Abstract
This paper describes Japanese loanword accentuation, and proposes a strategy to assign accent types of these words. About four hundred sixty unitary loanwords are prepared having more than 5 morae. Nine native speakers, with a Tokyo dialect, are instructed to assign the most separable intra-word juncture and accent location of the words. The experimental result shows that Japanese loanword accentuation is closely related to the word formation quasi-structure and the metrical structure formed by compounded syllables in the words. It is clarified that accentuation rules of unitary words with phonological juncture parallel Japanese compound accent rules. Moreover, an additional new accenting rule is also proposed based on the Japanese metrical structure. The loanword accent under such a metrical structure is placed at the penultimate position of the two-mora syllable unit (foot).
