Tokyo Japanese is characterized by an initial rise in pitch, which has an allotonic variation: the rise is weakened or flattened when the initial syllable includes a special mora (i.e. CVN̲ or CVV̲; geminate excluded). The present study tested and measured the pitch rise of native speakers and learners in read speech. Results showed that both native speakers and learners demonstrated dependency on the existence of the special morae when realizing the initial syllable. Pitch height successfully helped learners enlarge the distinction between the two allotones.
Cite as: Lei, H.-Y. (2016) An Acoustic Analysis on the Allotonic Variation of the Initial Rise in Tokyo Japanese in Native Speakers and Learners. Proc. International Symposium on Applied Phonetics (ISAPh 2016), 48-51, doi: 10.21437/ISAPh.2016-10
@inproceedings{lei16_isaph,
author={Hsiang-Yu Lei},
title={{An Acoustic Analysis on the Allotonic Variation of the Initial Rise in Tokyo Japanese in Native Speakers and Learners}},
year=2016,
booktitle={Proc. International Symposium on Applied Phonetics (ISAPh 2016)},
pages={48--51},
doi={10.21437/ISAPh.2016-10}
}