2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Fundamental Research on the Actual Status of the Tokyo Metropolitan Dialect

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21520478
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Japanese linguistics
Research Institution	Kanda University of International Studies
Principal Investigator	KIGAWA Yukio 神田外語大学, 大学院・言語科学研究科, 教授 (50327186)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KUNO Mariko 國學院大學, 文学部, 教授 (90170018)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2011
Keywords	方言
Research Abstract	By comparing the Tokyo metropolitan dialect, which is a basis of the modern common Japanese language, with its traditional dialects, this study attempted to examine the current status of the Tokyo metropolitan dialect. In this study, we conducted surveys in Saitama prefecture, Kanagawa prefecture, Yamanashi prefecture, and the east area of Shizuoka. As a result, we have confirmed that even today, some accents and phonological/grammatical phenomena that could be regarded as reflecting the old strata of the Tokyo dialect are observable, although the language of the speakers in the survey areas has considerably transformed itself toward the Tokyo metropolitan dialect's direction. On the basis of a questionnaire method, undergraduate students at a university in Tokyo were also surveyed to examine the actual status of the young generation's language.