Abstract
In this paper, I discuss the basic aspect-tense system in the Tohoku dialects. The past durative markers -teatta, -tedeatta are used in the Akita dialect. In the Hiraka, Hachinohe, and Morioka dialects, -teratta, -tedatta are used, and in Fukushima, -tetatta is used as the past durative marker. In the Tohoku dialects, -teta is generally used as the past and present durative marker, but in the Hiraka, Hachinohe, and Morioka dialects, -tera is used. The past-perfective marker -tatta is used in the Hiraka, Hachinohe, Morioka, and Fukushima dialects. The sentence-final particle -ke is frequently used with -ta as the past expression in the Higashine dialect. Originally, the past durative marker -teatta was used widely, but in many dialects of the Tohoku district, -teatta had been changed to -tatta by a phonetic change. -tatta at first functioned as a durative marker. But later, the aspectual function of -tatta has been shifted from durative to perfective. This is because the 'te' morpheme, which is a durative aspect marker, was lost. Finally, -tatta is used as the past perfective marker. For the stability of the grammatical system and the realization of aspectual binary opposition, -tetatta has arisen. Through a comparison of the aspect-tense systems of different dialects, I show an example of the change of a linguistic form due to the necessity of stability in a grammatical system.
