Accentuation of alphabetic acronyms in varieties of Japanese

This paper investigates the phonological nature of alphabetic acronyms in Japanese, e.g. PTA, JR, JTB. Japanese dialects exhibit tremendous variation as regards the accent of these alphabetic expressions. We can account for the relevant facts by relating their accent patterns to the compound accent rules of the respective dialects. In other words, Japanese speakers process alphabetic acronyms as compound nouns, generally applying compound accent rules across dialects. The accentual variation among the dialects turns out to be relatively superficial differences that result largely from the differences that the dialects exhibit with respect to the compound accent rules. This analysis is particularly interesting in light of the fact that English speakers apply a phrasal stress rule to the same expressions. We will explore the implications of the differences among the Japanese dialects, on the one hand, and between Japanese and English, on the other.