Abstract
The accent in the south-east area of the Izu Peninsula basically accords with the Tokyo accent, but it has different characteristics from varieties of accents found around the area. One of the characteristics is that a speaker living there pronounces a word in some different patterns. Based on a survey in which some speakers were asked to read out a list of words and an analysis of recorded natural conversations, this study clarified the present status of accent variation in the Matsuzaki-cho dialect. The results showed that there was a consistent tendency concerning the patterns pronounced by the speakers, and that the tendency was different from what previous studies had reported. This study also confirmed that the Matsuzaki-cho dialect has some pronunciation patterns which reflect the old Tokyo accent, and that compared with the case when nothing follows a noun, the falling tone appears one beat later when a noun is followed by a particle or an auxiliary. Moreover, it was shown that the younger generation lacks these characteristics observed in the older generation, which means that their accent is becoming similar to the Tokyo accent, and that differently from the older generation, the younger generation also has several accent patterns for individual words that coincide with the present Tokyo accent.
