Abstract
This paper analyzes the accentuation of so-called alphabetic acronyms in Kinki Japanese with main focus on the effects that the syllable structure and familiarity of a word exert on its accent pattern. The data obtained from an original fieldwork show that the initial tone of alphabetic acronyms in Kinki Japanese is determined by their phonological length, i.e., number of moras involved, and their syllable structure. These phonological factors are quite similar to those that are responsible for the unaccented pattern observed in loanwords and alphabetic acronyms in Tokyo Japanese. This study has also revealed a certain correlation between the speaker's familiarity with a word and the ratio at which the word violates shiki-hozon, a tone preservation rule exhibited by compound words.
