Word accent in Japanese and English: A comparative study of acoustic characteristics in disyllabic words

Abstract

In order to determine both the universal and language-specific characteristics for word accent, its acoustic manifestations are analyzed and compared in the disyllabic words “áme/amè” of the Osaka dialect of Japanese and in “pérmit/permít” of American and British English. An analysis of the pitch contours of these words indicates that in both languages pitch contour characteristics can be represented well using parameters, such as onset and offset of the accent command, extracted from the pitch contour on the basis of a functional model of pitch contour generation [H. Fujisaki and H. Sudō, J. Acoust. Soc. Japan 27, 445–453 (1971); Proc 7th ICA 3, 133–136 (1971)]. While a general similarity exists between the pitch contour characteristics of “áme/amè” and “pérmit/permít,” respectively, individual differences were found to be much greater in the timing of accent command for “pérmit” than in the other three cases. On the other hand, an analysis of the segmental and syllabic durations indicates a marked difference between Japanese and English: In Japanese, accentual changes are only found tn the duration of the second syllable, while in English they are found to be complementary in the first and second syllables. [Work supported by Ministry of Education Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 310707.]