Japanese Phonology
From MiWiki
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b
|
t d
|
k ɡ |
|||||
| Affricate | ts | |||||||
| Nasal | m
|
n
|
ɴ |
|||||
| Flap | ɽ |
|||||||
| Fricative | s z |
h | ||||||
| Approximant | j |
w |
- /p, t, tˢ, k/ are moderately aspirated
- /tˢ/ is geminated as /ttˢ/
- /b/ is typically realized as [b], but can become [β] or [v̠] in rapid speech.
- /ɡ/ often becomes [ɣ] intervocalically. It becomes [ŋ] medially in older speakers, with some exceptions.
- /ɽ/ is postalveolar medially. It is typically realized as an affricate [d̠ɹ̝̆] initially and after {{Phoneme|ja|ɴ}. It may be postalveolar [l̠] in any position. Sometimes it may be approximant [ɹ].
- Phonemic /tˢ/ is normally realized as a cluster [ts]. It is palatalized to [tɕ] before /i/.
- /n/ is palatalized to [ɲ̟] before /i/. Some speakers realize it as alveolar before /u/.
- Consonants are strongly palatalized before /i/; /Ci/ typically becomes [Cʲi].
- /ɴ/, the moraic nasal, has variable realization.
Bibliography
- Okada, Hideo. "Japanese." In Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
