On Accentual Pitch Patterns of Accented Verbs in the Yokote Dialect: An Analysis Based on Iambic Feet

Abstract

This paper discusses the accentual pitch patterns of past and non-past forms of accented verbs in the Yokote dialect spoken in Akita Prefecture. In past forms of this dialect, the accent of accented verbs falls on antepenultimate, penultimate, or ultimate morae, depending on the phonological characteristics of the verb stem (e.g., /oto’si-ta/ ‘dropped’; /tabe’-ta/ ‘ate’; /mi-ta’/ ‘saw’). Conversely, accent always falls on penultimate mora in non-past forms (e.g., /oto’s-u/ ‘drop’; /tabe’-ru/ ‘eat’; /mi’-ru/ ‘see’).

This paper proposes phonological rules based on iambic feet to account for these accentual pitch patterns. Furthermore, this paper suggests that the posited rules can also account for the accentual pitch patterns of many other verb conjugations and adjectives.