An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute:
A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/
HTML Version(1997)
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II.1.12 Changes of Language Use
- from the field work data in the northern
part of Hukusima prefecture
(Report 53, 1974. 388 pages)
This fieldwork was conducted from 1965 to 1971 in Moniwa,
Iizaka-mati, Hukusima City and Hobara-mati, Date-gun, located
in the northern part of Hukusima Prefecture. The purpose of
this research was to identify the phonetic/phonological,
grammatical and lexical factors related to change in
linguistic use in the society of this region.
The survey was conducted on a large scale and included:
(1) A survey of everyday conversation based on live recorded
data, (2) An oral interview survey based on a set
questionnaire, (3) A survey based on a written
questionnaire, (4) A survey on change with respect to
context (a survey of actual speech based on observation and
live recordings), (5) A survey on social life and social
structure.
The present book reports on the results of one part of (2)
the oral interview survey based on a set questionnaire. To
summarize these results, in general, the tendency towards
KYOTUGO, the common language, was more pronounced the
younger the informant and the higher the level of his or her
education. In particular, this tendency toward the common
language was most pronounced for phonetic/phonological and
lexical characteristics. There was a relative tendency to
preserve the dialectal forms related to grammar
and expression.
Concerning specific phonetic/phonolgical tendencies,
the confusion between I and E, SI and SU, TI and TU, ZI and
ZU, and the voicing of KA and TA row sounds in medial and final
position tended to be maintained. With regard to grammar and
expression, dialect forms were often used to express volition or
supposition (BEE); the imperative form of the verb KURU,
'come', (KOO); the past experiential (-TATTA) and KEIGO,
'honorific forms'. In addition, names for things which had
become obsolete had rapidly gone out of use.
IITOYO Kiiti directed this research.
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