ISCA Archive ICSLP 1990
ISCA Archive ICSLP 1990

Production and perception of the accent in the consecutively devoiced syllables in tokyo Japanese

Kikuo Maekawa

What happens to the phonological pitch accent of Tokyo Japanese when the accented syllable and all other syllables in the word are devoiced by the effect of phonetical vowel devoicing rule? The acoustic analysis and perception tests reveals that the accentedness of the devoiced syllable is perceived by the elevated pitch at the beginning of the voiced syllable immediately following the sequence of the devoiced syllables. The exact location of the accent in the devoiced syllables, however, can't be identified correctly.