Comparison of Two-Pattern Accent Systems of the Southwest Kyushu Accent of Particles/Auxiliary Verbs(<Feature Articles>Current Studies on N-pattern Accent)

Two-pattern accent systems of Southwest Kyushu district can be classified into two large groups. One is "Kagoshima type" and the other is "Nagasaki type". "Kagoshima type" has a characteristic that falling tone appears at the end of an accent unit. On the other hand, "Nagasaki type" has a characteristic that falling tone appears on the first part of an accent unit. In this paper, I clarify the features of accent systems of the Kagoshima-shi dialect, Tanegashima dialect (these two dialects belong to "Kagoshima type"), Amakusa Hondo dialect and Yakushima Miyanoura dialect (these two dialects belong to "Nagasaki type") according to the general characteristics of N-pattern accent systems proposed by Uwano (1984, 2011), and I reveal the commonalities and differences between the accent systems of these four dialects. In addition, I present lists of the accents of particles/auxiliary verbs of the Nagasaki-shi dialect, Hondo dialect, Kagoshima-shi dialect and Tanegashima dialect, and I check the correspondences between four dialects.