The Phonetic Details of Voiced Geminates in the Kumamoto Dialect: The Effects of Generation and Gender

Abstract

This paper reports the phonetic details of geminates in the Kumamoto dialect of Japanese, especially from the perspectives of generation and gender. Data from 105 native speakers were analyzed, and it was demonstrated that generation and gender in voiced geminates have a clear relationship with (a) the proportion of voicing patterns of the closures and (b) the duration of continuous voicing from a preceding vowel. If a generational tendency reflects the diachronic change of voiced geminates, it indicates that although Kumamoto dialect has full-voiced pronunciation with phonologically voiced geminates in traditional pronunciation, it is changing in the younger generation.