Re: ReTonogenesis

Kevin Athey wrote:

> >From: Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
> >With this interpretation, how do you get three possible accent
> >patterns for a *bi*moraic word, when the accent *on* the morae instead
> >of in between?  I did not get this, I think.
> >
> >BTW, I left out the detail of actual pitch change since a) I did not
> >remember them :-), b) they seem to be very different from dialect to
> >dialect, so the normal description holds for Tokyo accent only.  (At
> >least I remember a large table in 'The Languages of Japan').
>
> If there _is_ a Japanese expert out there, he or she should jump right in.
>
> OK, if I understand you properly, you are asking how a sequence of
> phonemes
> consisting of two morae can have three possible tonal contours.
>
> When you are dealing with the "word" standing alone, it doesn't.  It can
> only have two:  LH or HL in the Tokyo dialect.  (The Kyoto dialect, I
> believe, allows HH and HL, and the words are generally switched, strangely
> enough.)  However, if you were to add the topicalizing particle to this
> "word", the ambiguity would be lost.  I don't have my dictionary marking
> accent with me, so I can't cite specific words, but let us use /hashi/,
> which is bimoraic.
>
> 'ha.shi => HL
> 'ha.shi wa => HLL
> ha.'shi = > LH
> ha.'shi wa => LHL
> ha.shi => LH
> ha.shi wa => LHH
That's about the way I remember it from a seminar with James McCawley a long
time ago, except he used the "ga" [Na] particle, and IIRC the third one was
ha.shi ga HHL. ("hashi" is one of the very rare minimal triplets.) His PhD
diss. in the 70s is probably the Very Last Word on Japanese accent; don't
know if it was ever published, but a review of his bibliography should turn
up something.

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