S-shaped Curve of Phonological Standardization – Six Surveys in the Tsuruoka and Yamazoe Areas

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the speed of linguistic change. If social variation is a reflection of linguistic change, the scene of the linguistic change can be caught in action as a palpable phenomenon. However there is one theoretical question, the distinction of “real time” and “apparent time”. In order to observe linguistic change repeated surveying is necessary. The tradition of Japanese dialectology provides us with several examples of repetitive surveys. The conclusion of the analysis is as follows. The curve of apparent-time change corresponds to that of real-time change. The total number of years necessary for a linguistic change to be completed is nearly 200 years.

Prispevek obravnava hitrost jezikovnih sprememb. Jezikovne spremembe zaznamo kot otipljiv družbeni pojav, vendar se pri tem pojavlja teoretično vprašanje razlikovanja med realnim oz. dejanskim in navideznim časom. Opazovanje jezikovnih sprememb zahteva večkratno ponovitev raziskave, prav japonska dialektologija pa se s tem še posebno natančno ukvarja – pri tem krivulja navideznega časa ustreza krivulji realnega časa, in sicer je za jezikovno spremembo potrebnih skoraj dvesto let.