The interrogative intonation in the Kunigami dialect of Okinoerabu, Ryukyu

Bibliographic Data

ID21477183
AuthorsAKIKO YOKOYAMA (Japan Society for Promotion of Science, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa , 3-11-1 Asahi-cho , Fuchu-shi , Tokyo 183-8534 , Japan, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume37
Issue2
Pages259-274
Publication date2021-11-25
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Japanese Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0197-3150 • E-ISSN: 2512-1413
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/jjl-2021-2043
OpenAlexW3206466755
LanguageEN
References cited5

Cross-linguistically, intonation patterns for yes/no questions rise in many languages. However, there are multiple reports of interrogative sentences with falling intonation in Japanese dialects. It is said that five types of interrogative intonation exist in Japanese dialects: rising, where the end of the sentence always rises; falling 1, where the end of the sentence always falls; falling 2, where the interrogative appears morphologically in the sentence, and the sentence falls; complement, where tone in the sentence falls if the interrogative morphologically appears and rises if it does not; and gradual rise, where the tone gradually rises until the end of the sentence. However, the Kunigami dialect does not adhere to these patterns. In Kunigami yes/no questions, the tone falls if an interrogative morphologically appears but reveals a distinctive intonation from a declarative sentence if it does not. Therefore, in the case of Kunigami, the interrogative intonation typology should not be reconstructed on the basis of absolute rise or fall but on the basis of contrast with a declarative sentence

Interrogative · Linguistics · Sentence · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology

Tools

Open DOI