Synchronic and Diachronic Studies in English Off-glides

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02819
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Fujiwara Yasuaki 筑波大学, 人文社会系(名誉教授), 名誉教授 (30040067)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: わたり音 / 入りわたり / 出わたり / 母音連続 / 共時的・通時的研究 / 在来語・外来語 / 音質・音量 / 英語の正書法・音声学・音韻論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It is generally agreed that the initial sounds [j] and [w] of words like young and wind are consonantal on-glides, while the final sounds [i] ang [u] of words like day and cow are vowels. However, as a result of integrated analyses of the English orthography, phonology, etymology of the word-final [i, u], and chronology of loan words in English, it is claimed that the two final vowels are consonantal off-glides. It is also demonstrated that the two types of glides play crucial roles in avoiding hiatus between two successive syllables or words, demarcating the smallest units of the English rhythm and the quantity of words and phrases, and explaining the cause and mechanism of diachronic changes like the loss of word-final schwas and the Great Vowel Shift whose outputs invariably end with off-glides.

Free Research Field

英語史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

英語の音声研究の多くは音声学か音韻論、通時的か共時的という領域や接近法ごとに個別に行われてきたが、本研究では英語の二重母音の第二要素と長母音の後半部分を音声情報、音韻的機能、語彙借用の時期、語源などの情報を統合して分析し、これまで母音とみなされてきた母音の直後の [i, u] は語頭の「入りわたり」の [j, w] と同様に子音の機能を担う「出わたり」であることを突き止め、言語の本質的な特徴の解明には領域横断的研究が有効であることを示した。人間の社会生活に不可欠な衣・食・住と並んで、言語は重要であることから、世界共通語の英語のリズムや語句の音量最小単位の特徴を正しく認識することは意義深い。