Acoustic Characteristics of “Ambiguous” Pitch Accents in Eastern Tokyo: Range of Drop in Pitch and Relative Timing of Peak Pitch

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the “ambiguous” treatment of pitch accent observed in dialects of the eastern Tokyo metropolitan area. I do this by analyzing two acoustic features: range of drop in pitch, and relative timing of peak pitch. My analysis shows that, in comparison with speakers from central Tokyo, those from eastern Tokyo exhibit relatively small drops in pitch and relatively unclear distinctions between different intonation patterns in timing of peak pitch. Based on these results, I conclude that the difference between “clear” and “ambiguous” treatments of pitch accent observed may be understood in terms of the clarity of drops in pitch, and the dispersion and clustering of peak pitch timing.