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7 Language Variation

Present day speakers of a language, such as Japanese or English, speak their language differently from ' speakers of it in centuries past. People also speak differently from one another depending on their social status, where they are from, and what gender they are. In this chapter we shall briefly examine language variation iri Japanese from these perspectives. In each area of language variation that will be considered, we will only present a few selected examples that illustrate the change or variation. Those who are interested in pursuing aspects of variation in more detail should consult the suggested readings at the end of the chapter.

1 Historical Linguistics

Languages change over time. For example, the way people speak English now is not the same as the way people spoke English several centuries ago. So, if we try to read Shakespeare in the original, we will notice that the English in it is different from the English with which we are familiar today. This reflects language change. It is characteristic of all languages that they change over time. Japanese is no exception, and so, the Japanese that is spoken today is not the same as the Japanese that was spoken in the past. The historical changes or diachronic changes, in languages over a long period of time, are dealt with in the area of historical linguistics. In this section we will briefly look at several examples of diachronic change that have been observed and some analyses of them.

1.1 Verbal Conjugation

As an illustration of diachronic change in Japanese, verbal conjugation patterns have often been cited (cf. Ashworth 1976-7, Davis and Tsujimura 1991, Smith

Language Variation 353

1969, Unger 1971). In investigating diachronic changes in languagf , researchers attempt to determine what sort of forms were likely to exist at e lier stages in the language. This process is called reconstruction. The reconstru ·on of verbal conjugation patterns in Japanese is one of the topics that has bee examined in detail.

In Modern Japanese the gerundive and past tense forms of verb~ for example, are shown in (1).

(1) non-past gerund past gloss ma tu matte matta "wait" tukuru tukutte tukutta "make" omou omotte omotta "think" hosu hosite hosita "dry" kaku kaite kaita "write" to bu tonde tonda "fly" tanomu tanonde tanonda "ask" sinu sin de sinda "die" togu toide toida "sharpen"

Interestingly, these verbal conjugation forms are historically n t always the same. Rather, these verbal forms underwent several ·changes since Old Japanese (eighth-twelfth century). The list in (2), taken from Ashworth (1976-7: 30) demonstrates the diachronic changes observed with the getwi ve form that some of the verbs in (1) underwent according to historical perio s (where "C" stands for century). The diacritic "-" indicates that the vowel i nasalized.

(2) 8th-12thC 14th-16thC Modern gloss kakite kaite kaite "write" togite toide toide "sharpen" omo4>ite/ omoute omotte "think" omo4>ute to bite/ toude tonde "fly" tobute

Two questions should be asked concerning the diachronic changes ive forms depicted in (2). First, why did te become de in toide not in kaite "write" even though their forms during eighth-twe similar in that both contain te rather than de? Second, how di develop into tonde, where historically, there does not seem to b source of the independent segment In/?

f the gerundsharpen" but

century are tobite "fly" any obvious


Let us examine the first question, that is, why te became de in toide "sharpen" but not kaite. Ashworth (1976-7) presents the following account. The voiced stop lg/ in togite "sharpen" was prenasalized (i.e. the accompaniment of a slight nasalization at the beginning of the phoneme) prior to the eighth century as [to0gite] . This assumption is supported when we look at dialects that seem to maintain prenasalized consonants. For example, the pronunciation of voiced stops as prenasalized stops is still observed in the Tohoku dialect, spoken in the northern region of Japan, such as [mb, "d, 0g] for the Tokyo dialect's [b, d, g]. Thus, in this dialect, the pronunciation of standard Japanese togite is realized as [to0gite].1 The prenasalized segment [0g] influences the preceding vowel by nasalizing the /o/, i.e. an instance of nasal assimilation. Thus, it has been inferred that at an earlier' time the gerundive form was [to0gite] and that the Tohoku dialect provides evidence for this. Now, given the earlier form [to0gite], at an immediate subsequent stage, the prenasalized consonant was deleted, yielding [toite]. The nasal assimilation that affected the vowel fol making it [6] then spread to the following vowel Iii, giving rise to the form [toite] . The voiceless consonant It!, then, could have become voiced under the influence of the neighboring nasal segment, which is a voiced segment, with the subsequent loss of the nasal feature on the preceding vowels, by the phenomenon called "denasalization". This diachronic analysis from *togite to modem toide based on Ashworth (1976-7), stated above, is summarized in (3) (the asterisk indicates the inferred earlier form).

(3) inferred historical form: *togite

I prenasalization: to0gite

I nasalization: to0gite

I deletion: toite

I nasalization: toite

I v01crng: toide

I denasalization: toide

Modern form: [toide]


In comparison with the above diachronic change of toide "sha pen", kaite "write", whose earlier form is inferred as kakite, does not observe pr nasalization because [k] is voiceless. Since there was no prenasalization, there is no nasal consonant, nor nasal feature on the surrounding vowels. Witho t the nasal feature, then, the gerundive suffix te remains intact, but the vel consonant 1k/ deletes, resulting in the modem form [kaite] . The diachronic ch nge of kaite "wrote" is illustrated below:

( 4) inferred historical form: • kakite

I deletion: kaite

Therefore, the crucial difference in the diachronic development of toiife "sharpen" as opposed to kaite "write" can ultimately be attributed to the prdsence of the prenasalized segment (Cg] with the former verb.

Let us turn to the second question: how did tobitelti5bute "fly" evelop into tonde, where historically, there does not seem to be any obvio s source of Inf? As was the case with the voiced stops observed above, we c n infer that the voiced bilabial stop was realized as a prenasalized stop, namely [mb]. So, the phonetic transcription should be [tombite]. Then, the nasalized vo el preceding [mb], i.e. [6], can be explained as being influenced by [mb]. In t rms of diachronic development, Ashworth argues that the high front vowel Iii in tobite was first changed to the high back vowel /u/, which was more r uncled then than the pronunciation of the vowel in Modem Japanese. This change was influenced by the fact that the preceding consonant is !bl, which is a bilabial sound, and the rounded /u/ results from assimilation triggered b the bilabial consonant: that is, the bilabial place of articulation of lb!, and the _ ·p rounding of /u/, both involve the lips as articulator. So, this influenced the evelopment of tobute in (2). Subsequently, according to Ashworth, the nasa zed bilabial consonant [mb] was deleted, to form [route]. The nasalization the vowel fol, then, extended to the following vowel Jul yielding [toiite]. Rec that in the diachronic development of [toide], shown in (3), we have seen a instance of the nasalized vowel influencing the voicing of a consonant. A par lei situation is obtained in the case of [tOiite]: the nasalization on the vowel rings about a change, from the voiceless alveolar stop /ti to its voiced co terpart /d/, resulting in the form [toiide]. Finally, it appears that the nasaliz vowel [ii], preceded by a · vowel in the verb root, changed to a moraic na al, with the subsequent loss of nasalization on the preceding vowel, i.e. denas ization. The . resulting final form is the modem pronunciation of [tonde]. The "nferred diachronic developments that resulted in the modem form [tonde] ar summarized in (5).


(5) inferred historical form: *tobite

I prenasalization: tombite

I nasalization: tombite

I assimilation: tombute

I deletion: toute

I nasalization: toii.te

I voicing: to ii.de

I moraic nasal: tonde

I denasalization: tonde

Modern form: [tonde]

A similar, but slightly different diachronic change can be assumed for omotte "think". According to Ashworth, during the period of the eighth-twelfth century, the earlier form [ omocpite] underwent the transition to [ omocpute] by labial assimilation, the sort that we have observed above. That is, under the influence of the bilabial fricative /cpl, the vowel Iii became /u/, which was more rounded than the present pronunciation of /u/ in Modern Japanese. Next, the bilabial consonant was deleted to form [omoute]. Finally, the vowel /u/ preceded by a vowel in the verb root changed to a moraic consonant, i.e. the first part of a long consonant. The resulting form is the current gerund [omotte]. The diachronic changes that led to the present form of [omotte] is illustrated in (6) .

(6) inferred historical form: *omocpite

I assimilation: omocpute

I deletion: omoute

I mora consonant: omotte

Modern form: [omotte]


Thus, by inferring certain sets of phonological changes, we can ace unt for the diachronic development that verbal conjugation forms underwent o er a period of time. Furthermore, it is important to note that the forms inferre in the diachronic analysis are, to an extent, motivated by the attested forms urviving in the various dialects of Japanese today. Nonetheless, the diachronic d velopments ·shown in examples like (3), (5), and (6) remain somewhat speculativ in that not all the inferred stages shown are historically attested.

1.2 Sequential Voicing - "Rendaku"

In chapter 3 we have examined the sequential voicing (or "R~eaku") phenomenon in Japanese. Rendaku is observed with compounds an affixation: if a voiceless consonant appears at the beginning of the second ember of a compo.und, for example, and if there is no voiced obstruent wit · the second member (i.e. Lyman's Law), the initial voiceless consonant under es voicing. This phenomenon is described by the following examples.

(7) iro + karni ~ irogarni color paper "cOiored paper (for folding)"

(8) hosi + sora ~ hosizora star sky "starry sky"

(9) ko + taiko ~ ko.daiko small drum "small drum"

In considering the origin of this voicing phenomenon, it has bee pointed out that a nasal segment plays an important role in explaining the R ndaku phenomenon (cf. Ito and Mester 1986; Vance 1982). It should be rem mbered that in the previous sub-section we have observed several instances in hich a nasal segment causes the voicing of a voiceless consonant. For example the voicing of the gerundive suffix te exhibited in the present day forms toi "sharpen" and tonde "fly" has been attributed to the preceding nasal segmen s influenced by [Og] and [mb], respectively. This correlation between a nasal se ent and the voicing of a voiceless consonant has been detected elsewhere. Mart· (1952), for one, reports that the relationship between nasal and voicing is o served with the Sino-Japanese morpheme plus suru "do" sequence. For instan e, when the morpheme to which suru is suffixed ends in /n/, suru is realiz as [zuru]; otherwise, suru is .pronounced as [suru]. The following contras show this relationship. 2


(10) a. teki + suru ~ tekisuru appropriateness "to be appropriate"

b. ai + suru ~ aisuru love "to love"

(11) a. kan + suru ~ kan~uru feeling "to feel"

b. kin + suru ~ kin.z.uru prohibition "to prohibit"

This is parallel to what 'we have observed with the diachronic change in the previous section. In the examples of (11), in contrast with those in (10), the voicing of the Isl in suru can be attributed to the preceding nasal segment Inf.

Given the effect of nasal on voicing_ we have observed thus far, is there a plausible nasal source that leads to voicing in the Rendaku phenomenon? That is, on the surface there does not seem to be any nasal segments that may lead to the voicing of a consonant in the Rendaku phenomenon. Unger (1975) provides an analysis that the nasal source for Rendaku is the Genitive Case particle no, which is suffixed to prenominal modiliers that are nouns. For example, the compound kido "wooden door" is comprised of ki "wood" and to "door", and the initial consonant of the second member, i.e. /t/, undergoes the voicing. Unger proposes that the etymology of kido is ki-no to "wood-Gen door", where the nasal segment of the Genitive Case particle serves as the source of the voicing (assuming the prior deletion of the vowel fol of the Genitive Case particle).

Hence, given the relationship between nasal and voicing that is observed elsewhere in the language, the Rendaku phenomenon involving the Genitive Case particle no as its nasal source appears to be an instance of a more general · voicing phenomenon, triggered by a nasal segment.

1.3 Case Particles

Diachronic changes observed in Japanese are not limited to phonological phenomena. In this sub-section, we will examine the development of the Nominative Case particle ga and the Accusative Case particle o as an illustration of syntactic changes that have taken place over a long period of time. The discussion of the Nominative Case particle is based on Kamata (1980).

The Case particle gain Modem Japanese functions as the Nominative marker, but it can also be used to connect sentences. When ga is used in the latter way, it means "but", as is demonstrated in (12).

(12)

Language Variation

Kono hon-wa omosiroi-ga, sono zassi-wa tumaranai this book-Top interesting-but that magazine-Top boring "This book is interesting but that magazine is boring."

359

In investigating old texts, Kamata (1980) discusses that the use r ga as the Nominative marker and as a conjunction word did not always exis . Before the eighth century, ga was a possessive marker following a noun, as illustrated below (all the examples concerning the development of the Nomina ·ve Case ga in this sub-section come from Kamata 1980: 2-3).3

(13) iwasiro no hamamatu ga eda Iwasiro of beach pinetree branch "branches of the pinetree of Iwasiro"

(14) tirlhizi no hazu nimo aranu ware yue dust of value even be-not I reason by be worried kanasisa ( sadness

u imo ga wife

"sadness of my wife who is worried because of me who is no~ (as important as) even the value of dust"

In both examples ga functions as a possessive marker indicating that tt e preceding noun is the possessor of the following noun: "branches of the pinei ee" in (13) and "sadness of my wife" in (14) .

During the ninth century, the use of ga as the Nominative ma4 er emerged while its possessive use still continued.

(15) Aratama no tosi ga kihureba, aratama no tuki wa kihuyuru. fresh of year pass-if fresh of month Top com~ (Kojiki) "If the new year comes, new months (also) come."

(16) Koisiku-wa katami ni se yo to, wa ga seko ga ue-si love-if memento as do imp. quot. I lover plan1-past akihagibana saki-ni-keri. (J\1anyoosyuu) bush-clover bloom-past "The bush-clover that my lover planted - saying to me 'Ketp it as a memento if you love me' - bloomed."

In (15) ga is used to mark the preceding NP, aratama no tosi "net.v year", as the subject of the sentence. The two occurrences of ga in (16) are kontrastive:


the first ga serves as a possessive marker while the second ga marks wa ga seko: "my lover" as the subject. Thus, during this period, both uses of ga are attested . .

By the mid-twelfth century two additional changes had occurred. First, ga as the subject marker had been used only with nouns, but around the early-tenth century ga started to appear immediately after categories other than nouns.4

Second, the conjunctional use of ga emerged around this time. As a conjunc.tional word, ga was attached to a non-noun word. These two changes are observed in the following examples.

(17)

(18)

Onna no mada yohe-zu to obohetaru ga, hito no onmoto woman of yet be experienced-not to look man of house ni sinobite . . . ~ (lse Monogatari) to vis;t secretly

"A woman, who looks inexperienced, visits a man secretly ... "

Naho owasuru mono to omohu ga, ito kai-nake-reba hai yet to live probably that to think very luck-nor-as ash ni nari-tamahamu. - ( Genji Monogatari) to become "The one who, I thought, would be alive, has become ash as there was no good luck."

(19) Onore wa huro ni tada hitori aru to iu-ta ga, kono you Top bath in only one person be quote say-past this gunsyuu wa tune yorimo ooi wa nanigoto zo. (lse Monogatari) group Top usually than more Top what ? "You said you were the only one in the bath, but what is this group of people who are more than usual?"

The first two examples illustrate the use of ga following a verb; e.g. obohetaru "to look" in (17) and omohu "to think" in (18). In these cases, the ga still functions as marking what precedes it as the subject. That is, it marks the entire preceding phrase as subject. This use of ga is different from the ga in (15 )-(16), for example, in the category of words that can immediately precede it. That is, prior to this period, ga never followed a verb, for example. As (17) and (18) show, this change emerged during this period. The example in (19) demonstrates the conjunctional use of ga. In this example, ga follows a complete sentence to indicate that what follows it is an opposite or contradictory statement of the first.

The Case particle ga as the Nominative Case particle continued to be used. By the seventeenth century, however, the Nominative Case ga that appeared after a verb, as in (17) and (18), had ceased to exist, and instead the nominalizer


no is inserted between a verb and ga. This is the pattern that has sijirvived in Modern Japanese, as is illustrated by the following Modern Japanesd sentence.

(20) Kotoba no koto o kangaeru no ga watasi no tanosimi Ida. language of thing Ace think nom. I of joy . be "To think about languages is my joy."

Notice that what follows the verb kangaeru "think" in (20) is the minalizer no, with the Nominative Case ga immediately following. Hence, no added to norninalize the elements that are other than nouns. We thus see th t the case particle ga, over a period of time, underwent several changes in i syntactic function, as well as in the type of syntactic environment in which i occurred.

The historical changes that the Accusative Case particle o unde ent illustrate an interesting situation (cf. Miyagawa 1989a; Motohashi 1989). Miyagawa (1989a), based on Hashimoto (1969) and Kobayashi (1970), reports hat during

· the eighth and ninth centuries the particle o was used to express excl mation or emphasis, rather than serving as the Accusative Case marker, and tha such a use of o was observed not only with NPs but also with Ss. Miyagawa her goes on to show that by the early tenth century, ·the particle o was option I in matrix clauses and obligatory in embedded clauses. The following exam Jes, taken from Miyagawa (1989a: l05), present the contrast.

(21) Ware-wa imo __ omou. I-Top wife think "I think of my wife."

(22) [sima-o miru] toki island look when "when I look upon the island"

In the matrix sentence of (21), the particle o does not occur; whilt the direct object sima "island" in the embedded clause of (22) is accompa "ed by the particle. Based on Matsuo (1938), however, Miyagawa notes that the early tenth century, direct object marked with o increased.

The study of the Accusative Case particle o by Motohashi. (1989 presents a number of interesting observations. According to Motohashi, the pa icle o that was selected by some verbs did not siirvive, but postpositions s ch as kara "from", ni "to", and to "with" replaced it. For example, the class verbs that Motohashi calls "wakaru-type", where wakaru means "part" in d Japanese (eighth century), obligatorily selected the particle o for a NP th t indicated source in Old Japanese, but by the thirteenth century, ni completely replaced o. In Modern Japanese (seventeenth century to present), either ni, to or kara is


used (depending on the individual verb). This change is illustrated by the following contrast, where (a) and (b) represent Old Japanese and Modern Japanese, respectively (the examples are taken from Motohashi 1989: 41-2).

(23) a. haha-o wakare-te mother part-after "After parting from (my) mother"

b. haha-kara/to/•o wakare-te mother-from/with/* Ace part-after "After parting from mother"

(Manyoosyuu 4345)

Notice that the obligatofy use of o observed in Old Japanese is no longer allowed in Modern Japa~ese, and instead either kara or to is used to mark the same NP.

Another class of verbs that exhibit a sim'ilar change is what Motohashi calls "tohu-type" (tohu "ask"). Similar to the case with the wakaru-type, this class of verbs selected the particle o to mark the goal NP in Old Japanese. However, the switch in particle from -o to ni took place during the period of Old Japanese, and ni continues to be used with this class of verbs in Modern Japanese. Motohashi provides the following contrast in the particle selected by the verb tohu "ask" between Old Japanese in (a) and Modern Japanese in (b) below (motohashi 1989: 41 - a slight modification in gloss has been made).

(24) a. ihebito-no idura-to ware-o toha-ba family-Gen where-COMP I ask-if "if (my) family asks me where (I have been)" (Manyoosyuu 3689)

b. watasi-*o/ni doko-ni i-ta-ka-to toe-ba !-'" Acc/Dat where be-past-Q-COMP ask-if "if (my family) asks me where I have been"

The use of the particle o associated with the verb tohu in Old Japanese is no l~nger allowed in Modern Japanese: the Dative particle ni has replaced o. Hence, the two instances of historical development of Case particles discussed above illustrate that syntactic changes have taken place over a period of time.

2 Honorifi.cation

Every language seems to have at least some kind of strategy for marking, in one way or another, a speaker's admiration or respect for, or politeness to, a hearer:5

Language Variation 363 1

it could be manifested, for instance, as intonation, specific choict of words, or a particular selection of syntactic constructions. This type of co versational strategy is called honorification. One of the salient characteristics o Japanese is its extensive honorification system, which appears to be richer than at in many other languages (cf. Harada 1976; Jorden 1987).

The honorific system in Japanese can primarily be divided into tpree classes: honorific, humble, and polite. Honorific forms are used for an indi~idual or the individual's activities in order to honor him/her. The individual r' thus, a person who holds a rank socially higher than the speaker ( er's in-group), and thus, is to be respected. The basic role that h play is to humble the speaker or the speaker's in-group, whereby r~pect is paid to the hearer. In this case, the hearer is a person who is to be resp cted. Polite forms are neutral with regard to the target of respect, and thus ey are used when a conversational situation is formal, and yet does not requi the use of honorific or humble forms.

Let us give an illustration of how honorific, humble, and polite fotms are used in an actual modern-day conversation. The honorific, humble and elite forms of the verb iku "go" are irassyaru, mairu, and ikimasu, respective y. Consider the following dialogue between the student Tanaka and his teacher, focusing on the distribution of these verbal forms.

(25) Tanaka: Sensei, asita-no kaigi-ni irassyaimasu,ka? teacher tomorrow-Gen conference-to go (hon.) Q "Are .you going to the conference tomorrow?"

Prof.: Ee, ikimasu. Tanakakun-wa? yes go (pol.) Tanaka-Top "Yes, I will. How about you, Mr. Tanaka?"

Tanaka: Hai, watasi-mo maiiimasu. yes I-also go (hum.) ·"Yes, I will go, too."

The student, Tanaka, uses the honorific form, irassyaimasu, to refe to the professor's activity. This is to show his respect toward the professor. e professor, however, does not use an honorific form nor a humble form; inst ad, he uses the polite form, ikimasu. The use of the polite form by the pro£ ssor in this example can be viewed as his attempt to keep a formal relationship between the two parties in order to maintain social distance. The student's respo se contains the humble form mairimasu. The student refers to his own activity going, and in the presence of his professor as the hearer, the humble form i used as an indication of respect for the teacher: that is, by humbling himself e speaker is viewed as re~pecting the professor.


Not all the verbs in Japanese exhibit the morphologically distinguished forms of honorific, polite, and humble, as the set of verbs, irassyaru, ikimasu, and mairimasu demonstrate. The majority of verbs, instead, make use of a morphologically more productive way of forming honorific, polite, and humble forms. For an honorific form, o is prefixed to a verbal root and ai: the same time ni naru is added to the right of it. A verbal root suffixed by masu corresponds to a polite form. When a verbal root is prefixed by o, and is followed by suru, a humble form is derived. So, for example, the honorific, polite, and humble forms of the verb kik(u) "ask, listen to" are o-kiki-ni narulnarimasu, kiki-masu, and o-kiki-surulsimasu, respectively.6 The use of these forms are demonstrated by the following dialogue between Tanaka and his teacher, parallel to that of (25).

(26) Tanaka: Sensei, hisyo-ni sono hpn-no namae-o teacher secretary-of that book-Gen name-Ace o-kiki-ni narimasu ka. hon.-ask Q "Are you icing to ask the secretary the name of that book?"

Prof.: lie, kiki-mas-en. No, ask-pol.-neg "No, I'm not going to."

Tanaka: Zyaa, watasi-ga o-kiki-simasu. then I-Norn hon.-ask "Then, I will ask (her for you)."

The student Tanaka asks Professor Tanaka a question concerning the Professor's possible activity of asking the secretary the name of the book by using the honorific form, o-kiki-ni narimasu. The use of an honorific verb, thus, indicates the student's respect for his teacher. The teacher, on the other hand, does not have to use an honorific form or a humble form for his own activity when he is speaking with his student, who is considered as holding a lower social rank. In fact, if the . professor used either a honorific or humble form, under the current situation, the sentence would be extremely awkward. This is why the professor uses the polite form. Notice that the use of a polite form also suggests that the style of the conversation is formal, and is used to maintain some social distance between the two participants. Finally, the student's response contains the humble expression o-kiki-simasu to refer to his own activity of asking. By humbling his activity, the student expresses respect for the teacher. Hence, honorification is an example of language variation, in which people speak differently, depending on their social status.


3 Dialectal Variation

Unlike the United States, Japan is a very small island country, an~yet people from different regions of the country speak · differently. This type f variation in the language reflects different dialects. '. Differences among dia cts can be J found in phonetic, ·accentual, lexical, mo~phophonological, or mor hosyntactic properties (or any combination of them).\ In this section I discuss ome of the aspects of dialectal variation in Japanes~

One of the major factors pertinent to dialectal vanat1on is s differences among dialects of various regions. An example comes fro~ the nature of the high back vowel /u/, between the eastern and the western pa s of Japan. We have discussed in chapter 2 that the high back vowel in Japanese i unrounded. Shibatani (1990) observes, however, that the unrounded high back v we! is more frequently observed in the eastern part of Japan, and speakers of he western dialects tend to pronounce the high back vowel more rounded.

Another instance of regional variation in terms of the pronunciatiJ n of certain phonemes is reported in Shibatani (1990) concerning the number a vowels that different dialects employ. In chapter 2 we have discusse that Japanese has five vowels: /i, e, a, o, u/. Although this five-vowel system eems to ,be widely spread, there exist dialects that exhibit fewer than five vo els, as well \ a~ dialects that ~ave more than five vowels. ~cc~rding to S~ibata , Ryukyuan I dialects exemplify these cases. The Yanaguru dialect, for mstanc , has three · vowels, /i, a, u/, while the Hateruma dialect shows seven vowels, i, 1, u, e, e, o, a/, where 11/ and /et indicate that these sounds are centralized versions of /i/ and /el, respectively.

In western dialects one-mora words such as ki "tree" and me "~e" tend to \ be lengthened and are pronounced as [ki:] and [me:], respectively. A lengthening phenomenon is also observed in the Nakizin dialect of Okinawan apanese, as is discussed in Haraguchi (1991; see also Nakasone 1983). In Nakiz verbs and adjectives, the second and fourth syllables are lengthened. This is de icted below (slightly modified from Haraguchi 1991: 39).

(27) a. hakuu-na "don't write" b. phataarakuu-na "don't work" c. haraamakuu-na "don't wind"

In (27a) the second syllable is lengthened while in (27b) and (27c and fourth syllables become long. The corresponding phrase for (b) dialect, for example, is hataraku-ria, in which the second and fo are short.

the second the Tokyo

syllables

-.·.1.'

\

366

Prefectures 1 Aomori 2 Akita 3 Miyagi 4 Yamagata 5 Ibaraki 6 Chiba 7 Tokyo 8 Nigata 9 Toyama

10 Ishikawa 11 Shizuoka 12 Gifu 13 Aichi 14 Mie 15 Shiga 16 Kyoto 17 Nara 18 Osaka 19 Okayama 20 Hiroshima 21 Yamaguchi 22 Kagawa 23 Tokushima 24 Kochi 25 Fukuoka 26 Oita 27 Nagasaki 28 Kumamoto 29 Miyazaki 30 Kagoshima 31 Okinawa

(32) Hoki (33) Izumo (34) Chikugo (35) Hizen (36) Higo

Language Variation

Cities 37 Sendai 38 Mito 39 Yokohama 40 Kanazawa 41 Nagoya 42 Takaj&ho 43 Miyakonojo 44 Nago

:: d

.o

·0 -• oO •

• 0 •o

o'

54

53 Tokunoshima 54 Miyako 55 Ishigaki 56 Hateruma 57 Yonaguni

480

'Al 521<.J 0. ,.,Amam1

531.) Is. d

o od44 o •• R~ (46)

31

57 55 _J] •• : I\> Miyako Is. o O·"V 47

56···

Map 7.1 Map of Japan.

The dialects spoken in the Tc,>hoku region, the northern part of Honshu, demonstrate several interesting characteristics, as is reported in detail in Shibatani (1990). Shibatani reports that in the Tohoku dialects it is common w see the centralization of high vowels /i/ and /u/: that is, the front vowel /i/ is pronounced more back and the back vowel /u/ is pronounced more front. Specifically, in


these dialects the distinction between /i/ and /u/ has been lost. or instance, in Tokyo, the words sisi "lion" and susi "Sushi" are clearly distin ished: they are pronounced [sisi] and [su5i], respectively. On the other hand, Akita, the northern part of the Tohoku region, both words are pronounced a [sisi:], while in Sendai, the southern part of the Tohoku region, both words are phonetically

·realized as [siisii]. The same observation is made with the words ti · "governor" and tizu "map", which are pronounced as [ci)i] and [cizu] in Toky Both words are equally pronounced as [cifi] in Akita and as [t'iizii] in Sendai. imilarly, the distinction between kuti "mouth", pronounced as [kuCi], and utu "shoe", pronounced as [kut'u] in Tokyo is completely lost in these Tohoku ialects: they are both pronounced as [klci] in Akita, while they are realized s [kiit'ii] in Sendai. So, in these Tohoku dialects, the distinction between the hi h vowels are neutralized: realized as [1] in Akita and [ii] in Sendai.

According to Shibatani, in southern Tohoku, voiceless stops be ome voiced, thereby resulting in the loss of the distinction between the voiced nd voiceless stops. For example, ito "string" and ido "well" are both realized [ido]; mato "target" and mado "window" are pronounced as [mado]; and taka "hawk" and taga "hoop" are equally pronounced as [raga]. This phenomen n should be contrasted with a similar voicing phenomenon observed in northe Tohoku. In northern Tohoku the voicing of voiceless stops is also observed, ut the stops that are voiced in other dialects have prenasalization in northern Tohoku. ' So, ito "string" is pronounced as [ido] while ido "well" is realized a [i"do] . Sim· ilarly, mato "target" and mado "window" surface as [mado] nd [ma"do], respectively. This prenasalization may be a remnant of an earli r diachronic stage as mentioned in section 1. As for the velar stop lg!, it is re laced by the velar nasal [JJ]. For example, taka "hawk" and taga "hoop" ar realized as [taga] and [taua], respectively. Thus, in both southern and nort em Tohoku, the voicing of voiceless stops is observed, but in southern Toho u the difference between the voiced and voiceless stops is completely neutra · ed, while in northern Tohoku the distinction is still made by way of the nasal" tion of the voiced stops .

The type of variation in Japanese that is most extensively di~ussed in the · literature is the diversity among the dialects in accentuation and p tch patterns. Here we will briefly indicate a few of these differences in comparin Tokyo with other dialects (see Shibatani 1990 and Haraguchi 1977 for a fulle discussion). First, the forms in (28) contrast the pitch patterns of various words in the Tokyo dialect with that of the Osaka dialect.

(28) a. rniyako b. kokoro c. inoti

"capital" "heart' "life"

Tokyo LHH LHL HLL

Osak HHH HLL HLL


d. atama "head" LHH HHL

e. sora "sky" HL LH

f. take "bamboo" LH HH

g. yama "mountain" LH HL

h. suzume "sparrow" LHH LLH

1. kabuto "helmet" HLL LHL

l· tukemono "pickles" LHHH LLLH

k. niwatori "chicken" LHHH HHHH 1. bentoo "box lunch" LHHL HHLL

m. uguisu "Japanese nightingale" LHLL HLLL

n. nokogiri "saw" LHHL LHHL

o. kaminari ·"thunder" LHHH LHHL

Second, the differences in the pitch patt~rn can also be observed between the Tokyo dialect and the Takamatsu dialect of Shikoku as well as between the Tokyo dialect and the Kagoshima dialect of Kyushu. What is particularly inter-esting is that the Takamatsu dialect employs falling pitch (on a single mora) as well as high and low pitch. Observe the following, where "F" stands for falling pitch (cf. Haraguchi 1977). . - ----·--· -·- ----

·-----(29) Tokyo Takamatsu

a. kasa "umbrella" HL LL

b. isi "stone" LH HL

c. uta "song" LH LF

d. usagi "rabbit" LHH LLL

e. azuki "red beans" LHH LHL

f. kabuto "helmet" HLL LLF

g. niwatori "chicken" LHHH LLLL

h. murasaki "purple" LHLL LLHL

1. mayoigo "missing child" LHHL LLLF

j. garasudo "glass door" LHHL LHHF

(30) Tokyo· Kagoshima

a. hana "nose" LH HL

b. hana "flower" LH LH

c. sakura "cherry" LHH LHL

d. usagi "rabbit" LHH LLH

e. meirei "order" LHHH HHLL

f. kyuusyuu "Kyushu" HLLL !fHLL g. kookoo "filial piety" HLLL LLHH

h. kantan "simple" LHHH LLHH

Language Variation I 369

As a final observation, we note that the different pitch patterns fi the dialects may be reflected by their different realizations on minimal pairs. the following difference between the Tokyo and Kyoto dialects illustrates the

(31) Tokyo Kyoto a. hasi "chopsticks" HL LH b. hasi "bridge" LH HL c. hasi "edge" LH HH

The Tokyo dialect has a two-way distinction while the Kyoto dialel has a threeway di,stinction. That is, in isolation, the Kyoto dialect can make specific distinction among these three words by way of the pitch pattern, w ereas in the Tokyo dialect, two of the words are realized as bearing the iden cal phonetic and pitch realization.

Somewhat related to the accentuation pattern is the intonational p¥ ern among dialects. It is usually the case that in Tokyo, assertions tend to have falling intonation toward the end of the sentence, while the ending of e question bears rising intonation. So, for instance, in Tokyo the following o sentences are different only in their intonation pattern toward the end of e sentences.

(32) a. Satoo-san-wa asita kimasu. (falling intonation Mr. Sato-Top tomorrow come "Mr. ' Sato will come tomorrow."

b. Satoo-san-wa asita kimasu (ka)? (rising intona~on) Mr. Sato-Top tomorrow come (Q) "Will Mr. Sato come tomorrow?"

In Japanese, question sentences often end with the ~u~sti~n parti~e ka, but it need not be present as long as the sentence has nsmg mtonatl n, as (32b) indicates. Without the question particle, then, the assertion of ( 2a) and the question of (32b) are identical. The only way to differentiate th e two is by the intonation: the assertion sentence ends with falling intonati n while the question sentence bears rising intonation.

The use of the intonation pattern to differentiate assertions fr~ questions is not observed in all dialects. For example, Fujiwara (1964) rep rts that the Kansai dialects, which include Osaka and Kyoto, have level intona 'on for both assertions and questions. That is, regardless of the sentence type there is no intonation contour. Observe the following, taken from Fujiwara ( 964: 220).

(33) Mookarimakka? "Are you having good business?"

(34) Ikkooni sirimasen. "I don't know a thing."

,_ /\

\;;._"' ' ,


(35) Nagete mitarooka? "Shall I throw (it)?"

The sentences in (33) and (35) are questions while (34) is an assertion. According to Fujiwara, in spite of this difference in the type of sentence, all these sentences bear the same intonation pattern: that is, regardless of whether these sentences are assertions or questions, they maintain level intonation toward the end, rather than display rising or falling intonation. Hence, not all dialects of Japanese use intonation contours to differentiate questions from assertions.

Let us now examine variation among lexical items and expressions that are frequently used in everyday conversation. The opposition between eastern and western regions has bee_n observed above with respect to sound and accentrelated variation. Opposition between these regions is also clearly observed in individual lexical items. For example, Tojo (1955: 55) lists ·various lexical differences between the Tokyo dialect and the Osaka/Kyoto dialect, some of which are illustrated in (36): ---- · ' ·

(36) Tokyo Osakg/Kyoto gloss kaeru mu "return, go home" sawaru/iziru 1rau "touch" korobu kokeru "stumble" mru taku "cook, simmer" osorosii kyootoi "scary" isogasii seturosii "busy" ugoku inoku "move" ikenai akan "no good" kimyoona kettaina "strange"

It is interesting to observe that some of the contrasting words seem to share certain phonological aspects while others do not.

Another instance of dialectal variation is observed in certain common expressions such as "thank you", "good morning", and "good evening" . Yoshimoto ·(1991) observes that arigatoo "thank you" in Tokyo is expressed as kinodokuna or dandan in Toyama prefecture, the area north of Tokyo, facing the Japan Sea." What is interesting here is that kinodokuna in the Tokyo dialect means "pitiful". In Mie prefecture, the western part of the Kii peninsula, sumimasen, which qm

mean "I'm sorry" or "excuse me" in the Tokyo dialect, is used to express "thank you". It is also well known that ookini or ookeni is used in the Kansai area to express gratitude.

Similar types of variation are reported by Yoshimoto (1991), who ·surveys dialectal diversity for the expressions "good morning" and "good evening" . (37)-(38) list some of his examples (pp. 24-8).

(37)

(38)

Language Variation

' expression for "good morning" Tokyo ohayoo Akita ohayansi Iwate ohayagansi Fukushima hayainasi Kyoto . ohayoosan Nagasaki ohinnarimasita Kagoshima sameyansitaka

expression for "good evening" Tokyo konbanwa Kagoshima konbanna Iwate Fukushima Tochigi Shimane Tottori

oban/obandegansu eebandasina obankadarenasarimasita banzimasite barmarimasina

371

Thus, quite a wide variety of expressions are detected for simple greetings that are used in everyday conversation.

Finally, as an illustration of (morpho-)syntactic variation amot dialects of Japanese, let us examine verbal conjugation patterns. According to e report by Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyuujo (National Language Research Cent r: 1959), the following verbal conjugation forms for kaku "write" are detecte

(39) place present negative provisional past Yamagata kagu kagane kageba kagitalda Ishikawa kaku kakan kakya kaita Aichi kaku kakanai kakya kakita Nara kaku kakahen kakeba kaita

kakan Ehime kaku kakan kakeba kaita Tokyo kaku kakanai kakeba kaita

As (39) shows, there are wide varieties of conjugation types ah ested across dialects.

Besides the illustration of (morpho-)syntactic variation, the dive sity of verbal conjugation that is demonstrated in (39) bears some relevance to r earlier discussion on sound-related phenomenon observed among dialects and n diachronic changes examined in verbal conjugation. First, earlier in this ch pter (section 1.1) and earlier in the current sub-section we have discussed that 1i hoku dialects exhibit the voicing of voiceless stops. Yamagata is geographically tegorized as


belonging to the Tohoku region, and as (39) · indicates, the voicing phenomenon is observed in the verbal forms. For example, while other dialects have the rootfinal consonant /k/, as in kaku, the Yamagata dialect shows lg/ instead, as in kagu. This voicing phenomenon is observed in all its verbal forms listed in (39). Furthermore, the past tense form has the optional pronunciation [kagida], which also suggests a possible application of the voicing of the v~iceless consonant !ti of the past tense morpheme /ta/. Hence, the voicing phenomenon is attested in the verbal conjugation forms as well.

Second, as was mentioned above, dialectal variation is helpful in accounting for various diachronic changes. This is because some of the older forms have survived as current forms in the various dialects of Japanese. Recall our discussion of the diachronic change observed with the verbal conjugations in section 1.1 of this chapter. We have assumed that the gerundive form of Modern Japanese kaite "write" originated from kakite. The selection of kakite as the earlier form is not arbitrary, however. Assuming that the diachronic change of the past tense form is identical with that of the gerundive form in relevant respects, we can find support for the origin of kaite as kakite by referring to the observation that the inferred earli~ form has survived in the Aichi dialect. That is, the Aichi dialect exhibits kakita as the past tense form of kaku-"write", and we can immediately relate this form to the gerundive form of kakite. What is more assuring is the fact that a similar form is also attested in the Yamagata dialect. Consider the past tense form of the Yamagata dialect illustrated in (39). The voicing phenomenon that we have discussed above can be assumed to have been applied to derive kagita. It means then that kagita in this dialect is virtually identical to the past tense form kakita in the Aichi dialect. Hence, the assumption that the gerund kaite "write" in Modern Japanese (the Tokyo dialect) is diachronically traced back to kakite is supported by the observation that these forms are preserved in various regional dialects. This is why the investigation of dialectal variation is often critical in determining the historical development of words and morphemes.

4 Gender Differences

Many languages exhibit different speech patterns between men and women (cf. Tannen 1990). That is, the way men speak and the way women speak are different, and we will refer to such differences as gender differences. Even in languages that do not have systematic gender differences, there are always certain characteristics that can distinguish the speech pattern between male and female speakers. English, for example, does not seem to have a systematic way of


' marking gender differences. However, women tend to use more terms such as magenta, aquamarine, and cobalt blue that males use

Japanese is one of the languages that explicitly exhibits various ences in speech. The clearest instances of such gender differenc in Japanese that are often referred to include the use of personal pronouns nd sentencefinal particles. First, Japanese demonstrates quite a rich pron ·nal system particularly with regard to the speaker, i.e. the first person, and e hearer, i.e. the second person. The selection of these personal pronouns d ends on the gender of the first and second persons that participate in the c versation as well as on the formality of the situation in which the conversatio takes place. The following list, taken from Ide (1990: 73), illustrates varieti s of ways to refer to "I" and "you".

(40) Men's speech Women's speech First person formal watakusi watakusi

watasi atakusi* plain boku watasi

atasi• deprecatory o_re Ill

Second person formal anata anata plain kimi anata

anta* anta* deprecatory omae

kisama Ill

*marks variants of a bocial dialect

All the first person pronouns mean "I" and all the second pert n pronouns mean "you". Notice that among· the first person pronouns, watak i and watasi can be used both by male and female whereas boku and ore are r rely used by females in a normal speech situation. 7 Similarly, for the second per n pronouns, the typical female use of anata is often adopted in male speech, ut kisama is not normally used by females.

To illustrate briefly their uses in sentences, consider the followµig male and female speech, in which first person pronouns are exemplified.

(41) Male speech a. Watakusi/Watasi·ga simasu.

I-Norn do "I will do (it)."


b. Boku-ga simasu/suru-yo. I-Norn do "I will do (it). "

c. Ore-ga suru-yo. I-Norn do "I will do (it)."

d. ??Ore-ga simasu. I-Norn do "I will do (it} ."

(42) Female speech a. Watakusi-ga simasu.

I-Norn do "I will do (it}."

b. Watasi-ga simasu/suru-wa. I-Norn do "I will do (it}. "

Careful attention should be paid to the relationship between the first person pronouns and the verbal endings that indicate formality. (41) demonstrates the range of first person pronouns uttered by male speakers. Male speakers use either watakusi or watasi to refer to themselves in a formal situation although watakusi is more formal than watasi. So, when a company employee speaks to the company president, for example, it is most likely that the employee uses either watakusi or watasi. This is observed by (4la}, where the verbal ending simasu "will do" indicates the situation under which the conversation takes place is formal. The plain form, boku, in (4lb} can be used in a formal situation, although less so than the situation in (41a), or in a casual setting such as in a conversation between two male colleagues or friends. The verbal ending of suruyo is a sign of informality, and hence it is compatible with boku. Ore, on the other hand, is used in a very casual situation, as in the conversation between very close friends: Furthermore, Ide classifies this pronoun as deprecatory. Notice that the verbal ending that is compatible with this pronoun is suru-yo, which is also very casual, as is illustrated in (41c). When ore is used with a formal verbal ending, as in (4ld}, there arises a conflict in style between the very casual pronoun and the formal verbal ending, and hence the sentence is awkward.

In contrast with the wide range of first person pronouns used by male speakers, first person pronouns that refer to female speakers are more restricted. When the situation is formal, watakusi or watasi is used, but the latter can also be used in a casual speech situation. This is confirmed by the examples in (42). As (42a) demonstrates, watakusi is normally used under very formal circumstances, while as (42b) shows, watasi can be used either with the formal verbal


ending simasu or the casual verbal ending suru-wa. Hence, perscfnal pronouns, especially those for the first and second persons, demonstrate a clear difference between male and female speech patterns.

Second, there are a number of sentence-final particles, some ofE hich emphasize assertion and some of which signal that the sentence is a q estion. However, not all the sentence-final particles are used identically by m le and female speakers: some of them exhibit predominant use by males and mainly by females. Consider the following examples.

(43) a. Kaeru zo. go home "I will go home."

b. Iku ze. go "I will go."

c. Dekiru sa. be competent "You can do it."

(44) a. Satoo-san-wa kuru kasira. Mr. Sato-Top come Q "I wonder if Mr. Sato will come."

b. Basu-ga kita wa. (rising intonation) bus-Norn came "The bus has come."

c. Asita yasumu no. (falling intonation) tomorrow be absent "I will be absent tomorrow."

(45) a. Iku yo. go "I will go."

b. Kuru ne. (rising intonation) come "You are coming, aren't you?"

The sentence-final particles in (43) are primarily used by men, al ough the use of sa in (43c) is increasingly being extended to female speech in very informal situations. The particles in (44), in contrast, are used primarily by f ale speakers. That is, in a normal speech situation, we do not consider these tences in (44) (particularly (a) and (b)) as typical of men's speech; and, simila ly, we do not normally expect a woman to speak those sentences in (43), espe ially (43a-b).


However, the use of the sentence-final particles in (43) by female speakers has been observed in very informal conversations including recent advertisements. The particles in (45), in contrast, can be used almost equally both by men and women. Therefore, the range of sentence-final particles illustrated in the sentences in (43)- (45) demonstrates that the addition of a particle generally reflects gender difference in Japanese.8

In addition to personal pronouns and sentence-final particles, women's speech is distinct from men's in various. other respects. Ide (1990) claims that women do not use words and expressions that suggest "profanity" or "obscenity", although what she refers to as "profane and obscene" words might better be termed as slang. For example, men can employ slang words like kuu "eat" and dekee!dekai "big" whereas women would, instead, say taberu and ookii, which are more neutral vocabuiary terms meaning "eat" and "big" , respectively.

Ide further adds the use of "beautification honorifics" and hypercorrected use of honorifics as characteristics of female speech. As was discussed above, Japanese has a rich system of honorifics that includes honorific and humble expressions. Honorific expressions are directed toward individuals that possess higher social status while humble forms are used by the speaker and has the effect of raising the status of the hearer. The prefix o/go- is normally used as an honorific expression, as the examples below indicate.

(46) sensei-no go-zitaku teacher-Gen hon.-house " teacher's house"

(47) sensei-no o-kuruma teacher-Gen hon.-car "teacher's car"

/ The prefix go- is attached to Sino-Japanese words while o- is prefixed to native words (cf. Harada 1976).9 The prefix o/go- in these examples expresses the speaker's respect toward the teacher. When we refer to the house and the car that belong to some individual for whom the use of honorific expressions are not necessary, the bare forms of zitaku and kuruma are used without the prefix. Besides this type of honorific use, the prefix o/go- are often used by women to "beautify" the entity under discussion even when the entity does not belong to someone whom the speaker expresses respect for (cf. Harada 1976). As Harada

_( 1976) explains, such a use of the prefix plays a role in making the speech "soft ·and feminine" (p. 542). For example, when men normally say kane "money",

'. ,susi "sushi", and soba "soba noodle", women tend to refer to the same set of ' objects as o-kane, o-susi, and o-soba. Compare the following male and female

speech.

Language Variation

(48) a. male: Motto kane-ga hosii-yo. more money-Norn want "I want more money."

b. female: Motto o-kane-ga hosii-wa. more hon.-money-Nom want "I want more money."

(49) a. male: Kyoo-wa · susi-ga tabe-tai. today-Top sushi-Norn eat-want "I want to eat sushi today."

b. female: Kyoo-wa o-susi-ga tabe-tai-wa. today-Top hon.-sushi-Nom eat-want "I want to eat sushi today. "

377

The casual verbal endings suggest that these sentences are uttered u der informal situations, and we can assume that the use of honorific forms is ot called for. Notice that it is very common to observe that female speakers se the prefix o/go- as beautification honorifics as in (48)-(49) just to "beauti money and sushi, for instance, while male speakers tend to use the bare nou forms. This use of the prefix o/go- is simply to make the speech softer, an is typic:i,l of women's speech. ___ . - _ ___ ---.._

Ide mentions that women's speech can be characterized by th / percorrected .u_s~ of honorifics as well. The example she uses is the following (p. 74).

(50) Haha-ga o-kaeri-ni narimasita. mother-Norn hon.-return.-hon. "My rnother returned."

The o . . . ni naru construction is an honorific expression, and is used to refer to the action of an individual that possesses higher status tha the speaker. For this reason, this expression is not normally used to refer t the speaker him/herself or the speaker's in-group such as his/her own fa ly members. Thus, the fact that this honorific expression is used to refer to the speaker's mother in (50) is somewhat unexpected since we would rather se a humble expression instead. According to Ide, however, this sort of "hyper rrected" use of honorifics is typical of female speech since women's speech ten s to be more formal than men's speech, and the use of honorific expressions in entences like (50) would contribute to the expression of formality.

The statistical study of gender differences in Japanese that Shi~b moto (1985) conducted reveals interesting results. First, men and women show · erent degrees of scrambling depending on which constituents of a sentence are s ambled. He.r


investigation indicates that men exhibit the scrambling of sentential and temporal adverbials, placing them before the subject, more frequently than women do, while women display other scrambling types such as the scrambling of direct object and indirect object, placing them before the subject. As a result, women demonstrate more overall application of scrambling than men.

Second, the phenomenon of Right Dislocation, which we have briefly discussed in chapter 5 in connection to scrambling, is more distinctly observed in female speech than in male speech. Right Dislocation is the pheno!llenon in which a word(s) or a phrase(s) can ap~o the right of the verb. The (b) sentenc~s below are exanipfos ot :Right Dislocati~n. . . . -

(51) a. Kono okasi ta.beta? this sweet ate "Did you eat this sweet?"

b. Tabeta, kono okasi? ate this sweet "Did you eat this sweet?"

(52) a. Taroo-wa gakkoo-e itta-yo. Taro-Top school-to went "Taro went to school."

b. Taroo-wa itta-yo, gakkoo-e. Taro-Top went school-to "Taro went to school."

In the (b) sentences, 4 constituent can follow the verb with a pause between ·them. Shibamoto's study reveals that Right Dislocation is more common in

7 J emale speech than in male speech. She further observes that men do apply Right Dislocation, but when they do, the dislocated constituent has its pronominal form, or at least the element that refers to the dislocated constituent, in the original position of the sentence. Some of her examples are shown below (Shibimoto 1985: 142).

(53) Sore-wa hurui kamo siremasen yo, wareware-no kankaku-wa. that-Top old maybe we-Gen feelings-Top "They may be old[-fashioned], our feelings."

(54) Watasi tuitui yuttyaundesu ne, watasi-no baai-wa. unguardedly end up saying I-Gen case-Top

"In unguarded moments, I say everything, in my case."

Language Variation

(55) Kodomo-to asondari suru-no-wa tanosii ne, are. child-with play do-that-Top fun that "Playing with the children and so on is fun, isn't it, tha.i "

These are sentences spoken . by male speakers. As the examples are elements within the sentences that refer to the same thing a

379

constituents: sore-wain (53), watasi in (54), and kodomo-to ast dari suru-nowa in (55). This phenomenon occurs more frequently in male peech than in female speech, and Shibamoto explains that men apply Right islocation as means of emphasis or restatement.

Finally, Shibamoto finds that Case particles are more often dro ed by women than by men. Specifically, she rePQrt;th~ti~;,.~men's sp~ech, pa- ides-;;~-~~~ frequently dropped than in male speech when the accompan g nouns are the subject and direct object. According to her, moreover, fe ales drop the subject particle more often when the subject is scrambled. No ce that this is somewhat unexpected, given our discussion of the function th t particles are supposed to display with scrambling. That is, we have discus d that native speakers of Japanese know which NP serves as subject and whic NP as object when they are scrambled, perhaps because Case particles such s Nominative and Accusative serve to signal the syntactic functions that the crambled NPs have. Given this assumption, then, we would expect scrambling to be less frequently observed when particles are dropped, because particle which would indicate the syntactic roles of the NPs, such as subject and bject, are no longer associated with the NPs. The result that Shibamoto rep rts, then, suggests that the functional explanation of Case particles assumed hove may not be so appropriate.

Another experimental study by Haig (1990) is worth mention· in relation to gender differences in Japanese. He investigated the gender differ nces observed with high-school and junior high-school students in Nagoya of "chi prefecture

· (the area west of Tokyo). In the Nagoya dialect, the use of the egative suffix n, as in ikan "I won't go", the standard equivalent of which is anai, and the gerund plus oru where the standard Japanese would have the ge d plus iru to men "be V-ing", are frequently observed. Haig finds that these alectal expressions, i.e. the use of n and the gerund plus oru, are more dis · ctly observed among male students than among female students. Female s dents use the standard versions more often, namely, ikanai and the gerund pl s iru. On the basis of this result, Haig concludes that the female speech in s region is on its way toward standardization. Furthermore, these dialectal e ressions are more commonly used by male students in high-school than m· le students in junior high-school. Haig relates this age difference to masculinity, and concludes that the non-standard forms are expressions of masculinity. Henc , women tend to standardize their speech by using more standard expressio s, while men


incline to maintain the dialectal expressions which are considered as a sign of

masculinity. However, the generality of this finding awaits further study.

Notes

1 The preceding vowel [ o) gets nasalized due to an assimilation effect. 2 There are exceptions to this generalization, however. Counter-examples include koo

zuru "to lecture" and kan-suru "to relate". 3 The dates of the literary works referred to in this chapter are as follows.

Manyoosyuu: mid-eighth century Kojiki: early-eighth century~ Ise Monogatari: early-tenth century Genj i Monogatari: early-eleventh century

4 The ga in (17) and (18), below, immediately follow the verbs, but the verb forms, which are in the attributive form, should be contrasted with the conclusive form. Generally, the attributive form is observed before a noun, indicating a prenominal modification, while the conclusive form appears at the end of a sentence.

5 Generally, admiration and respect are linguistically expressed by honorific and humble forms in Japanese: honorific forms exalt the hearer or the person referred to, and humble forms humble the speaker. Politeness is expressed to indicate the degree of closeness and/or formality among speech participants.

6 Since kik "ask, listen to" is a consonant-ending root, -i- is inserted between the root and ni narulsuru.

7 Note that Ide's list in (40) . implies that atakusi and atasi are never used by male speakers. However, their use by males is not as rare as the use of boku and ore by female speakers.

8 There is an apparent increasing tendency for female speakers, particularly those of the younger generation, to use more readily words and particles that have been described as characteristic of male speech.

9 Examples such as o-tya "tea" and o-denwa "telephone", however, are counter to this generalization: both tya and denwa are of Sino-Japanese origin.

Suggested Readings

Historical linguistics: Hashimoto (1932), Martin (1952), Miller (1971), Unger (1971), Smith (1979), Ashworth (1976-1977), Morioka et ai. (1981), Vance (1982), Vance (1987), Miyagawa (1989a), Motohashi (1989). Ashworth (1976-7) gives a diachronic analysis of verbal conjugation. Hashimoto (1932), Martin (1952'), Unger (1971), and Vance (1982, 1987) all deal with the voicing phenomenon in Japanese from a diachronic perspective. Vance (1987) contains both synchronic and diachronic aspects of Japanese phonology. A synchronic analysis of verbal conjugation in Japanese is also found in Davis and Tsujimura (1991). Miyagawa (1989a) and Motohashi (1989) account for the development of Case particles within the theory of Government and Binding.

Honorification: Harada (1976), Jorden (1987).


Regional dialectal variation: Tojo (1955), Fujiwara (1964), Haraguchi (1 77), Shibatani (1990), Haraguchi (1991), Yoshimoto (1991). Both Haraguchi (1977) and Shibatani (1990) provide detailed descriptions of accen-tuation patterns observed i a wide range of regional dialects. Haraguchi (1977, 1991) discusses theoretical issues con ming dialectal variation of accent within the autosegmental and metrical theories.

Gender differences: Shibamoto (1985), Loveday (1986), Haig (1990), de (1990), Ide · and McGloin (1990), Tannen (1990). Shibamoto (1985) presents results fro her statistical

study of characteristics of female speech in Japanese. Ide and McGloi (1990) is an edited volume containing ten articles dealing with women's language in Ja anese. Tannen (1990) discusses in a non-technical fashion a number of general characteris ics of women's and men's speech that are observed in American English and those that re reflective of different gender roles in American society. Some of these characteristics ay be relevant for Japanese as well.

Exercises

In this chapter we have discussed several factors that lead! to variation within a single language. What are they? Give three factors.

2 Recall our discussion of verbal conjugation in section 1 .1 o~ this chapter. In figuring out how a word was pronounced at an earlier stage in the language, where can we find clues to posit its earlier pronunciation?

3 Give an example from English that illustrates a historical c11ange.

4 What types of dialectal variation does Japanese exhibit?

5 Find a speaker coming from an area different from yours and Interview him/ her. Observe any difference between your speech and his/her ~peech.

6 Do you think that the speakers of various dialects should rcorrect" their speech so that they may speak the so-called standard dialectf Justify your answer.

7 Give an example in English that illustrates a gender differehce.

8 Interview a male speaker and a female speaker of Japanes~ . Ask, separately, what they think are gender differences in Japanese.

Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics

1 Liliane Haegeman

2 Andrew Spencer 3 Helen Goodluck 4 Ronald Wardhaugh 5 Martin Atkinson 6 Diane Blakemore 7 Michael Kenstowicz 8 Deborah Schiffrin 9 John Clark and

Colin Yallop 10 Natsuko Tsujimura

Introduction to Government and Binding Theory (Second Edition) Morphological Theory Language Acquisition Intro<Juction to Sociolinguistics (Second Edition) Chiidren's Syntax Understanding Utterances Phonology in Generative Grammar Approaches to Discourse An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology (Secontf Edition) An Introduction to Japanese Linguisties

J

An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics

Natsuko Tsujimura

iJ BLACKWELL Publishers

Copyright IO Natsuko Tsujimura, 1996

The right of Natsuko Tsujimura to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Desigp.s and Patents Ad. 1988.

First published 1996

Reprinted 1996

Blackwell Publishers Inc. 238 Main Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA

Blackwell Publishers Ltd 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 lJF, UK

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Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject. to the ccndition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior ccnsent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a sllnilar condition including this ccndition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Tsujimura, Natsuko An Introdud.ion to Japanese linguistics/by Natsuko Tsujimura p. cm. - (Blackwell textbooks in linguistics; 10) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-19855-5 (alk. paper). - ISBN 0-631-19856--3 (pbk: alk. paper) 1. Japanese language. I. Title. IL Series PL523.T74 1996 495.6--dc20

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Typeset in 10 on 13 pr Sabon by Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd., Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by T. J. Pr,_s Ltd., Padsrow, Cornwall

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To the memory of Adrian Akmajian (1944-1983)

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