaruga, where the Horyu-ji Temple is located, is very conveniently located: just 10 minutes by JR from Nara, 20 minutes from Tennoji in Osaka, and 80 minutes from Kyoto. This historical area is home to sites that include the Horyu-ji , the Horin-ji, the Hkki-ji, the Chugu- ji, and the Fujinoki Kofun tumulus. The Reverend Mr. Ōno will be speaking with us today in detail about the Horyu-ji, which was founded in 607 by Shotoku Taishi, Prince Shotoku, a member of the imperial family. As it is home to the oldest wooden building in the world, it was the first site in Japan to be registered as a World Heritage property. However, its attractions go beyond the buildings. While Kyoto temples are famous for their gardens, Nara’s attractions are, more than anything, its Buddhist sculptures. The Horyu-ji is home to some of Japan’s most noted Buddhist statues, including the Shaka Sanzon [Shaka Triad of Buddha and Two Bosatsu], the Kudara Kannon, Yakushi Nyorai, and Kuse Kannon. Prince Shotoku was featured on the 10,000 yen bill until 1986, so there may even be people overseas who know of him. Shotoku was the creator of Japan’s first laws and bureaucratic system, a proponent of relations with China, and incorporated Buddhism into politics. Reverend Ōno, if you would be so kind.
    [Show full text]
  • 2 Mora and Syllable
    2 Mora and Syllable HARUO KUBOZONO 0 Introduction In his classical typological study Trubetzkoy (1969) proposed that natural languages fall into two groups, “mora languages” and “syllable languages,” according to the smallest prosodic unit that is used productively in that lan- guage. Tokyo Japanese is classified as a “mora” language whereas Modern English is supposed to be a “syllable” language. The mora is generally defined as a unit of duration in Japanese (Bloch 1950), where it is used to measure the length of words and utterances. The three words in (1), for example, are felt by native speakers of Tokyo Japanese as having the same length despite the different number of syllables involved. In (1) and the rest of this chapter, mora boundaries are marked by hyphens /-/, whereas syllable boundaries are marked by dots /./. All syllable boundaries are mora boundaries, too, although not vice versa.1 (1) a. to-o-kyo-o “Tokyo” b. a-ma-zo-n “Amazon” too.kyoo a.ma.zon c. a-me-ri-ka “America” a.me.ri.ka The notion of “mora” as defined in (1) is equivalent to what Pike (1947) called a “phonemic syllable,” whereas “syllable” in (1) corresponds to what he referred to as a “phonetic syllable.” Pike’s choice of terminology as well as Trubetzkoy’s classification may be taken as implying that only the mora is relevant in Japanese phonology and morphology. Indeed, the majority of the literature emphasizes the importance of the mora while essentially downplaying the syllable (e.g. Sugito 1989, Poser 1990, Tsujimura 1996b). This symbolizes the importance of the mora in Japanese, but it remains an open question whether the syllable is in fact irrelevant in Japanese and, if not, what role this second unit actually plays in the language.
    [Show full text]
  • A Student Model of Katakana Reading Proficiency for a Japanese Language Intelligent Tutoring System
    A Student Model of Katakana Reading Proficiency for a Japanese Language Intelligent Tutoring System Anthony A. Maciejewski Yun-Sun Kang School of Electrical Engineering Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Abstract--Thls work describes the development of a kanji. Due to the limited number of kana, their relatively low student model that Is used In a Japanese language visual complexity, and their systematic arrangement they do Intelligent tutoring system to assess a pupil's not represent a significant barrier to the student of Japanese. proficiency at reading one of the distinct In fact, the relatively small effort required to learn katakana orthographies of Japanese, known as k a t a k a n a , yields significant returns to readers of technical Japanese due to While the effort required to memorize the relatively the high incidence of terms derived from English and few k a t a k a n a symbols and their associated transliterated into katakana. pronunciations Is not prohibitive, a major difficulty In reading katakana Is associated with the phonetic This work describes the development of a system that is modifications which occur when English words used to automatically acquire knowledge about how English which are transliterated Into katakana are made to words are transliterated into katakana and then to use that conform to the more restrictive rules of Japanese information in developing a model of a student's proficiency in phonology. The algorithm described here Is able to reading katakana. This model is used to guide the instruction automatically acquire a knowledge base of these of the student using an intelligent tutoring system developed phonological transformation rules, use them to previously [6,8].
    [Show full text]
  • Hokkaido Ainu Dialects: Variation from the Perspective of the Geographical Distribution of Vocabulary
    Hokkaido Ainu Dialects: Variation from the Perspective of the Geographical Distribution of Vocabulary Mika FUKAZAWA Preparatory Office for National Ainu Museum (The foundation for Ainu culture) 1 INTRODUCTION • The aim of this study is to generate geographical maps and to describe the variations in Hokkaido Ainu dialects. • The Ainu language has three dialect categories: Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Northern Kurils. • It is well known that “for Hokkaido, there are some differences in vocabulary, phonology, word formation, and the like between northeastern and southwestern dialects” (Tamura 2000: 3) 2 INTRODUCTION The Kamchatka Peninsula Sakhalin The Kuril Islands Hokkaido Honshu 3 INTRODUCTION • Regarding the Ainu dialects, the most important work on them was conducted by Hattori, Chiri, and their collaborators from 1955–1956. • Currently, few native speakers of Ainu exist, and collecting sufficient words and sentences through fieldwork is difficult. • My studies adopted geolinguistics for the Ainu language, referring to the audio and written materials that Hattori, Chiri, and other researchers have collected. 4 THE ATLAS OF AINU DIALECTS 5 AINU DIALECTS Hokkaido: 1. Yakumo/ 2. Oshamambe/ 3. Horobetsu/ 4. Biratori (Fukumitsu)/ 5. Nukibetsu/ 6. Niikappu/ 7. Samani/ 8. Obihiro/ 9. Kushiro/ 10. Bihoro/ 11. Asahikawa/ 12. Nayoro/ 13. Sōya/ 14. Chitose/ 15. Shizunai/ 16. Hombetsu/ 17. Mukawa/ 18. Nemuro Sakhalin: 19. Ochiho/ 20. Tarantomari/ 21. Maoka/ 22. Shiraura/ 23. Raichishka/ 24. Nairo Kurils: 25. Shumushu 6 INTRODUCTION • Nakagawa (1996) first suggested the geographical distribution and several patterns of Ainu. • Here, I consider the following major three types within Hokkaido Ainu dialects. • The Eastern-Western type • The Saru-Chitose (and Sakhalin) type • The ABA type 7 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Tokyo Summer in the First Year of Reiwa Is 50 Days Longer Than Any
    July 24, 2019 <Daikin 25th Survey on Attitudes of Modern People toward Air> Survey of 500 Native Tokyo Residents on “Attitudes toward Air in the Tokyo Summer in the First Year of Reiwa” Tokyo Summer in the First Year of Reiwa is 50 Days Longer Than Any Other Era in Modern History!? Direction of the Tokyo summer in the first year of Reiwa as seen from changes in attitudes from the past Showa and Heisei eras Daikin Industries, Ltd. conducted a survey of 500 native Tokyo residents on their attitudes toward air in the Reiwa Era and changes in attitudes toward air in the Tokyo summer from the Showa and the Heisei eras. Implemented since 2002, the Daikin “Survey on Attitudes of Modern People toward Air” highlights the awareness and issues that modern people have relating to “air” and aims to promote interest and appreciation among many people for “air,” which is often unnoticed in daily life. In Japan, This year marks the end of the Heisei Era, which lasted for approximately 30 years, and the beginning of the Reiwa Era. Following the Showa and Heisei eras, what will the nature of the “air” be in the Reiwa Era, and what lifestyle changes will accompany it? The Japanese summer in recent years has seen a continuation of record-setting heat waves and extreme heat, and there is concern for the direction of the 2019 summer that begins the Reiwa Era. In the “25th Survey on Attitudes of Modern People toward Air,” we conducted a survey by comparing the present and past (remembrances of respondents when they were elementary school students around the age of 10 years old) concerning changing attitudes toward air in the summer for Tokyo, a city which is expected to attract more foreign visitors and receive increasingly more attention from the world in the future, and toward air conditioners.
    [Show full text]
  • LT3212 Phonetics Assignment 4 Mavis, Wong Chak Yin
    LT3212 Phonetics Assignment 4 Mavis, Wong Chak Yin Essay Title: The sound system of Japanese This essay aims to introduce the sound system of Japanese, including the inventories of consonants, vowels, and diphthongs. The phonological variations of the sound segments in different phonetic environments are also included. For the illustration, word examples are given and they are presented in the following format: [IPA] (Romaji: “meaning”). Consonants In Japanese, there are 14 core consonants, and some of them have a lot of allophonic variations. The various types of consonants classified with respect to their manner of articulation are presented as follows. Stop Japanese has six oral stops or plosives, /p b t d k g/, which are classified into three place categories, bilabial, alveolar, and velar, as listed below. In each place category, there is a pair of plosives with the contrast in voicing. /p/ = a voiceless bilabial plosive [p]: [ippai] (ippai: “A cup of”) /b/ = a voiced bilabial plosive [b]: [baɴ] (ban: “Night”) /t/ = a voiceless alveolar plosive [t]: [oto̞ ːto̞ ] (ototo: “Brother”) /d/ = a voiced alveolar plosive [d]: [to̞ mo̞ datɕi] (tomodachi: “Friend”) /k/ = a voiceless velar plosive [k]: [kaiɰa] (kaiwa: “Conversation”) /g/ = a voiced velar plosive [g]: [ɡakɯβsai] (gakusai: “Student”) Phonetically, Japanese also has a glottal stop [ʔ] which is commonly produced to separate the neighboring vowels occurring in different syllables. This phonological phenomenon is known as ‘glottal stop insertion’. The glottal stop may be realized as a pause, which is used to indicate the beginning or the end of an utterance. For instance, the word “Japanese money” is actually pronounced as [ʔe̞ ɴ], instead of [je̞ ɴ], and the pronunciation of “¥15” is [dʑɯβːɡo̞ ʔe̞ ɴ].
    [Show full text]
  • Influence of the English Language on Japanese and Its Business Culture
    Západočeská univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Bakalářská práce Influence of the English language on Japanese and its business culture František Vaněk Plzeň 2019 Západočeská univerzita v Plzni Fakulta filozofická Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury Studijní program Filologie Studijní obor Cizí jazyky pro komerční praxi Kombinace angličtina – ruština Bakalářská práce Influence of the English language on Japanese and its business culture František Vaněk Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Tomáš Hostýnek Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury Fakulta filozofická Západočeské univerzity v Plzni Plzeň 2019 Prohlašuji, že jsem práci zpracoval samostatně a použil jen uvedených pramenů a literatury. Plzeň, duben 2019 ……………………… Poděkování Na tomto místě bych rád poděkoval vedoucímu této bakalářské práce, panu Mgr. Tomáši Hostýnkovi, za odborné vedení mé bakalářské práce, jeho cenné rady a připomínky a za jeho pracovní entuziasmus. Rovněž bych rád poděkoval celému týmu pedagogů ZČU za kvalitní výuku v průběhu celého mého bakalářského studia. Content 1. Introduction....................................................................................................1 2.1 The Japanese Recent History of Linguistic Contact....................................4 2.2 The Japanese Economy and its Connection to America...........................12 3. When English Meets Japanese ..................................................................17 3.1 Theoretical Linguistics...............................................................................17 3.2 Practical
    [Show full text]
  • The Establishment of State Buddhism in Japan
    九州大学学術情報リポジトリ Kyushu University Institutional Repository The Establishment of State Buddhism in Japan Tamura, Encho https://doi.org/10.15017/2244129 出版情報：史淵. 100, pp.1-29, 1968-03-01. Faculty of Literature, Kyushu University バージョン： 権利関係： - 1 - THE ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE BUDDHISM IN JAPAN Encho Tamura In ancient times, during the Yamato period, it was the custom for each succeeding emperor at the beginning of his reign to seek some site on which to build a new imperial palace and relocate himself. In other words, successive emperors neither inherited their palaces from the previous emperor nor handed them down to the following emperor. Hardly any example is to be found of the same palace being used by more than two emperors successively. The fact that the emperor in ancient times was called by the name of the place where his palace was located* is based on this custom of seeking new sites and founding new palaces. < 1 > This custom was strictly adhered to until the 40th Emperor, Temmu (672-686 A. D.).** The palaces, though at times relocated at Naniwa (the present Osaka Prefecture), or at Cmi (Shiga Prefecture), in most cases were built in different locations within the boundary of the Yamato area (Nara Prefecture). It is true that there is a theory denying the existence of emperors previous to the 14th Emperor, Chuai, but it is clearly stated in both the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki that all of the emperors including Jimmu, the 1st Emperor, strictly adhered to this custom of relocating the palace. This reflects the fact *For example, Emperor Kimmei was called "Shikishima no Kanazashi no Miya ni Arne ga shita Shiroshimesu Sumeramikoto" (The Emperor who rules the whole area under heaven at his Kanazashi Palace in Shikishima).
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Historical Development of Initial Accent in Trimoraic Nouns in Kyoto Japanese Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3f57b731 Author Angeles, Andrew Publication Date 2019 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF INITIAL ACCENT IN TRIMORAIC NOUNS IN KYOTO JAPANESE A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in LINGUISTICS by Andrew Angeles September 2019 The thesis of Andrew Angeles is approved: _______________________________ Professor Junko Ito, Chair _______________________________ Associate Professor Ryan Bennett _______________________________ Associate Professor Grant McGuire _______________________________ Quentin Williams Acting Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Andrew Angeles 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ............................................................................................................. v Abstract ...................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments ................................................................................................... xiv 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Approaches to Endangered Languages in Japan and Northeast Asia (Poster Session)”
    Non-Core Vocabulary Cognates in Ryukyuan and Kyushu* JAROSZ, Aleksandra Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń The present paper provides an overview of eighteen identified likely cognates from Ryukyuan and Kyushu regiolects which the author argues have been inherited from Common Kyushu-Ryukyuan (CKR). The alleged cognates all belong to non-core vocabulary, the working definition of which adopted here is “vocabulary not found on the basic vocabulary lists of Swadesh 200 and Leipzig-Jakarta.” Following Hock (1991), the author presumes that in equal relations between language communities – the relations between Pre-Proto-Ryukyuan speakers while they still inhabited the Kyushu area and speakers of other Kyushu-Japonic regiolects are believed to have been such – the so-called basic vocabulary is no more resistant to borrowing than the non-basic (including culture-specific and environment-specific) lexicon. One can thus infer that a study of non-core vocabulary would be a valuable contribution to the state of knowledge on the history of the southern Japonic language area. Consequently, this paper analyzes the distribution of putative CKR cognates in both Kyushu and the Ryukyus as well as the typology of shared features among them, discussing these against a broader Japonic background when relevant. Preliminary results show the most shared features between the Ryukyuan and Tokara regiolects, encouraging an identification of the final stage of Pre-Ryukyuan with Common Tokara-Ryukyuan. The division of the next lowest order also includes Ōsumi and Koshiki islands, implying that the pre-final stage of Pre-Ryukyuan was what is here called Common Insular Kyushu-Ryukyuan. Keywords: comparative linguistics, Kyushu, Ryukyuan, Kyushu-Ryukyuan, Japonic 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Vowel Devoicing of Ainu -How It Differs and Not Differs from Vowel Devoicing of Japanese-*
    Vowel Devoicing of Ainu -How it differs and not differs from Vowel Devoicing of Japanese-* Hidetoshi Shiraishi University of Groningen 1 Introduction The oldest description of Vowel Devoicing (henceforth VD) of Ainu dates back to the earliest stages of linguistic research of the language (Kindaichi 1931, Chiri 1936, 1942). Nevertheless, our knowledge of the phenomenon has not been deepened since then. For instance, we still know little about the exact phonological environment for VD to occur, or its distribution in actual speech. This situation contrasts sharply with that of Japanese, the geographic neighbor of Ainu, where VD has always been one of the most appealing phonological topics among linguists. Numerous investigations were conducted from various linguistic fields for more than a century long. The present work is an attempt to fill this gap. It is still preliminary in nature. As a primary source, I have used sound recordings of only two speakers of a single dialect. My first task was to check VD in these recordings in order to verify whether previous works were adequate in their description. Except for a couple of recent descriptions (Tamura 1997, 1998), there were no studies that tackled this issue using sound materials in the first place. I will therefore compare the results of my investigation with those previous descriptions. Another interesting issue is whether VD of Ainu shares characteristics with VD of Japanese. Considering those facts that 1) these two languages have * Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the meetings of the Tsukuba Circle of Phonologists (July 2000), Chiba University Eurasian Society (March 2001) and De Dag van Fonetiek (December 2002).
    [Show full text]