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Concept
Japanese phonology
Summary
The phonology of Japanese features about 15 consonant phonemes, the cross-linguistically typical five-vowel system of /a, e, i, o, u/, and a relatively simple phonotactic distribution of phonemes allowing few consonant clusters. It is traditionally described as having a mora as the unit of timing, with each mora taking up about the same length of time, so that the disyllabic [ɲip.poɴ] ("Japan") may be analyzed as /niQpoN/ and dissected into four moras, /ni/, /Q/, /po/, and /N/.
Standard Japanese is a pitch-accent language, wherein the position or absence of a pitch drop may determine the meaning of a word: /haꜜsiɡa/ "chopsticks", /hasiꜜɡa/ "bridge", /hasiɡa/ "edge" (see Japanese pitch accent).
Unless otherwise noted, the following describes the standard variety of Japanese based on the Tokyo dialect.
Voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are slightly aspirated: less aspirated than English stops, but more so than Spanish.
/p/, a remnant of Old Japanese, now occurs almost always medially in compounds, typically as a result of gemination (as in 切符 kippu, 切腹 seppuku or 北方 hoppō) or after /N/ (as in 音符 onpu), and in a few older compounds as a result of the contractions of pronunciations over time (as in 河童 kappa). It occurs initially or medially in onomatopoeia. Some few non-onomatopoeic exceptions where it occurs initially include 風太郎 pūtarō, although as a personal name it is still pronounced Fūtarō. As gairaigo, loanwords of non-Middle-Chinese origin (non-Middle-Chinese Chinese borrowings such as パオズ paozu, ペテン peten as well as borrowings from non-Chinese languages such as パーティー pātī, etc.), enter the language, /p/ is increasingly used in transcription, initially or medially.
/t, d, n/ are laminal denti-alveolar (that is, the blade of the tongue contacts the back of the upper teeth and the front part of the alveolar ridge) and /s, z/ are laminal alveolar.
/w/ is traditionally described as a velar [ɰ] or labialized velar approximant [w] or something between the two, or as the semivocalic equivalent of /u/ with little to no rounding, while a 2020 real-time MRI study found it is better described as a bilabial approximant [β̞].
Official source
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