Why is すごく almost always pronounced with an accent on the second mora (instead of the first mora)?


From my experience, there are many speakers who say すごく{LHL} even though they
say はやく{HLL}, うまく{HLL}, etc.

I am aware that there are two "accent types" for the conjugated forms of
downstep-type (起伏式) i-adjectives (形容詞) but I would expect that to vary on a
per-speaker basis, not on a per-word basis for a single speaker.

My questions:

  1. As in the title, why is すごく exceptional?
  2. Is すごく the only such exception?
  3. To me (a non-native), すごく{HLL} sounds incorrect. What kind of intuition do standard-accent natives have about this pronunciation?




Here is a research paper for this topic:

[田川恭識, 中川千恵子. **東京方言における形容詞連用形・終止形・連体形のアクセントについて 一日本語話し言葉コーパスの分析を通して一**. 音声研究.
18(3)
2014.](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/onseikenkyu/18/3/18_KJ00009814363/_pdf)

The paper says:

> 「～く」の形を取る形容詞連用形の規範的なアクセントは、平板式形容詞の場合、「アカク」のようになり、一方起伏式の場合は「シ'ロク」となる。(中略)
> 従来、起伏式のク形とクテ形が本来の「◯'◯ク」「◯'◯クテ」から「◯◯'ク」「◯◯'クテ」へ変化していることが指摘されてきた (磯村 2009, 松森
> 2012 等)。

And the paper has this table:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gw8sA.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gw8sA.png)

So among common 起伏式 i-adjectives, すごい does seem to be exceptional in that it
almost always remains 起伏式 in its ku-form. I can think of several adjectives
where their ku-form can be pronounced in both ways, such as 青い (あおく【HLL】 and
あおく【LHL】) and 高い, though the 起伏型 version sounds a little dialectal to me.
However, I can't immediately think of any other adjectives that are _always_
pronounced with 起伏式 in their ku-form. To me, すごく【HLL】 sounds fairly unnatural
and seems to belong to no dialect.

Interestingly, the same i-adjective often has different accent types in its
ku-form and kute-form, and the tendency varies depending on the adjective.
Please see the paper for details.




Here is a research paper for this topic:

[田川恭識, 中川千恵子. **東京方言における形容詞連用形・終止形・連体形のアクセントについて 一日本語話し言葉コーパスの分析を通して一**. 音声研究.
18(3)
2014.](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/onseikenkyu/18/3/18_KJ00009814363/_pdf)

The paper says:

> 「～く」の形を取る形容詞連用形の規範的なアクセントは、平板式形容詞の場合、「アカク」のようになり、一方起伏式の場合は「シ'ロク」となる。(中略)
> 従来、起伏式のク形とクテ形が本来の「◯'◯ク」「◯'◯クテ」から「◯◯'ク」「◯◯'クテ」へ変化していることが指摘されてきた (磯村 2009, 松森
> 2012 等)。

And the paper has this table:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gw8sA.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gw8sA.png)

So among common 起伏式 i-adjectives, すごい does seem to be exceptional in that it
almost always remains 起伏式 in its ku-form. I can think of several adjectives
where their ku-form can be pronounced in both ways, such as 青い (あおく【HLL】 and
あおく【LHL】) and 高い, though the 起伏型 version sounds a little dialectal to me.
However, I can't immediately think of any other adjectives that are _always_
pronounced with 起伏式 in their ku-form. To me, すごく【HLL】 sounds fairly unnatural
and seems to belong to no dialect.

Interestingly, the same i-adjective often has different accent types in its
ku-form and kute-form, and the tendency varies depending on the adjective.
Please see the paper for details.

