Reconstruction of the Proto-prosodic System of Kuroshima and Kohamajima Dialects in Yaeyama Ryukyuan

Abstract

Based on prosodic data collected in Kuroshima and Kohamajima, this paper discusses their proto-prosodic-system. The study proposes that the proto-prosodic-system of the Yaeyama Islands consists of three tonal patterns—*L, *LH, and *HL for Pattern A, Pattern B, and Pattern C respectively—in which the prominence (H-tone) of Pattern C is assigned to the first phonological word, and the one of Pattern B to the second one. The paper then proposes that the H-tone is associated with the last syllable of each phonological word for Pattern C and Pattern B in the proto-prosodic-system of Kuroshima and Kohamajima, from which the system of Kuroshima undergoes the tonal pattern consisting of two prominence peaks (the HLH tonal pattern), which then undergoes the change of *HLH>HLL.