This paper reports on the morphological change of an honorific form composed of the te-form of verbs followed by the copula (henceforth 'te-form with copula'). This form is a respectful subject referent honorific and was common in Kamigata, the Kyoto-Osaka area, in the second half of the Edo era. At that time, it behaved like an auxiliary verb denoting a light degree of respect. In Kyototsuki, a Kyotoprinted sharebon published in 1836(Tenpo 7), there are many instances of the chatta form, which is a past form of 'te-form with copula' and a quite unusual form in Kamigata sharebon published during that period. As the result of an examination of this form from at the phonetic, semantic and conjugation levels, the author finds the following. Firstly, around the Tenpo period, chatta developed in Kyoto as the past form of 'te-form with copula'. Chatta was pronounced as [〓atta] and came from the tejatta [te〓atta] form, which is an abbreviated form of tedeatta. Secondly, although in earlier studies the techatta form is considered to be equivalent to the tejatta form which appears in some of the other Kamigata sharebon written at that time, techatta and tejatta are distinct forms. The former is chatta preceded by the aspect marker te and is pronounced techatta [te〓atta], as would be expected from its kana representation.

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In this paper, a case study was undertaken of the traditional dialect form shatei, which means 'younger brother'. The study was concentrated on the relation of regional culture, especially social structure, and the propagation of the word. Shatei, in the history of the 'central language'(the dialects of central Japan), had been used as a special word of the samurai class. From the early modern ages, while in eastern Japan shatei spread broadly to the common people, in western Japan, it kept its position as a special word. There is also a regional difference in the background of the two areas. In the social structure of eastern Japan, which has a strong tendency for inheritance to go to the eldest child, it was necessary to introduce a word, which reflected 'order within ie'. This fact is considered to be one reason for the propagation of shatei in eastern Japan. In this case study, it is clear that the reason for propagation can be not only be the influence of the culture of central Japan, but also the necessity to introduce a word relevant to regional culture.

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In the vowel devoicing distribution map in NHK Japanese Pronunciation and Accent Dictionary, dialects are classified according to their prominence in vowel devoicing. It is not clear, however, what the criterion for such classification was, and also whether the classification accounts for both, word-mid and word-final vowel devoicing. Thus an acoustic study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of high vowel devoicing in the above two positions and to define factors affecting it. Material was taken from the speech database collected throughout Japan between 1986 and 1989, and involves 608 respondents (304 high school students and 304 their grandparents) from 41 regions (prefectures). The data were acoustically analyzed and devoicing rates were discussed through the surrounding sounds, regional variation, and generational variation. Results revealed that the devoicing rate in dialects belonging to the so-called prominent regions of vowel devoicing rises above 60%. By observing the consonants and vowels of the following syllable, it was found out that devoicing rates differ statistically significantly in almost all regions, following the order affricate < fricative < plosive, and high vowel < non-high vowel. Regional differences obtained confirm results from the previous studies. In addition, generational difference were also found to contribute to devoicing, namely, more devoicing is used by younger generations, the tendency being especially notable in the Tohoku area. All these findings concern high vowels that are located in word-mid position and surrounded by voiceless consonants. In the word-final position, however, where high vowels are located between a voiceless consonant and a pause, devoicing rate is shown to be considerably lower irrespective of region, which brings us to the conclusion that word-final position does not condition devoicing.

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This paper describes case particles, especially those which function to mark instrument or material, in the Tsuken Island dialect of Okinawa, Japan. The functions of these particles have been elucidated by syntactic analysis. Based on co-occurrence relations between the case particles and verbs, we discovered that the functions of the particles are determined by the meanings of the verbs. As a result of consideration along these lines, the following three points are elucidated. 1) The case particles which have the function of indicating instrument or material are the three case particles 〓i, 〓ka, and kara. These are distinguished in usage by the nouns and verbs they are used with. 2) These particles co-occur with verbs which have the meaning of "action", "change" or "movement". These meanings influence the choice of particles. 〓i co-occurs with "action" and "change of state" verbs 〓ka co-occurs with "change of location", "change of form", and "change of state" verbs kara co-occurs with verbs which have the meaning of the "movement", "transmitting information", "receiving information", and "production" 3) The meanings of the verbs which co-occur with the particles 〓ka and kara are more concrete and semantically restricted (for example the meanings of "movement", "change of form", and "receiving information") than those that co-occur with the particle 〓i. But 〓i is not so restricted, with the result that, in the relationship between 〓i and verbs, 〓i has more flexibility. For this reason, 〓i is in the process of acquiring the functions of the particles 〓ka and kara.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the functions and properties of negative imperative sentences, and the interrelation between imperative sentences and negation. Negative declarative sentences are used in contexts where the corresponding affirmative is presupposed. Likewise, negative imperative sentences are used following affirmative events, against which negative imperative sentences are uttered. Moreover, volition and the time of these events both affect negative imperative sentences by changing their function from one of "command" to one of "indignation", "deontic judgement", "evaluation" or "wish". In the data we find a number of sentences categorized as "indignation", "deontic judgement" and "evaluation", all of which are declarative functions. Among them, "evaluation" is proper to negative imperative sentences. These show that negative imperative sentences have a greater similarity to declarative sentences than do affirmative imperative sentences.

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