Prosodic levelling during language shift: Okinawan approximations of Japanese pitch-accent

This article demonstrates how the language death process potentially contributes to the emergence of a new dialect. A sociolinguistic survey of the prosodic phonology of Japanese spoken in Yaeyama, Okinawa shows that the obsolescence process of Okinawan has resulted in a new dialect of Japanese. First, Okinawan is undergoing processes typical of language death, including increased variability and the elimination of phonological contrasts at the prosodic level. These processes are also occurring in the incoming language, Japanese. Second, these processes have influenced the acquisition of the prosody of Standard Japanese, resulting in a newprosodic system. Third, a positive attitude towards the local variant of Japanese is prevalent among the younger members ofthe community, particularly the working-class males. These results suggest that a local prosodic system is emerging, resulting in a new dialect of Japanese.