Japanese phonology: Encyclopedia II - Japanese phonology - Phonological processes

Japanese phonology - Phonological processes

Japanese contains a number of phonological processes which greatly alter the phonetic realization of consonants and vowels. A few are listed below.

Japanese phonology - Consonant processes

Non-coronal voiced stops /b, ɡ/ between vowels may be weakened to fricatives, especially in fast and/or casual speech:

However, /ɡ/ is further complicated by its variant realization as a velar nasal [ŋ]. Standard Japanese speakers can be categorized into 3 groups (A, B, C), which will be explained below. If a speaker pronounces a given word consistently with the allophone [ŋ] (i.e. a B-speaker), that speaker will never have [ɣ] as an allophone in that same word. If a speaker varies between [ŋ] and [ɡ] (i.e. an A-speaker) or is generally consistent in using [ɡ], then the velar fricative [ɣ] is always another possible allophone in fast speech.

/g/ may be weakened to nasal [ŋ] when it occurs within words — this includes not only between vowels but also between a vowel and a consonant. There is a fair amount of variation between speakers, however. Some, such as Vance (1987), have suggested that the variation follows social class; others, such as Akamatsu (1997), suggest that the variation follows age and geographic location. The generalized situation is as follows.

• all present-day standard Japanese speakers generally use the stop [ɡ] at the beginning of words:  /ɡaijɯɯ/ → [ɡaijɯɯ] gaiyū 外遊 'overseas trip'   (but not *[ŋaijɯɯ])

• A. majority of speakers uses either [ŋ] or [ɡ] in free variation:  /kaɡɯ/ → [kaŋɯ] or [kaɡɯ] kagu 家具 'furniture'
• B. minority of speakers consistently uses [ŋ]:  /kaɡɯ/ → [kaŋɯ]   (but not *[kaɡɯ])
• C. smaller minority of speakers consistently uses [ɡ]^[1]:  /kaɡɯ/ → [kaɡɯ]   (but not *[kaŋɯ])

In the middle of compound words morpheme-initially:

• B-speakers mentioned directly above consistently use [ɡ]: 

So, for some speakers the following two words are a minimal pair while for others they are homophonous:

• sengo 1,005 (せんご) 'one thousand five' = [seŋɡo] for B-speakers
• sengo 戦後 (せんこ゜) 'postwar' = [seŋːo] for B-speakers^[2]

To summarize using the example of hage はげ 'baldness':

• A-speakers: /haɡe/ → [haŋe] or [hage] or [haɣe]
• B-speakers: /haɡe/ → [haŋe]
• C-speakers: /haɡe/ → [hage] or [haɣe]

The palatals /i/ and /j/ palatalize the consonants they follow:

The coronals /s, z, n, t/ and glottal /h/ are affected as follows:

Of the allophones of /z/, affricate [ɟʑ] tends to be pronounced at the beginning of utterances, while fricative [ʑ] occurs between vowels. Both sounds, however, are in free variation. The (laminodorso-)alveolopalatal [ȵ] allophone differs from a palatalized apico-dental [n̺ʲ], a palatalized apico-alveolar nasal, [nʲ] or a palatal nasal [ɲ].

In the case of the /s/, /z/, and /t/, when followed by /j/, the consonants are palatalized with /j/ merging into a single pronunciation:

The vowel /ɯ/ also affects consonants that it follows:

Some analyses of Japanese treat the moraic nasal as a phoneme /N/. However, other, less abstract approaches treat a syllable-final nasal as a regular coronal /n/. In either case, it always follows vowels (never consonants) and undergoes a variety of assimilatory processes. Within words, it is variously:

• uvular [ɴ] at the end of utterances and in isolation.
• bilabial [m] before [p] and [b]; this pronunciation is also sometimes found at the end of utterances and in isolation.
• dental [n] before coronals [d] and [t]; never found utterance-finally.
• velar [ŋ] before [k] and [g].
• [Ṽ] (a nasalized vowel) before vowels, approximants (/j/ and /ɰ/), and fricatives (/s/, /z/, and /h/). Also found utterance-finally.

Some speakers produce /n/ before /z/, while others produce a nasalized vowel before /z/ (see Akamatsu 1997).

In some analyses of Japanese, the archiphoneme /Q/ is posited. However, not all scholars agree that this is the best analysis. In those approaches that incorporate the moraic obstruent, it is said to completely assimilate to the following obstruent, resulting in an geminate (that is, double) consonant. The assimilated /Q/ remains unreleased and thus the geminates are phonetically long consonants. /Q/ does not occur before vowels or nasal consonants. This archiphoneme has a wide variety of phonetic realizations, for example:

Another analysis of Japanese dispenses with /Q/ and other archiphonemes entirely. In this approach, the words above are phonemicized as shown below:

• The contrast between /d/ and /z/ is neutralized before /ɯ/ and /i/. By convention, it is often assumed to be /z/. Among younger speakers, the contrast is maintained in loan words.

Japanese phonology - Vowel processes

Japanese vowels, especially /i/ and /ɯ/, tend to be devoiced when between unvoiced consonants except when they are in accented moras. Additionally, /i/ and /ɯ/ are optionally devoiced following a voiceless consonant and at the end of an utterance.

To a lesser extent /o/ (and even rarer /a/) may be devoiced with the further requirement that there be two or more adjacent moras containing /o/.

Devoicing is common in even normal slow speech and is not restricted to only fast speech.

The common sentence-ending copula desu is pronounced [desɯ̥].

Gender roles also play a part: it is regarded as effeminate to pronounce devoiced vowels, particularly the terminal "u" as in "arimasu". Basilectic varieties of Japanese can sometimes be recognized by their hyper-devoicing, and formal or archaic dialects by their tendency to pronounce every syllable.

Japanese vowels are slightly nasalized when adjacent to nasals /m, n/. Before the moraic nasal /ɴ/, vowels are often heavily nasalized:

At the beginning and end of utterances, Japanese vowels may be preceded and followed by a glottal stop [ʔ], respectively. This is demonstrated below with the following words (as pronounced in isolation):

When a utterance-final word is uttered with emphasis, this glottal stop is very audible and is often indicated in the writing system with a small letter tsu っ called a sokuon.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Phonological processes", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki