About the symposium

The pitch accent/tonal contrasts of Japanese and Korean have been investigated extensively over the past several decades, and detailed descriptive and theoretical studies have been conducted. One of the most interesting aspects of Japanese/Korean accent study concerns dialectal variation and historical development. Based on the available synchronic and diachronic data, phonological systems of the proto-languages of both Japanese and Korean have been reconstructed by various researchers. Neverthess, for both languages, hypotheses concerning the reconstructed phonological systems are controversial and further discussion is necessary to evaluate their validity by taking into account the findings reported in many subsequent dialectal/historical studies.

Professor Robert Ramsey of the University of Maryland is a pioneer in this line of study on both Korean and Japanese. In order to celebrate his research, we will hold an international symposium on Japanese/Korean accent from historical perspectives at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies on 2-3 July 2016.

Invited speakers

S. Robert Ramsey (Maryland University)

Elisabeth de Boer (Ruhr Universität Bochum)
Rei Fukui (The University of Tokyo)
Tatsuya Hirako (Komazawa University)
Hyun Kyung Hwang (NINJAL)
Yosuke Igarashi (Hitotsubashi University)
Young suk Kang (ILCAA)
Michael Kenstowicz (MIT)
Haruo Kubozono (NINJAL)
Munsuk Lee (Tokyo University of Science)
Akiko Matsumori (Japan Women's University)
Thomas Pellard (French National Centre for Scientific Research)
Clemens Poppe (NINJAL)
Hyang-Sook Sohn (Kyungpook National University)
Jaehyun Son (Duksung Women’s University)
Akira Utsugi (Nagoya University)
Zendo Uwano (Professor emeritus, The University of Tokyo)