High Tone Spreading in Northern Kyungsang Korean

Abstract

This paper describes high tone spreading (henceforth HTS) of nouns and predicates such as verbs and adjectives in Northern Kyungsang Korean (henceforth NKK) which is one of Korean dialects. NKK shows distinct tonal patterns such as double, initial, rising, penultimate, and final tones unlike Seoul Korean. NKK has preserved tone patterns of Middle Korean with Hamkyung Korean in North Korea. This paper has three goals. First, this paper analyzes the tonal patterns and high tone distribution of NKK. Second, this paper shows that HTS occurs in nouns and predicates such as verbs and adjectives and HTS is sensitive to vowel length of a syllable that spreads high tone. Third, this paper shows Optimality Theory analysis for HTS in NKK with Comparative Markedness Theory by McCarthy (2003).