It is generally accepted that of the five tone classes reconstructed for disyllabic nouns in Middle Japanese (MJ), Classes 2.4 and 2.5 exhibit a split correspondence with proto-Ryukyuan (pR) tone Classes B and C. This split correspondence is of tremendous importance for the reconstruction of the proto-Japonic (pJ) tone system, because, in the absence of a conditioning factor accounting for the split, it has led to the reconstruction of additional tone classes at the pJ level. However, of the approximately 100 nouns belonging to these classes, the tone class of only half of them has been reconstructed for pR. Before embarking on the reconstruction of the pJ tone system, we must therefore first reconstruct the pR tone class of the nouns belonging to MJ Classes 2.4 and 2.5. This study provides a reconstruction of the tone classes in pR for 75 cognates using the latest comparative data of Northern and Southern Ryukyuan dialects. The results confirmed the existence of a split correspondence, where Class 2.4 and 2.5 nouns are found to be roughly split in half between pR Classes B and C, demonstrating that it is not a merely sporadic irregularity.
This chapter describes aspects of the prosodic structures of Japanese accentless dialects with a focus on prosodic phrasing, pitch peak alignment, and prosodic focus-marking. The accentual phrases in these dialects can contain more than one phonological word. Hence, there is a tendency for accentual phrases to be long. In some accentless dialects, the pitch peak location in the accentual phrase varies considerably. When it is located around the end of a long accentual phrase, a long, continuously rising contour is observed. Focus is signaled structurally by inserting an accentual phrase boundary at the beginning of the focused word. When a long-distance rise occurs, there is a gap between the focus location and the peak location. This discrepancy between semantic and phonetic salience indicates that prominence in accentless dialects is realized purely structurally, with the left edge of the accentual phrase being the phonologically prominent position.
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