Basic Research on the Phonetic Status of Vowel Devoicing and Accent in Metropolitan Dialect

在东京和邻近地区使用的语言可以被定义为大都市方言。本研究旨在描述尚未被完全描述的大都会方言，而它被普遍接受为标准日语。在这种情况下，研究的重点放在元音的发音和重音上。元音消去在日语中不是音位要素，但却是标准日语的重要语音特征。元音分离的基本条件已经明确，但实际情况尚不清楚。对冲绳县竹美方言、岩手县森冈方言、兵库县西崎方言进行了调查。利用700多个项目进行了实地调查，取得了以下成果：在大都会方言中，元音的降噪程度因信息者的不同而不同。几乎没有人会把单词“sushi”的元音读出来。元音发声影响重音核心的位置。很明显，在“fuku”（blow）和“fuku”（wipe）这对单词组合中，元音的变化不会影响重音核心，但在“cuku”（arrive）和“cuku”（spear）这对单词组合中，重音核心会移动，而且许多告密者对它们的发音都是一样的。据报道，在不发音的辅音之间，低元音的发音程度有所下降，但在年轻人中，低元音的发音在“yamanotesen”等词中得到了观察。元音发声和音节非鼻辅音之间的关系是模糊的。“nisshimbashi”和“nishishimbashi”这两个词对之间的区别并不清楚，需要进一步研究。虽然从声学语音学的角度进行了研究，但也有必要像本研究一样，使用多种研究项目对许多信息者进行研究。

The language spoken in Tokyo and neighboring area can be defined as Metropolitan dialect. This research aims to describe the Metropolitan dialect which is not yet fully described, while it is generally accepted as standard Japanese.In this occasion, the focus of the research was put on the devoicing of vowels and accent. Vowel devoicing is not phonemic element in Japanese, but it is known as important phonetic characteristic of standard Japanese. The basic condition of vowel devoicing is made clear already, but actual state has been left unknown.Surveys were made on Taketomi dialect in Okinawa, Morioka dialect in Iwate, and Nishiwaki dialect in Hyogo. Field work researches were carried out using over 700 items, which brought following results.1.In the Metropolitan dialect, the degree of vowel devoicing varies depending on the informant. There are hardly any informants who devoice the vowel of the word ‘sushi'.2.Vowel devoicing affects the position of accent cores. It was made clear that in the case of the word pair ‘fuku' (blow) and ‘fuku' (wipe), vowel devoicing does not affect the accent core, but in the pair ‘cuku' (arrive) and ‘cuku' (spear), the accent core moves and many informants pronounce them identically.3.The degree of devoicing on low vowels between voiceless consonants are reported to decrease, but in the young devoicing of low vowels were observed in the words such as ‘yamanotesen'.4.The relationship between vowel devoicing and syllabic non-nasal consonants is obscure. Distinction between the word pair such as ‘nisshimbashi' and ‘nishishimbashi' is not clear and need more study.Researches are being done from the viewpoint of acoustic phonetics, but it is also necessary to study many informants using many research items as this research.