LOANWORD ACCENT IN SOUTH KYUNGSANG KOREAN: A MORAIC ACCOUNT

Haruo Kubozono
Department of Linguistics, Kobe University

ID 1051
[full paper]

The primary goal of this paper to propose a new mora-based analysis of loanword accent in the South Kyungsang dialect of Korean (SKK) on the basis of data from original fieldwork. This paper first points out some critical errors in previous studies concerning the description of loanword accent in SKK. It will then propose a new, much simpler generalization based on the notion ‘mora’. Specifically, several seemingly different accent patterns can be generalized as a rule assigning an accent on the penultimate mora. This rule as well as some other pitch features of SKK is strikingly similar to the loanword accent of (Tokyo) Japanese. These cross-linguistic similarities can be uncovered if and only if the mora is recognized as a relevant unit of description in Korean just as it is in Japanese.