This paper described the prosody of two-syllable words in Jibbāli. I analyzed the pitch, duration and intensity using Kay's Multi-Speech (ver. 2.5). As to pitch, I focused on range, median, standard deviation, and slope of pitch.

I examined the difference between doubly-stressed words (V´V´) and singly-stressed words (V´V or VV´) in Johnstone (1981). As a result, I have found out that Johnstone (1981) marked the stress(es) based primarily on intensity to which vowel duration and pitch have been incorporated. The doubly-stressed words in Johnstone (1981) appear to be most complex involving intensity, duration and pitch.

It is worth noting that a minimal-pair [˩ð^ji˥ɾ^ji] 'strange' / No.17 [˥ð^ji˩ɾ^ji] 'to bleed' has been found in my first fieldwork in Sultanate of Oman. I would like to collect more pairs of this sort in my ensuing fieldwork.

The present study investigated which is more readable of kanji and hiragana orthography by measuring reaction time and accuracy for sentence correctness decision. 288 sentences were made by using kanji words that were chosen from three kanji levels; 1) level 8 and 9, 2) level 4, and 3) level 1 of the Japanese Kanji Skill Test(Nihon Kanji Nooryoku Kentei). Two task lists for sentence correctness decision were made with orthographic difference of kanji and hiragana for target words. These lists were given to two groups consisted of 16 Japanese native speakers so that each participant may not see the same word. The result showed that in both of positive and negative responses the reaction time of hiragana reading took longer than kanji reading with 1). On the contrary, it was shown that kanji reading needed more time than hiragana reading with 3). It suggests that the words consisted by kanji of level 8 and 9 written in hiragana are more difficult than in kanji and the words consisted by kanji of level 1 written in hiragana are less difficult than in kanji for cognition and processing.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the effect of speech rate in the cognitive process of speech sound. To serve this purpose, we observed the features of ERP elicited by listening to nonwords with various speech rates and different pitch patterns. Three kinds of speech rate were used: fast, normal, and slow. Two kinds of pitch patterns were also chosen: up and down. Three Japanese participated in this experiment.

As a result, when the subjects listened to nonwords at the normal speech rate, the peak latency of the P2 tended to advance in comparison to nonwords at fast or slow speech rates. Moreover, when the subjects listened to nonword with a flat pitch pattern (normal), the peak latency of the P2 also tended to advance in comparison to nonwords with an up or down pitch pattern.