Acquisition of Japanese pitch-accent by non-native speakers

Abstract

Vowel duration and F0 movement in Japanese pitch-accented words produced by non-native speakers were investigated. Phonemic vowel length and pitch accent are two prosodic properties of Japanese that are problematic for language learners. The vowel length distinction is typically realized by durational differences, and pitch accent involves F0 movement from high to low within an accented word. Equal numbers of target words and filler words were produced by 50 speakers by repeating after audio recorded Japanese sentences one at a time. The stimulus sentences were uttered by a native speaker of Tokyo Japanese. Speakers were randomly divided into two groups. For group A, a visual stimulus indicating the native speaker’s pitch contour for the target word appeared right after each audio stimulus. Speakers were instructed to follow the visual stimulus as they produced the target word. No visual stimulus was provided to group B. A sufficient durational distinction between long and short vowels was produced by both groups. However, group B failed to produce adequate amount or direction of F0 movement. These results suggest that explicitly showing pitch contour to language learners improves their pronunciation of pitch accent.