Using Tonal Data to Recover Japanese Language History.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boer, Elisabeth M. de.

Contributor:

Unger, J. Marshall.

Series:

Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series

Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series ; v.365

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Japanese language--Dialects.

Japanese language.

Tone (Phonetics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (140 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam/Philadelphia : John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2024.

Summary:

The author establishes a theory of dialect divergence that avoids the problems caused by assumptions commonly encountered in Japanese historical dialectology. It explains why Japanese is best understood as a restricted tone language, and why mergers in the large tone classes of nouns and verbs are especially reliable markers of dialect divergence.

Contents:

Intro

Editor's preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 A brief history of Japanese dialect research and dialect classification

1.1 Dialect distinctions in Old Japanese

1.2 Tōjō's division of Japanese into 'dialect areas'

1.3 A division into 'front of Japan' and 'back of Japan' dialects

1.4 A division of the dialects in concentric rings

1.5 The concentric ring model of Tōkyō type dialects

Chapter 2 Tone or pitch-accent?

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Changes in the terminology used to describe the tone system of Japanese

2.3 The tone system of Middle Japanese

Chapter 3 The tone systems of the modern dialects

3.1 On counting syllables or morae

3.2 The Tōkyō type tone systems

3.2.1 The archaic tone system of Nozaki

3.2.2 The three Tōkyō subtypes

3.3 Word-melody type tone systems

3.4 The Kyōto type tone systems

Chapter 4 On the interpretation of Middle Japanese tone notations

4.1 Synopsis of the standard Japanese theory (teisetsu)

4.2 Buddhist tone descriptions

4.3 Musical notation systems that developed from the tone dots

Chapter 5 Tracing the tone class divisions

5.1 Mergers

5.2 The distribution of the tone dots in Middle Japanese

5.3 Overview of the MJ tone classes

5.4 Additional subdivisions

Chapter 6 Outline of tonal developments in the history of Japanese

6.1 A reconstruction of the MJ tones that accords with modern dialect data

6.2 The transition from MJ to modern Tōkyō

6.3 More evidence that the tone of particles played a role in word-final /H/ tone loss

6.4 Ramsey's MJ and the modern Kyōto type tone systems

6.5 When and from where did the /H/ tone reduction start?

6.6 What makes the Gairin special?

Chapter 7 The importance of compounds in pJ reconstruction

7.1 Different rules for noun compounds in different dialects.

7.2 The tones of compounds preserved archaic distinctions

7.3 MJ vs. modern compound rules

7.4 Why are the compound tone rules of MJ so complex?

Chapter 8 The tone rules for compound nouns in Middle Japanese

8.1 The tones of 2-3 compounds in MJ

8.2 The tones of 2-2 MJ compounds

8.2.1 Codas in class 2.1

8.2.2 Codas in class 2.2

8.2.3 Codas in 2.3

8.2.4 Remaining codas

8.3 Summary

Chapter 9 The tones of compounds with long codas in the modern dialects

9.1 The tone of 2-3 compounds

Chapter 10 The tones of compounds with short codas in the modern dialects

10.1 The tone of 3-2 compounds

10.2 Conclusions

Chapter 11 The genealogy of the dialects on the Sea of Japan coast and Kyūshū

11.1 Archaeological and mythological evidence for a migration from Izumo to Koshi

11.2 Dating /H/ tone reduction in Izumo

11.3 Support from musicology and DNA research for the hypothesis of migration from Izumo to the Tōhoku region

11.4 Implications for the genealogy of the dialects of Kyūshū

Editor's afterword

References

Appendix - Japanese tone database

Database

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

ISBN:

90-272-4677-7

OCLC:

1450104769