The Generational Differences of Lexical Pitch Accent : Focused on Daegu Dialect Speakers

This study examines the generational difference in the lexical pitch accent of the Daegu dialect, one of the Kyungsang dialects. The focus is on how the lexical pitch accent of speakers in their 20’s is different from that of speakers in their 50’s The results of two experiments (speech production tasks and speech perception tasks) show that there is a significant difference in the lexical pitch accent between those in their 20’s and those in their 50’s. The proportion of participants in their 20’s who produce minimal pairs without lexical pitch accent is higher than that of participants in their 50’s. The proportion of those in their 20’s who do not identify minimal pairs categorically is higher than that of those in their 50’s. In conclusion, these results indicate that the role of lexical pitch accent in distinguishing minimal pairs is weakened among Daegu dialect speakers in their 20’s. This change is more conspicuous in speech production than in speech perception.