A Time-Based Comparison of Dialect Pronunciation in the Language Contact Area of Northern Niigata Prefecture: On-Glide Nasal [g] Sounds among Elderly Speakers

Northern Niigata Prefecture is located along the boundary line where two different dialects come into contact, the Tohoku dialect to the north and the Echigo dialect to the south. Due partly to this geographical configuration, archaic pronunciations of Japanese have been preserved in the area, including on-glide nasal [g] sounds ([ŋg]-[῀g]) seen almost nowhere else in Japan. Based on the distribution of nasal [ŋ] sounds in the Tohoku dialect and plosive [g] sounds in the Echigo dialect, the [ŋg]-[῀g] sounds of this area seem to have been preserved from the archaic pronunciations of these dialects. In order to determine the influence and specific transition of neighbouring areas upon these pronunciations, in 2003, the author conducted a general survey of the entire region. In this work, I conducted a follow-up survey of elderly speakers, performing a time-based comparison to determine the changes that had occurred over the course of approximately ten years. The comparison of the results of the two surveys demonstrates that while there was no significant decline in [ŋg] and [῀g] sounds, there were particular trends in the pronunciation of each syllable. For instance, a [g] pronunciation not seen in other syllables tended to show up in the case of /gi/, and this survey did demonstrate the presence, albeit limited, of a pronunciation resembling [ŋ] in which nasal sounds make an extremely brief appearance