The phonology of Japanese

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The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Title Pages

The Phonology of JapaneseThe Phonology of the World’s
LanguagesThe Phonology of Japanese
General Editor: Jacques Durand
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Title Pages

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Acknowledgements
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.002.0005

This work is a substantially revised and updated version of my book in
French entitled La phonologie du japonais, jointly published by the Paris
Linguistic Society and Peeters editions in 2006.
For his constant support and enthusiasm, I would like to express my
gratitude to Jacques Durand, who supervised this work from its very
beginnings and later gave me the opportunity to publish it at Oxford
University Press.
Many thanks are also due to the following friends and colleagues for their
comments and help on earlier versions in French or in English of this book
or on parts of it: the late Nick Clements, Marc Plénat, Takayama Tomoaki,
Catherine Garnier, François Dell, Tanaka Shin’ichi, Irène Tamba, Elsa GomezImbert, Martin Kramer and several anonymous readers.
I am especially indebted to Kamiyama Takeki who read the entire final
manuscript with great care, making many valuable comments and
suggestions which helped me correct a number of mistakes.
Particular mention must also be made of Abe Junko, Hiraide Naoya, Wakasa
Anju, Furihata Atsuko, Nakamura Yayoi, Kawaguchi Yuji, and many other
friends and colleagues who kindly provided information on the Japanese
examples, of Joan Busquets for his help in editing the figures, and of Michel
Vieillard-Baron for assistance with the poetic materials.
I am also most grateful to all the Japanese scholars who have provided me
with their teaching, advice, support, and help throughout the last twenty
Page 1 of 2

Acknowledgements

years or so during my research stays in Japan, in particular Komatsu Hideo,
Kitahara Yasuo, Hayashi Chikafumi, Haraguchi Shôsuke, Jôo Hakutarô, Kondô
Takako, Aoki Saburô, and I am especially grateful to Takayama Tomoaki who
was always willing to share his vast knowledge of the phonology of Modern
and Ancient Japanese with me. I owe a special and old debt to Akinaga
Kazue thanks to whom I discovered the joy of Japanese phonology at Waseda
University during the years 1987–1989.
I acknowledge with gratitude several scholarships from the Japanese Ministry
of Education and The Japan Foundation, which allowed me to conduct
research in Japan at Waseda University and Tsukuba University on several
occasions. These institutions gave me the precious opportunity to carry out
most of the preliminary investigation for this work. My research has also
benefited from the constant scientific and financial support of my CNRS
research team in Bordeaux and in Toulouse, CLLE ERSS (UMR 5263) and the
University of Bordeaux 3 which I also want to thank.
I also thank Teddy Auly, a cartographer at the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique and the University of Bordeaux 3, who edited the two
maps included in this book.
(p. vi )

Finally, my sincere thanks go to John Davey and his staff at Oxford University
Press for their editorial support and everlasting patience.
None of these persons, of course, necessarily agrees with the analyses I
propose. All errors and omissions are mine.

Page 2 of 2

Acknowledgements

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Tables, Figures, and Maps
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.002.0007

Table 1.1. Hiragana (basic symbols) 8
Table 1.2. Katakana (basic symbols) 9
Table 3.1. Consonantal phonemes of Japanese 59
Table 4.1. Summary of blocking patterns among Yamato noun–noun
compounds 123
Table 6.1. The 103 distinctive moras of Modern Standard Japanese
in phonological transcription 144
Table 7.1. Location of accent in nominal Yamato and Sino-Japanese
words (according to Sibata, 1994), in relation to length of lexemes
187
Table 7.2. Accent of simplex Yamato nouns 194
Table 7.3. Accentual effect of particles 195
Table 7.4. Accent of verbs 198
Table 7.5. Accent of -i adjectives 199
Table 7.6. Accent of compounds made up of a numeral + SinoJapanese specifier 246
Table 7.7. Cross-dialectal accent correspondences for bimoraic
nouns for the five Kindaichi word classes 256
Figure 2.1. Spectrogram and oscillogram of aki kara (with devoiced
i) 35
Figure 2.2. Spectrogram and oscillogram of aki demo (no devoicing
of i) 36
Figure 2.3. Final vowel shortening in Western clippings 48
Figure 2.4. Token frequency of vowels in Archaic Japanese 57
Figure 2.5. Token frequency of vowels in Modern Japanese 57

Page 1 of 2

Tables, Figures, and Maps

Figure 3.1. Textual frequency (in %) of Archaic Japanese consonants
99
Figure 3.2. Lexical frequency (in %) of Archaic Yamato Japanese
consonants for the initial of words 100
Figure 3.3. Lexical frequency in absolute value of consonants
according to their position in bimoraic Yamato nouns in the modern
language 100
Figure 3.4. Textual frequency of modern Japanese consonants 101
Figure 7.1. Accent curve (F0) of hana-ga ‘flower’ 182
Figure 7.2. Accent curve (F0) of hana-ga° ‘nose’ 182
Map 1. Administrative Japan xiv
Map 2. Geographical distribution of accent types 252

Page 2 of 2

Tables, Figures, and Maps

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Notes on Transcription, Abbreviations, and Other Matters
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.002.0008

The system of romanization adopted throughout the book is the Hepburn
system (####, hebon-shiki), except for the notation of the bilabial fricative
[F] which is written as h before u, and of vowel length. Long vowels are
transcribed as ou, aa, ii, ei, or ee,uu (rather than ô,â,î, ê, û), except in proper
names, linguistic terms, and in the bibliography. This transcription, which has
been calqued on the kana writing, has the advantage of allowing for a more
adequate notation of accent by dissociating the two parts of a long vowel. It
has one drawback, which is that it does not allow for a distinction between
tou # ‘tower’ (actually pronounced as [ˡtoː]) and tou ## ‘to ask’ ([ˡ¹toɯ])
which are both spelled as ## in hiragana. IPA transcription will be provided
for disambiguation of ou sequences in the text when necessary.
When needed, the phonological transcription (see Table 6.1, section 6.1)
is used, as well as phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA). For instance, the word ####(## in kanji) meaning ‘repair’
will be transcribed as shuuri in adapted Hepburn, /syuRri/ in phonological
transcription, and [ˡɕɯːɾi] in IPA.
In Hepburn romanizations, the accented mora appears in bold. In IPA
transcriptions, the sign ˡ is placed before the accented mora following the
usual practice in the IPA: kokoro [koˡkoɾo] ‘heart’, kyouto [ˡkjoːto] ‘Kyôto’.
Atonic words are followed by the symbol °: sakura° ‘cherry tree’. Many
Japanese words display several possible accent patterns. Generally, only
the most frequent pattern is given for a word, except when accent variation
may be relevant to the discussion. Accent will not be provided for ancient,
dialectal, or invented forms (except when relevant for the discussion),
for non-independent morphemes and in cases where the form has to be
Page 1 of 4

Notes on Transcription, Abbreviations, and Other Matters

considered independently of its accentuation. In the citation of examples
taken from other scholars who do not provide accent information, I have
automatically added the accent patterns if necessary.
The source word of Western loans is given between braces: konpyuutaa
‘computer’ {computer}.
The components in transparent compound words are separated by a hyphen:
kodomo-beya ‘children's room’ when relevant to the discussion.
The following abbreviations are used:
(p. xiii )

intr.= intransitive verb

tr.= transitive
µ= any mora
m= deficient (weak) mora
M= regular mora
σ= syllable
π= foot
V= vowel
C= consonant
C1= initial constituent, C2 = final constituent (in compounds)
#= word boundary
*= unattested form (or, reconstructed forms in passages dealing with
historical matters)
jp= Japanese
ch= Chinese
rk= Ryûkyûan
H= high (tone), or heavy syllable

Page 2 of 4

Notes on Transcription, Abbreviations, and Other Matters

L= low (tone), or light syllable
AJ= Archaic Japanese
OJ= Old Japanese.
In Chapter 3, which is devoted to the consonantal system, the notation of
classical (linear) generative phonology is used. For instance, the formula x →
y /_ z reads as x becomes y when occurring before z.
Old Chinese reconstructions come from Tôdô (1996) except when otherwise
specified.
Japanese personal names are given in the following order: family name,
personal name. They are cited under the romanized form which appears in
the original publication. Authors’ names of books and papers published in
Japanese have been transcribed following the Hepburn system, except for
those people who have chosen some other transcription (when this other
transcription is known to me).
The spectrograms and the oscillograms were made using the Praat software
developed by Paul Boersma and David Weenink, Amsterdam.
Finally, note that contrary to a majority of recent Western works on Japanese
phonology, I do not recognize the existence of the syllable in this language,
although I will occasionally provide syllabic information or representations for
comparative purposes when needed. The view retained in this book is that of
the native Japanese tradition in phonology, which holds that only the mora is
relevant. (p. xiv )

Page 3 of 4

Notes on Transcription, Abbreviations, and Other Matters

Map 1. Administrative Japan

Page 4 of 4

Notes on Transcription, Abbreviations, and Other Matters

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Introduction
Laurence Labrune

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0001

Abstract and Keywords
This first chapter provides a general introduction to the book, presenting its
aims, methods, theoretical background, the status, origins, and periodisation
of the Japanese language, as well as the previous scholarship written on the
subject of Japanese phonology. It also presents the writing system of modern
Japanese, made of a mixture of Chinese characters, two kana syllabaries and
Latin alphabet, and describes and discusses the issue of the lexicon partition
into Yamato, Sino-Japanese and Western words.
Keywords: Japanese language, periodisation, Japanese writing system, Chinese characters,
two kana syllabaries, Latin, Yamato words, Sino-Japanese words, Western words

The Phonology of Japanese offers a comprehensive overview of the
phonological structure of modern Japanese from its segmental to its prosodic
and accentual structure. The purpose of the book is twofold.
First, it will present the actual ‘state of the art’ of Japanese phonology,
based on a compilation of recent and older Western and Japanese materials,
reflecting current debates in Japanese phonology. The aim is to provide
a synthesis of two major research streams: that of Japanese traditional
linguistics and philology, kokugogaku ###, which is characterized by its
data-oriented approach, a strong philological background, and careful
attention to the empirical realities of the language, but which, unfortunately,
seems to be largely ignored outside Japan in spite of its excellence and
remarkable achievements (see the seminal works by Kindaichi Haruhiko,
Hashimoto Shinkichi, Hattori Shirô, Hamada Atsushi, Kamei Takashi, and
Page 1 of 30

Introduction

many others); that of Western scholarship, for which Japanese has often
served as a test ground for newly developing theories. One should recall
that many aspects of Japanese phonology have contributed to the advance
of modern phonological theory in a significant manner. Without aiming at
exhaustivity, let us mention the works of James McCawley in the 1960s
(classical generative phonology), Haraguchi Shôsuke in the 1970s (nonlinear phonology), Itô Junko and Armin Mester in the 1980s and 1990s
(underspecification theory, Optimality Theory), and Kubozono Haruo in the
1990s and 2000s (Optimality Theory).
In sum, the main ambition of this book is to survey the achievements by
scholars belonging to different linguistic schools and traditions, to assess
them critically, and to integrate them into a uniform approach in order to
make the results available to a larger scientific community. It is hard to
simply grasp the quantity and quality of native research when one has
no access to it, and it is even harder to evaluate it, be it in the field of
phonology or of any other area of linguistics. It should also be acknowledged
that some recent Western works often fail to give credit to the richness and
excellence of this tradition.1 This is (p. 2 ) why it has appeared essential to
devote so much attention to Japanese contributions through an approach
that attempts to blend and reconcile, in a unifying perspective, two ways
of doing linguistics that usually ignore each other. This stand by no means
precludes our casting a critical eye over one or other approach.
Further, this book aims to offer new analyses and data concerning some
of the central issues of Japanese phonology in a theoretically oriented
approach. Issues for which new analyses are proposed in this volume are
those of the mora and syllable, the notion of ‘special mora’, compound
noun accentuation, default accentuation (through a case study of Western
borrowings), the underlying accent of some Sino-Japanese morphemes, the
status of diphthongs, the consonant /r/, and the interaction of moras and
feet.
The aim is thus to provide both a critical synthesis of the state of the art
in Japanese phonology and to provide theoretically oriented description
and analyses in its main areas. However, the purpose is not to promote
a given theoretical or formal framework set in advance and to which the
data of Japanese would be forcefully moulded. Rather, what I have tried to
do is to provide general—albeit precise—information on the phonological
structure of the Japanese language in all its complexity and, whenever it
appears relevant, to point to the analytical and theoretical extensions of the
Page 2 of 30

Introduction

issue likely to be considered. Therefore it is why priority is always given to
the presentation of the linguistic data. I have nevertheless chosen to give
a tighter theoretical and formal treatment to a small number of specific
issues that have appeared to deserve more thorough treatment due to their
importance in the field.
There are unfortunately a number of issues that I could not address as I
would have liked to. Notably, there is no in-depth treatment of intonation.
The morpho-phonology of verbal flexion would also probably have merited
a whole chapter. However, this aspect of Japanese morpho-phonology
being generally introduced in Japanese grammars and even textbooks, it is
relatively easy to find good descriptions of it outside specialized phonology
or morphology works.
This book is intended for a general audience of students and linguists with
no specialized knowledge of the Japanese language, and to non-linguist
Japanologists who want to obtain up-to-date information in the field of
Japanese phonology.
For the needs of the latter audience, Japanese terminology has been
provided both in roman transcription and in the original writing (kana or
kanji), and priority has been given to first-hand sources and references in the
Japanese language.
(p. 3 )

1.1 Theoretical Background

The general framework of our reflection and analyses will be that of
generative phonology in the broad sense as it has been developed from the
end of the 1960s onwards, although some parts of the book also owe a great
deal to structural phonology, a current that was widely followed in Japan
in the 1940s, 1950s, and even later, in the works of outstanding Japanese
linguists like Hattori Shirô and Kindaichi Haruhiko, whose analyses will be
often referred to in the following pages. But whatever framework lies behind
our discussions, a distinction is always made between an underlying form (or
input) and a surface form (output). In order to account for the formal relation
which exists between these two levels, we adopt a non-derivational approach
which is that of Optimality Theory (see Prince and Smolensky, 1993, Kager,
1999, for introductions), in which the relationship between the input and the
output is viewed as the result of the interaction of constraints rather than
sequential rule application as in the traditional generative model (Chomsky
and Halle, 1968). Such an approach proves to be particularly effective for
the treatment of phenomena relating to prosodic morpho-phonology, and it
Page 3 of 30

Introduction

will be used, in particular, for the formal analysis of default accentuation and
compound nouns accentuation which will be offered in Chapter 7.
As regards contents representations, be it the internal structure of
segments in terms of distinctive features or the architecture of the prosodic
components, the references are clearly those of traditional non-linear and
autosegmental phonology. Optimality Theory has actually very little to say
about the contents and nature of representations, and is compatible with
various representational conceptions.
Phonology being a relatively technical and formal discipline, it was not
possible within the limits of this work to provide definitions and explanations
of all the concepts used here. It is assumed that the basic notions of
articulatory phonetics and of phonological analysis are known. Readers who
want to acquaint themselves with the discipline are invited to consult for
example the reference works of Kenstowicz (1994a), Goldsmith (1990, 1995),
and Hayes (2009), which provide good introductions to various aspects of
phonological theory.
In the pages devoted to the presentation of segmental phonology (Chapters
2, 3, and 4), the theoretical background of the description and analyses will
be cast in a classical (and rather neutral) framework in terms of features and
statements. A broadly generativist phonological framework will be adopted,
such as the one introduced in Kenstowicz (1994a). For the mora and syllable
analysis (Chapter 6), the autosegmental, non-linear framework will be used.
I will refer especially to the conceptions developed by Larry Hyman (2003
[1985]) regarding (p. 4 ) the status of the TBU (tone-bearing units), i.e. the
moras, for the analysis, but other standard models will also be reviewed for
the sake of comparison.
The accentual analyses of compound nouns and of Western borrowings
in Chapter 7 (sections 7.2.5 and 7.3.2) are cast within the framework
of Optimality Theory. Some other current phonological frameworks will
occasionally be referred to when necessary, for instance when previous
scholarship and analyses concerning some of the problems of Japanese
phonology provide alternative and arguably more insightful views of the
phenomena under consideration.

1.2 The Japanese Language
Japanese is spoken by about 130 million speakers, nearly all living in
the Japanese archipelago. Its genetic affiliation is dubious. It has often
Page 4 of 30

Introduction

been classified as a Ural-Altaic language, but the reality of its origins is
more complex. Prehistoric Japanese is probably the result of hybridization
between an Austronesian and an Altaic language, with some possible other
continental influences.
The language closest to Japanese is Ryûkyûan, spoken in the Ryûkyû Islands,
southwest of Kyûshû. Together, they form the Japonic family.
The language closest to Japanese outside Ryûkyûan is Korean. There
exist strong typological resemblances between the two languages, which
suggest a genetic relationship, although well-established regular phonetic
correspondences are hard to establish (see Martin, 1966 for an attempt).
Two main Japanese dialect groups are recognized: Eastern dialects (Tôkyô
type) and Western dialects (Kyôto-Ôsaka type), and Japan is still a country
with great dialectal diversity.
This book is primarily concerned with Modern and Contemporary Standard
Japanese. Japanese linguists generally refer to that variety as hyôjungo (##
#) ‘standard language’, kyôtsûgo (###) ‘common language’, or Tôkyôgo (#
##) ‘the Tôkyô dialect’. It corresponds roughly to the language spoken in the
districts of the area known as Yamanote in Tôkyô and in the national media,
in particular the NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation).
We will also refer to dialectal varieties of the language and to historical
developments when necessary for an understanding of the synchronic facts.
For the periodization of Japanese, the following labels are adopted. These
divisions also correspond to standard major political divisions in Japanese
political history:
•
– Archaic Japanese (jôdaigo###): before 794 (until the end of the
Nara period)
•
– Old Japanese (chûkogo ###): 794–1350 (Heian and Kamakura)
•
(p. 5 ) – Middle Japanese (chûseigo ###): 1350–1603 (Muromachi,
Azuchi-Momoyama)
•
– Pre-modern Japanese (kinseigo ###): 1603–1868 (Edo)
•
– Modern Japanese (kindaigo ###): 1868–1945 (from Meiji to
World War II)
Archaic Japanese was the period when Chinese characters were first
massively imported into Japan. The materials of those times are written
exclusively using Chinese characters, read in a Chinese or a Japanese
Page 5 of 30

Introduction

manner (Man’yôgana, #### ‘Chinese characters used only for their
phonetic value’, see below).
Old Japanese saw the development of the kana syllabaries, and the
flourishing of a national literature written exclusively in kana with very few
words of Chinese origin. The language reflected in the materials is primarily
that of the Kyôto aristocracy and has served as the basis for the prestige
written language for centuries.
The middle of the fourteenth century can be seen as the major turning point
between Ancient and Modern Japanese, to the extent that it is sometimes
sufficient to oppose Old Japanese (the language before the fifteenth century)
to Modern Japanese (the language after the fifteenth century). Middle
Japanese underwent significant changes due to the spread of the SinoJapanese vocabulary and the generalized use of the kanji to write it. The
so-called kanji-kana majiri bun (######## ‘kanji and kana mix style’),
based on a mixture of kanji and kana as in Modern Japanese (see section 1.5)
became the most common style of writing. Middle Japanese is also a period
of major modification in the verbal and adjectival flexional system as well as
in the phonological system with the establishment of the special segments
(see Chapter 5), as a result of the sound changes known as onbin ##, whose
first occurrences can be traced back to Old Japanese.
Pre-modern Japanese, in the Edo period, is known to us through a huge
number of different types of materials reflecting the colloquial and dialectal
diversity of the time, including a number of foreign descriptions of the
Japanese language, principally European ones, with the publication of
dictionaries and grammar books, but also accounts made by Chinese and
Korean scholars (such foreign descriptions of Japanese actually started in the
fifteenth century). Modern Japanese, starting with the Meiji Restauration in
1868, has been influenced by Western languages. It also corresponds to the
spread of Tôkyô Japanese as the standard language, and the development of
a new form of written language closer to the spoken one.
‘Contemporary Japanese’ (gendaigo ###) can be used more specifically to
refer to the variety of language which developed after World War II.
(p. 6 )

1.3 Particular Status of Japanese for Linguistic Science

A word should be said here about the status of Japanese in the field of
linguistics. Japanese is no doubt one of the best-documented non-IndoEuropean languages in the world, if not the best-documented. In addition, it
Page 6 of 30

Introduction

has a rare characteristic: most specialists of Japanese linguistics are native
speakers of the language, who, moreover, have been working within their
own rich linguistic tradition in a cumulative manner, without ignoring the
achievements of general linguistics outside their country. This tradition,
it should be emphasized, did not develop in an intellectual environment
completely sealed off from the rest of the world. It has been nourished by
Chinese, Indian, European, and American contributions throughout its long
history. Descriptive and cumulative work has thus been conducted in an
optimal manner, although one might have the feeling that, in very recent
years, even the major works by outstanding scholars such as Arisaka Hideyo,
Hashimoto Shinkichi, Kindaichi Haruhiko, and Hattori Shirô, for example,
are no longer part of the compulsory reading of younger Japanese linguists
trained in the West.
Last but not least, Japanese linguistic research has enjoyed quite a
favourable economic environment. For decades, the various academic
institutions of the country such as research centres and universities have
devoted an impressive number of material means to research on the
national language and its dialects, with the result that one can benefit,
in the case of Japanese, from an exceptional quantity of quality data and
documentation (even more, it seems, than for English or French, which
have also been extensively studied). The accumulation of descriptive and
analytical materials is completely bewildering, and contemporary phonology
would be much worse off if it did not take account of the contributions of the
Japanese academic tradition.

1.4 Previous Western Literature On the Phonology of
Japanese
There exist few general references in European languages relating to
the phonology of Japanese, in comparison to the huge number of studies
carried out in Japan. I will only mention here studies of a general and
broad character, but naturally there are a fair number of articles and some
monographs relating to specific aspects of the phonology of Japanese
(mainly in English).
The excellent book by Timothy J. Vance, An Introduction to Japanese
Phonology, published in 1987, constitutes the best descriptive reference of
the (p. 7 ) discipline in the English language. Unfortunately, it has been out
of print for a number of years, and therefore hard to get. Timothy Vance is
also the author of The Sounds of Japanese, published in 2008, which is a
Page 7 of 30

Introduction

handbook designed for English-speaking students. It is of course impossible
not to mention James McCawley’s thesis, The Phonological Component of a
Grammar of Japanese, published in 1968, which was one of the first studies
seeking to apply to a language other than English the generativist framework
of the Sound Pattern of English (Chomsky and Halle, 1968). This reference
remains invaluable, and much of the data and analyses of McCawley have
not lost their interest, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge of
phonological theory since 1968, so the framework is a bit outdated. One
should also mention the monograph by Samuel E. Martin, Morphophonemics
of Standard Colloquial Japanese, published in 1952, that of Günther Wenck,
The Phonemics of Japanese—Questions and Attempts (1966) as well as
Japanese Phonetics (1997) and Japanese Phonology (2000) by Akamatsu
Tsutomu. Wenck is also the author of a monumental Japanische Phonetik
in four volumes, written in German (1954–1959). In French, one should
mention Haruhiko Kinda-ichi (= Kindaichi) and Hubert Maës’s, Phonologie du
japonais standard, published in 1978, which consists in fact of a translation
and adaptation by the second author of an original Japanese text by the
first author (Kindaichi), one of the most eminent Japanese phonologists.
In addition to the fact that it is out of print, this work, which is rather short
(59 pages), is theoretically outdated. I am the author of La phonologie du
japonais, published in 2006 by the Société de Linguistique de Paris (Peeters,
Leuven). The present book is a substantially updated and modified version
of this 2006 French edition. All these books, except for Labrune (2006) and
Vance (2008), have sadly been out of print for a number of years.

1.5 Overview of the Writing System
Throughout this book, we will occasionally refer to the orthographical status
which some of the phonological units of the language have received in the
native writing system of Japanese. This is because the written dimension
provides an interesting background to the phonological reality of these units.
The graphemic system often reflects the phonemic one, and, vice versa,
since phonology in turn can be influenced by the writing system, or, to put
it in Suzuki’s words (Suzuki, 1977), writing can become a formative agent
of the language. This is especially true for Japanese. Kess and Miyamoto
(1999:32) observe that the nature of the multi-faceted Japanese orthography
must be viewed as a formative agent that exerts some influence, if not
power, over the spoken language itself. However, it goes without saying
that the orthographical criteria should not be held up as definite proof of the
phonological status of a given element.

Page 8 of 30

Introduction

This being said, a general presentation of the writing system of
Japanese will be given in the following pages, but readers with no specific
interest in the issue may skip this section and proceed directly to the
following one.
(p. 8 )

The Japanese writing system is composed of four different scripts. First, it has
two original ‘syllabaries’2 of 48 signs each (of which 46 only are presently in
common use), the hiragana ### and the katakana ###, which are referred
to under the generic term of kana ##. Katakana and hiragana were created
by the Japanese. They both took as their basis Chinese characters used
only for their phonetic value (the man’yôgana ####; see Seeley, 1991
for a general presentation of the history and development of the Japanese
writing system in English). Hiragana and katakana are based on the mora3
and take as their basis the same units, so that a given mora of Japanese
can be denoted by the corresponding letter of either set. The elaboration of
these two sets of kana symbols was more or less achieved around the tenth
century.
In addition, several thousands of ideographic characters originally borrowed
from Chinese, the kanji ##, are used. The Latin alphabet, rôma-ji ####, and
Arabic numerals are also part of the modern writing system. The writing of a
Japanese text is done today by using in a joint and complementary way the
first
Table 1.1. Hiragana (basic symbols)
a

shi

chi

tsu

(p. 9 )
Page 9 of 30

Introduction

Table 1.2. Katakana (basic symbols)
a

shi

chi

tsu

three systems (hiragana,katakana, and kanji), and, in an accessory manner,
the latter two.
The writing of Japanese is unanimously recognized as one of the most
complex, or even the most complex, of all known systems. As Kess and
Miyamoto (1999:13) put it, ‘it is no stretch of the imagination to declare
Japanese one of the most intricate, most elegant and yet most difficult
writing systems in the modern world’. Complexity lies first of all in the fact
that the structure and the orthographical principles of these various scripts
are fundamentally different. Kana and the Latin alphabet have in common
the fact that they are phonographic. However, the kana adopt as a basic unit
the mora, while the alphabet is based on the phoneme. Chinese characters,
on the other hand, are primarily logographic (ideographic) symbols, like the
Arabic numerals. Moreover, the way Chinese characters are used in Japanese
writing is the source of another complexity, since, as we shall see below,
most characters can be read in at least two fashions, depending mostly on
the context in which they occur.
Tables 1.1 and 1.2 present the hiragana and katakana according to the
traditional order of the gojûonzu (#### ‘table of the fifty sounds’4). As we
shall see in more detail in Chapters 2, 3, and 4, the core phonemic system of
Japanese consists of five vowels (a, i, u, e, o) and fourteen consonants (p, b,
t, d, k, g, s, z, h, m, n, r, y, w). It will be noted that the combinations starting
with p,b,d,z,g, which are derived from the corresponding unvoiced kana
Page 10 of 30

Introduction

letter by (p. 10 ) addition of a diacritic symbol, as well as those comprising
a palatalization, do not appear here (we will reconsider this point a little
further; a table of all the Japanese moras is provided in Chapter 6, Table 6.1).
Hiragana mainly denote grammatical elements or elements with no stable
referents such as enclitic particles, verbal and adjectival inflexions, functional
names, interjections, connectors, and a number of adverbs. They are
sometimes used to write lexical morphemes that the scripter does not want
(or does not know how) to write in characters. Texts for children are thus
transcribed exclusively in hiragana, which are the first writing symbols
taught to Japanese children.
Katakana are generally reserved for the transcription of recent foreign loans.
They are also sometimes used to write mimetic words, the names of plants
or animals, dialectal or slang forms, and sometimes also erudite words. They
may also be employed to highlight an element in a sentence, somewhat like
the italics in the Latin alphabet script, to mark irony, or even to give a more
colloquial, oral flavour to a text.
The modern versions of hiragana and katakana (Tables 1.1 and 1.2) comprise
46 or 48 signs if one takes into account the two kana denoting the moras
wi and we that are in principle encountered only in texts written prior to
1946. The characteristic of the hiragana and the katakana is initially, as the
term ‘syllabary’ reflects, that they transcribe ‘syllables’ with the traditional
Japanese direction of the term, that is, moras. A second characteristic is
that they use diacritics rather than distinct letters to denote the difference
between voiceless and voiced obstruents. Another 58 additional moras
can thus be written by the addition of a diacritic symbol, or combination
of two existing kana. Voiced obstruents are marked by two small strokes,
the dakuten ## or nigoriten ###, placed at the upper right corner of the
matrix of a given kana (1a, see also sections 3.7.1 on the correspondence
between h and b, and Chapter 4 on voicing in general). A comparable device
is used to represent the moras pa,pi, pu, pe, and po: a small circle, the
handakuten ### (literally ‘semi-voicing dot’, 1b) is added at the top of the
kana transcribing the h series.
(1)
a. Notation of obstruent voicing
t:
d

Page 11 of 30

ta
chi
tsu

#
#
#

:
da
ji
zu

#
#
#

Introduction

te
to

#
#

de
do

#
#

s:
z

sa
shi
su
se
so

#
#
#
#
#

:
za
ji
zu
ze
zo

#
#
#
#
#

k:
g

ka
ki
ku
ke
ko

#
#
#
#
#

:
ga
gi
gu
ge
go

#
#
#
#
#

h:
b

ha
hi
hu
he
ho

#
#
#
#
#

:
ba
bi
bu
be
bo

#
#
#
#
#

b. Notation of moras starting with /p/
h:
p

ha
hi
hu
he
ho
#
#
#
#
#

:
pa
pi
pu
pe
po

#
#
#
#
#

The palatalized combinations (kya,kyu, and so on) are transcribed by adding
onto the right side of a kana containing the -i vowel the kana ya,yu, and yo
in (p. 11 ) reduced size, as shown below (in the following examples, capitals
are used to reflect full-size kana, while small letters transcribe reduced-size
kana):
(2)

Page 12 of 30

Introduction

:
KIya
(kya)

SHI

:
SHIyu
(shu)

CHI

:
CHIyo
(cho)

:
##

Hiragana and katakana are indeed different scripts but they are almost
identical as far as the principles that underlie their internal structure,
organization, and phonemic referential units are concerned. The only
difference between the two is a tiny one. It lies in the fact that vocalic
length is not treated identically. In katakana, it is uniformly represented
by an horizontal line (vertical in cases where the text is written from top
to bottom), while in hiragana, it is transcribed differently according to the
quality of the long vowel: the kana letter for u is added after the moras
containing -u and -o when the length results from the fall of a consonant
followed by u (the most frequent case), the letter for a is added after a, that
for i after -e and -i. For instance (here the hyphens mark mora boundaries):
(3)
toukyou
°

‘Tôkyô’

written
TO-UKIyo-U

##
###
(##)

guuzen°

‘fortuity’

written
GU-UZE-N

###
# (#
#)

reisei°

‘calm’

written
RE-ISE-I

###
# (#
#)

pronounced
[toːkjoː]

pronounced
[ɡɯːzeN]

pronounced
[ɾeːseː]

There exist some particular uses, which one encounters, for instance, in
cases of native Japanese words where the lengthening of the long vowel [oː]
corresponds to the loss of a consonant originally followed by o: the vocalic
length is noted in that case by means of the letter o, as in the word ookii (#
Page 13 of 30

Introduction

ohokii) ‘large’. One can also mention words like oneesan ‘older sister’, whose
long vowel is written ee and not ei.
In katakana, vowel length is indicated by means of a horizontal or vertical
bar following the vowel (according to the direction of the writing), whatever
the quality of the vowel concerned, for example ‘super’ suupaa ####.
The reduced-size kana tsu (# in hiragana and # in katakana) is employed
to write the first part of a non-nasal geminate consonant, whatever it may
be. Thus atta ### ‘had’ is noted A-tsu-TA in hiragana, while katto ###
‘cut’ {cut} is noted KA-tsu-TO in katakana.
Apart from rare exceptions, the kana spelling of Japanese words is simple
and straightforward.
The Chinese characters, or kanji (##), are generally used to write the nonvariable part of lexical morphemes of Chinese or Japanese origin. The stem
of a flexional word of Japanese origin such as a verb or an adjective is written
by (p. 12 ) means of one or several Chinese characters, while the variable
part is transcribed in kana. Thus the kanji # represents the idea of ‘reading’
but it can be read in different ways. As shown in the examples in (4), # is
employed to represent the stable part of the various inflected forms of the
verb ‘to read’ in Japanese and it is read yo-, according to its native Japanese
reading (kun’yomi ### ‘meaning-reading’). The endings which undergo
variation will be noted in hiragana. The same character # is also used in
compound nouns such as dokusha ## ‘reader’, tokuhon° ## ‘reading
book’, koudoku° ## ‘subscription’, and many others, with the Sino-Japanese
reading (on’yomi ### ‘sound-reading’) doku or toku. (Accents are ignored in
the following examples.)
(4)

Page 14 of 30

yomu

#.MU

‘to
read’

yonda

##
#

#.N.DA

‘read
(past
tense)’

yomanai

##
#
#

#.MA.NA.I

‘do(es)
not
read’

dokusha

‘reader’

Introduction

tokuhon

‘reading
book’

koudoku

‘subscription’

It is generally considered that the knowledge of approximately 2000
characters is sufficient for the reading of current Japanese texts. However,
this figure is extremely relative, and represents in fact a minimum
threshold.5
The difficulty raised by the Japanese sinograms comes from the fact that, on
the one hand, a character almost always has several readings (see below,
section 1.6.2), and that on the other hand, a lexeme can almost always be
written using different characters. For instance, # is read yo-,doku, or toku.
But the verb yomu ‘to read’ can be written ## or ##.
A written Japanese sentence is thus composed of an arrangement of kanji
and kana, and it is not, moreover, uncommon that a text contains some
sequences in the Latin alphabet or Arabic numerals. Texts are written from
top to bottom vertically, starting from the rightmost side of the page, or
horizontally, from left to right. One occasionally encounters horizontal
inscriptions, generally made up of a couple of Chinese characters, written
from right to left.
Each symbol (kana,kanji,rôma-ji, or figure) is separated by a blank. There
does not exist any special demarcating device to separate words or
syntagms. It is thus only the alternation between Chinese characters,
hiragana, (p. 13 ) katakana, rôma-ji, and Arabic numerals, as well as the use
of punctuation, that helps the segmentation of the various elements of the
sentence.

1.6 The Stratification of the Lexicon
The lexicon of Japanese is stratified into morphemes belonging to different
classes corresponding to distinct morpho-phonological, semantic, and
pragmatic systems. This organization is fundamental for the description
and comprehension of Japanese as a whole. Lexicon stratification plays a
central role in the grammar because it entails major structural as well as
pragmatic (register) differences. Words belonging to different classes may
undergo different rules or constraints. For instance, one of the best-known,
and most often cited, examples is rendaku (‘sequential voicing’), which
applies differently according to the stratum (see Chapter 4).
Page 15 of 30

Introduction

Japanese linguistics traditionally distinguishes a minimum of three lexical
classes:
•
– Wago ##, or Yamato lexemes, the class of native words within
which one might possibly put the subclasses of the mimetic words
and other expressive words such as childish, familiar, or slang
vocabulary.
•
– Kango ##, Sino-Japanese lexemes. They are loans from Chinese
introduced massively in Japan starting from the fourth century at
least. This class comprises many words of the erudite and abstract
vocabulary, as well as concepts and objects borrowed from Chinese
culture, but it also contains other more common, unmarked items.
•
– Gairaigo ###, which are lexemes that have been recently
borrowed from foreign languages, primarily Western languages
from the sixteenth century. They contain mainly technical, scientific
terms or refer to modern objects and concepts with a Western
connotation.
It is sometimes useful to distinguish a fourth stratum, that of mimetic words6:
onomatopoeias (giseigo ###) and ideophones (gitaigo ###).
The overwhelming majority of mimetic words are etymologically of native
origin.7 For this reason, they belong to the Yamato class in the strict sense,
even if (p. 14 ) they display a number of properties which may lead one to
categorize them in a specific subclass. In this book, when necessary, we
will make a distinction, within the Yamato class, between non-mimetic and
non-expressive words (the Yamato class stricto sensu), and mimetic and
expressive words (a distinct class for some authors).
To the Yamato, Sino-Japanese, and Western strata, the class of nonintegrated foreign words (gaikokugo ###) is sometimes added. These
are words whose degree of adaptation into the Japanese language is not
as advanced as that of the gairaigo. They consist of direct quotes from a
Western language in the Latin alphabet. Some scholars also distinguish
between formal Sino-Japanese and vulgarized Sino-Japanese (Takayama,
2005).
It is also necessary not to forget the existence of a mix or hybrid class
(konshugo ###), which comprises compounds made up of words or
morphemes belonging to different classes, for instance wago + kango as
in nimotsu ‘luggage’, kango + wago as in juu-bako° ‘superposable meal
box’, gairaigo + wago as in demoru ‘to demonstrate (in the streets)’ (from
demo,demonsutoreeshon {demonstration} + -ru, ‘verbal suffix’). Finally,
Page 16 of 30

Introduction

note that a certain number of lexemes of Sanskrit, Ainu, or other origins do
not fall into any of these categories and have unclear status as to the lexical
class they belong to.
This partition is largely determined by etymology, but it would be imprudent
to adopt too narrow a vision and a simply historical approach to the problem.
Often, the supposed etymology is more determining than the real one, and
the actual ‘phonological profile’ of the word plays a more important role than
its origin (not to mention its semantic or pragmatic profiles). Actually, the
differences between the lexical classes are extremely delicate to handle.
First of all, it is difficult to establish with precision the origin of certain
lexemes. Second, we know almost nothing about the history of the Japanese
language before the fifth century, and in particular we are ignorant of the
true nature of the contacts between the spoken language in Japan and the
spoken language(s) in the Korean peninsula or elsewhere. One should also
take into account the fact that loans from foreign languages (especially from
Chinese) have had a deep influence and have considerably modified the
morpho-phonology of the Yamato lexemes. Moreover, it is not unusual that
the linguistic intuitions of non-linguist speakers regarding which lexical class
a given lexeme belongs to are in clear contradiction with the true etymology.
For example shio ‘salt’ or mugi ‘wheat’ are actually very old loans from
Chinese, but they are handled and behave like Yamato words. The same
applies to kappa° ‘raincoat’ or kasutera° ‘pound cake’, which are words of
Portuguese origin but treated as Yamato lexemes. Which is more important,
the etymological data or speakers’ intuitions? As Takayama (2005) observes,
in order to determine the lexical stratum to which a given word belongs, one
has to consider both word forms (phonotactic patterns) and connotation,
that is, (p. 15 ) whether the word is culturally associated with a foreign
background. I would add that the writing may constitute another strong clue
to determining which stratum a word belongs to.
Lastly, it will be necessary to question the manner this partition is acquired
by Japanese children. It is not clear whether native speakers acquire this
intuition through education, especially the knowledge of Chinese characters
and of the difference between Sino-Japanese and Japanese readings of
the characters, and acquisition of katakana and hiragana (remember that
katakana are used primarily for the notation of Western loanwords, while
kanji and kana are used to transcribe Yamato and Sino-Japanese words),
or if it is of a deeper, truly linguistic nature. Probably, both dimensions
are involved, and education only serves to reinforce and stabilize a robust
difference. How does the child manage to internalize the difference between
Page 17 of 30

Introduction

Yamato words, Sino-Japanese words, and Western words? Is this knowledge
of a metalinguistic nature, that is, acquired through education and literacy,
and particularly thanks to the mastering of the writing system? Ota (2004)
provides a good discussion of the issue of the learnability of lexicon partition
in Japanese, and points out the unrealistic scenario of phonological learning
that is implied by OT constraint-based models (Itô and Mester, 1995a, b; Itô
and Mester, 1999; Itô, Mester, and Padgett, 1999, for instance).
In spite of these problems, the partition of the lexicon plays a key role in
the grammar of the language. It is conveyed in the writing, and constitutes
an important component of the metalinguistic knowledge of any Japanese
speaker. In principle, Yamato words are written in hiragana or kanji,kango in
kanji, and gairaigo in katakana. However, a well-integrated gairaigo can be
written in hiragana or even in kanji, and a ‘yamatoized’ kango can end up
being written only in hiragana.
According to the statistics provided by the Shinsen Kokugo Jiten dictionary
(8th edition, 2002), wago represent 33.8% of the entries of the dictionary,
kango 49.1%, gairaigo 8.8%, and hybrid words 8.4%. The words of Chinese
origin are thus the most numerous in the lexicon. In textual frequency
(corpus of the written language drawn from the press) the proportions are
roughly similar with respect to type frequency (KKK, 1964). On the other
hand, wago are most frequent in speech: 46.9% compared with 40% for the
kango (Hayashi O., 1982). The proportion of wago goes up to 71.8% in token
frequency. This is evidently explained by the fact that words of the basic
lexicon, and those that fulfil a grammatical function (auxiliaries, particles,
etc.), which are frequently repeated, almost all belong to the Yamato class.
Moreover, some studies have shown that the proportions between the strata
could vary according to the sex of the speakers. The survey by Tsuchiya
(1965) reveals indeed that kango are employed more (p. 16 ) frequently by
male than by female speakers, at least at the time of the investigation.
It is frequently the case that the same referent can be referred to by a wago,
a kango, or a gairaigo, for instance:
(5)

Page 18 of 30

Wago

Kango

Gairaigo

tegami
°
#
#

/
shokan
°
#
#

/
retaa
#
##

‘letter,
missive’

Introduction

meshi
#

/
gohan
#
#

/
raisu
#
#
#

‘rice’

odori
°
#
#

/
buyou
°
#
#

/
dansu
°
#
#
#

‘dance’

However, the three lexemes in each set have different connotations, and
sometimes also semantic specializations. The kango are generally felt to
be more formal, more precise, and belonging to a higher register than the
wago or the gairaigo. The gairaigo generally refer to Western realities. For
example, dansu can only refer to a Western type of dance, contrary to
odori° and buyou°, and raisu designates some rice presented or cooked
in a Western way. But there are exceptions. For instance, the word kappu
nuudoru {cup noodle} (originally a trade mark) indicates an ‘instantaneous
noodle dish cooked in an Asian manner’. Here, the connotation brought in by
the use of gairaigo is modernity. The gairaigo also tend to refer to concrete,
material entities, whereas kango are preferred for the abstract (Loveday,
1996). In addition, gairaigo frequently appear as compound formatives. For
example retaa is more often used in expressions such as rabu retaa {love
letter} or retaa peepaa {letter paper} than in isolation.

1.6.1 Wago
In its diachronic sense, the term Yamato refers to the ‘original’, native
Japanese language with no elements of Chinese or from any other foreign
origin. The most operational definition of what a Yamato word is seems to be
as follows: a Yamato morpheme is a morpheme which does not result from a
loan posterior to the fifth century of our era.8
In the old language, the following properties were characteristic of Yamato
words:
•
– structure of the basic prosodic unit = V or CV;
•
– prohibition of hiatus (onsetless vowels were allowed only word
initially);
Page 19 of 30

Introduction

•
•
•
•
•

– absence of words starting with a voiced obstruent (/b/, /d/, /g/, /z/)
or with /r/;
– impossibility of having two voiced obstruents, or two /r/, within
the same root;
(p. 17 ) – scarcity of the /e/ vowel, in particular at the beginning of
words longer than two moras;
– existence of vowel harmony;
– simplex lexemes from two to three mora long.

Most of these characteristics remain today only as a residue. In modern
Japanese, words of Yamato origin are characterized by the absence of /
p/, the absence of /h/ in word internal position, the impossibility of finding
geminated voiced obstruents and geminated /r/, and by the constrained
distribution of voiceless consonants after the mora nasal /N/. One will also
note the scarcity of palatalized consonants.
Whenever the same referent can be referred to either by a lexeme of Yamato
or Sino-Japanese origin, the connotations brought in by the Yamato word
are generally associated with the register of intimacy, the expression of
sensations and emotions. They are also considered more poetic than SinoJapanese or Western words, and constitute the core lexicon of Japanese
traditional poetry (haiku,tanka).

1.6.2 Kango
Sino-Japanese words, or kango (##), are words which are written using one
or more Chinese characters pronounced in a Sino-Japanese manner. Kango
are ‘words’ (go #), but they are above all meaningful written units associated
with one or more Sino-Japanese readings. If the character corresponding
to a word of Chinese origin is no longer used to write the word, it becomes
difficult to regard the word in question as a kango. One can mention the case
of the lexeme sei ‘fault, reason’, which, in spite of its Chinese origin, is never
written in characters (##) in contemporary Japanese, or the word sesse to,
‘assiduously’ (##(Nakada and Hayashi, 1982). Consequently, most Japanese
speakers are surprised to learn that these words are actually kango.
Many kango are jukugo (##), that is, Sino-Japanese compound words made
up of two to four kanji. A majority of one-character (one kanji) Sino-Japanese
lexemes only occur as bound morphs, that is, as components of a jukugo,
and never occur in an autonomous way, like sho # ‘write’ in tosho ## ‘book’
or shokan° ## ‘letter’. However, a few one-character kango (ichiji kango ##
Page 20 of 30

Introduction

##) also function as autonomous words, like hon # ‘book’, niku # ‘meat’, or
ki° # ‘spirit’.
In the modern language, kango lexemes are often characterized by the
following phonological properties:
•
– presence of many palatalized consonants;
•
– presence of mora nasals;
•
– presence of geminations (only in compound kango);
•
– presence of long vowels;
•
(p. 18 ) – absence of non-geminated /p/;
•
– absence of geminated voiced obstruents;
•
– morpheme (stem) length from one to two moras.
Here are typical kango lexemes: gakkou° ## ‘school’, nippon ## ‘Japan’,
gyuuniku° ## ‘beef’, shuukyou ## ‘religion’.
Sino-Japanese morphemes are organized around a vowel, possibly preceded
by a consonant, palatalized or not. This group may be followed by a mora
nasal (noted /N/), by a vocalic length (noted /R/), by a front high vowel /i/, or
by an extra mora containing /t/ or /k/ followed by the vowels /i/ or /u/. This
structure can be synthesized with the following formula where the symbols
between the braces indicate non obligatory elements:
(6)
Examples:
/hoN/ hon
/koR/ kou
/ai/ ai
/botu/ botsu, /
kiti/ kichi, /kyaku/
kyaku, /teki/ teki9

Thus one has: i # ‘stomach’, ya # ‘house’, ki # ‘spirit’, ryo # ‘travel’, un #
‘fate’, man # ‘ten thousand’, jun /zyuN/ # ‘pure’, sou /soR/ # ‘grass’, kyou /
kyoR/ # ‘to teach’, nai # ‘inside’, botsu /botu/ # ‘rejection’, kyaku # ‘guest’,
kichi /kiti/ # ‘good fortune’, reki # ‘passing of time’, and so on.
Loans from Chinese were made through three successive waves from the
end of Antiquity, over a vast period covering nearly one thousand years, and
starting at least from the fourth century onwards. This is the reason why it
is not uncommon for a given character to have two or even three different
Page 21 of 30

Introduction

Sino-Japanese readings (on’yomi ###). According to Vance (1987:169),
about 13% of the 1850 currently used kanji have more than one SinoJapanese pronunciation. In addition, the majority of kanji also have at least
one native Japanese reading (kun’yomi ###). The different types of SinoJapanese readings are:
•
– the go readings (or Wu readings, goon ##), which are linked to
the introduction of Buddhism in Japan and correspond to loans
made during the fifth and sixth centuries, probably via Korea. The
exact geographic source is not always clear, but it seems to have
been somewhere in Southern China, near the mouth of the Yangtze
river.
•
– the kan readings (or Han readings, kan’on ##), which are by far
the most important. They correspond to loans dating back to the
seventh and eighth (p. 19 ) centuries. Kan’on are derived from the
pronunciation of the Tang capital Chang’an (presently Xi’an).
•
– the tô readings (or Tang readings, tôin or tôon ##, sometimes
referred to as sôon ## or tôsôon ###). They concern later
borrowings, from different Chinese provinces, which explains
why they are less homogeneous from the point of view of their
pronunciation.
To this list, one should add the so-called ‘usage readings’ (kan’yôon ###),
which correspond to alterations of kan or tô readings, and which represent
irregular Sino-Japanese evolutions from the original Chinese pronunciations
(see Vance, 1987:167ff. for a presentation in English, and Nakada and
Hayashi, 2000 in Japanese). One should also add a couple of loans dating
back to a period earlier than the fifth century such as uma ‘horse’, e (# we)
‘picture’, or kinu ‘silk’, which have been perfectly adapted to the Yamato
phonology, so that nothing in their phonological structure hints at the fact
that they are indeed words of Chinese origin. Hence, they are often regarded
as Yamato words.
So a given character is likely to possess several different Sino-Japanese
readings (on’yomi ###). Some characters only have one Sino-Japanese
reading, generally the kan reading, some have two, a kan and a go reading,
and a small number of characters even have three, four, or even more
readings, since there may be several kan,go,tô, and usage readings attached
to a single character. Most speakers are not capable of saying whether
a given pronunciation is go,kan,tô, or usage. It seems that they simply
memorize the different Sino-Japanese readings of a given character, and the
contexts in which each reading is employed. Here are some examples, which
Page 22 of 30

Introduction

illustrate some of the different cases one is likely to encounter, and which
provide an idea of the complexity of the issue (Old Chinese reconstructions
are from Tôdô, 1996):
(7)
#
mirror

Go
–
reading

#
#
north
clearness

#
#
#
ten
various to
thousand
supply

myou
gyou
mon
# myau # gyau

–

nou
# nahu

Kan
kan
hoku
reading # kamu

mei

kou
# kau

ban

zou

dou
# dahu

Tô
–
reading

–

zou
na
# zahu

Usage –
reading

–

man

zatsu,
zou

Old
Ch.

*puək

*mıǎŋ

*hǎŋ

*mıuǎn *dzəp

*klǎm

hoku

#
to
go

tou
# tahu,
nan
*nəp

There are other alternations typical of Sino-Japanese lexemes, which
have a more synchronic and morpho-phonemic status, such as the CV/Q
alternation, the i/u alternation, the h/p alternation, and so forth. Those will be
addressed in the relevant chapters of this book.
(p. 20 )

The Sino-Japanese lexicon is rich in possibilities of lexical creation even
if, at the present time, those are not as exploited as they used to be. This
is because, nowadays, gairaigo constitute another privileged source of
word-coining. Note also that a fair number of the kango currently in use
are actually Japanese lexical creations (rather like neo-classical compounds
with Greek or Latin roots are in European languages). These are called
wasei kango #### ‘Chinese words coined in Japan’. This practice of lexical
creation has been attested since the Heian period. These new lexemes are
generally pure neologisms (for example denwa° ## ‘telephone’), but they
may also represent the semantic calques of existing Yamato words. For
example kaji ## ‘fire’ is simply the Sino-Japanese reading of the Yamato
expression hi no koto ###. During the Meiji era, literal translations of
words belonging to Western languages by way of Chinese characters were
extremely common, like byouin° ## ‘hospital’, a calquing from Dutch ziekenhuis (‘illness’ + ‘public house’, cited by Loveday, 1996:71). These neologisms
Page 23 of 30

Introduction

containing Chinese characters have frequently made their way back to
Modern Chinese or Korean, where they have received the corresponding
Sino-Korean or Modern Chinese readings.
In comparison to Yamato and Western lexemes, kango are considered to
belong to a more formal and learned register. They correlate with intellect,
distance, authority, formality, and are used in juridical, academic, or
scientific texts, in preference to Yamato words when the alternative exists.

1.6.3 Gairaigo
What is a gairaigo? It is generally a word that has been borrowed in Japanese
after the sixteenth century, and mainly during the twentieth century, from
a language which does not use Chinese characters. For example tabako
° ‘tobacco, cigarette’ (Portuguese {tabaco}), misa ‘mass’ (Latin {missa}
through Portuguese), zubon / zubon ‘trousers’ (French {jupon}), meetoru
° ‘metre’ (French {mètre}), biiru ‘beer’ (Dutch {bier}), arubaito ‘(student)
job’ (German {Arbeit}), interi° ‘intellectual’ (Russian {intelligentsija}), bataa
‘butter’ (English {butter}). It may also be—although more rarely—a word
borrowed recently from a modern Asian language using Chinese characters
like Chinese or Korean, but in Japanese the loan has kept a pronunciation
which is close to that of the source language. That means that even if the
word can be written in sinograms, those will not be read according to the
conventional Sino-Japanese reading but with a pronunciation which attempts
to be faithful to that of the (p. 21 ) modern source language, for instance
maajan° / maajan ‘mahjong’ (from a Chinese dialect, this word was borrowed
at the beginning of the twentieth century), chongaa ‘old boy’ (Korean
{chhonggak}), kochujan ‘pepper paste’ (Korean {kochhujang}). Lastly, it is
important to mention that some gairaigo are nothing more than lexical forms
coined by the Japanese, and involving Western roots. They are made up
either by combining morphemes existing in one or more foreign languages
or by truncating a borrowed form. Japanese lexicographers call these wasei
eigo #### (‘English word created in Japan’) or wasei yôgo #### (‘Western
word created in Japan’). They are usually written in katakana. Such words
are extremely numerous, for example sarariiman {salaryman} ‘a company
worker’, gouruden-wiiku {golden week} ‘a succession of several holidays
around the end of April or beginning of May’, woukuman {walkman}, naitaa
{nighter} ‘night game (baseball)’, paso-kon° (abbreviation of {personal
computer}) ‘personal computer’, depaato (abbreviation of {department
store}) ‘department store’.

Page 24 of 30

Introduction

It is also necessary to mention acronyms and Latin-alphabet-based creations,
which also constitute a source of derivation and lexical coinage. The basis
for a number of acronyms are Yamato or Sino-Japanese morphemes, whose
initial letter in the Latin alphabet is used for acronymization: Nippon Housou
Kyoukai ###### -# NHK / enu-ecchi-kee ‘NHK (Japan Broadcasting
Corporation)’, hentai° ## -# H / etchi ‘pervert’, ofisu redii -# OL / ou eru°
‘female employee’.
The gairaigo often display phonotactic combinations that are not found in
wago or kango (see section 3.14). They can also be very long, and contain
many long vowels and geminate consonants.
Gairaigo are used primarily to refer to new objects, or to concepts borrowed
from foreign cultures. They are particularly frequent in the fields of fashion
and cosmetics, sport, non traditional arts, gastronomy, technology, and
sciences. There often exists a native Japanese or Sino-Japanese equivalent
of a gairaigo. The use of a gairaigo can also be dictated by pragmatic or
stylistics factors. The connotations associated with this vocabulary are:
the West, modernity, innovation, and also in certain cases refinement and
sophistication.
It might be necessary to distinguish gairaigo, which are Japanized foreign
loans, written in katakana, pronounced in a Japanese way, and likely to
be integrated in a Japanese sentence like any Yamato or Sino-Japanese
lexeme, from gaikokugo ###, which are borrowed ‘wholesale’ from a foreign
language. Gaikokugo are written in the alphabet and their pronunciation
is not yet Japanized. Their lexical categorization also remains fuzzy. Such
non-integrated loans are generally used in advertisements, without being
integrated into a sentence. They are still at the margins of the language.
It follows from this definition that in Japanese, a gairaigo, literally a
‘word coming from the outside’, is not necessarily a foreign word—many
gairaigo are Japanese lexical creations, or ‘Japenglish’—and that the major
group of lexemes of foreign origin, namely the kango, do not belong to the
category of gairaigo.
(p. 22 )

1.6.4 Other Types
Japanese also contains a number of words of Sanskrit origin, most of which
pertain to the Buddhist vocabulary. These words were often borrowed via
Chinese: for example kawara° {kapāla} ‘tile’, daruma° {(bodhi-) dharma}, or
danna° {dāna} ‘master, husband’.
Page 25 of 30

Introduction

Words of Ainu origin, for example sake or shake {sakipe # sakuipe} ‘salmon
(literally ‘summer food’)’, kaba, kanba {kaniha} ‘birch’, rakko°, rakko
{rakko} ‘sea otter’, have dubious status. Certain lexicologists classify them
among Yamato words, others among the gairaigo. The difference generally
comes from the epoch at which the loan was made: the older it is, the more
likely the word will be regarded as a wago. It is necessary finally to mention
a number of prehistoric loans from Korean, such as kushi {kusil} ‘a comb,
a spit’ or tera {tSɔl} ‘temple’. These words are generally considered to be
Yamato words. From the morpho-phonological point of view, they do not
display any particular characteristic which distinguishes them from Yamato
words.

1.6.5 The Limits of Stratum Categorization
The formal boundaries between wago,kango, and gairaigo tend to attenuate
as time goes by, through a process of lexicon homogenization. Thus the
characteristics that were originally specific to kango, such as palatalization,
the presence of the mora nasal /N/, gemination, the presence of the /r/
consonant or of a voiced obstruent word-initially, ended up extending to
words of the Yamato stratum. The presence of these elements thus no
longer constitutes, in itself, a proof that a word is of Chinese origin, even if
it remains generally possible to determine the origin of a lexeme just by its
phonological structure. On the other hand, most gairaigo, especially most
recent ones, generally have a phonological structure which makes them
immediately identifiable as such. But the oldest gairaigo or the ones which
are in very frequent or daily use are more Japanized than those of more
recent introduction or those less frequently employed.
The classes are thus not discontinuous. They are organized rather like a
continuum: certain words belonging etymologically to one of the classes
can ‘move’ to another one, or borrow in a more or less occasional way
some of its morpho-phonological features. Certain words do not have the
phonological, orthographical, or semantic profile of their true etymology,
and they belong de facto to some other class than to the one that history
should have confined them. (p. 23 ) For instance, kappa° ‘raincoat’ is an
old loan from Portuguese, which is treated as a wago since it undergoes
rendaku (sequential voicing) in the compound words ama-gappa ‘raincoat’ or
biniiru-gappa ‘rainwear made of plastic’ (Takayama T., 2005). Niku ‘meat’ is
originally a Sino-Japanese word, but it takes a Yamato polite prefix o-, instead
of go- normally used as the polite prefix of Sino-Japanese words. The reading
yo / yon for the numeral # ‘four’ is etymologically a Yamato word, but it
Page 26 of 30

Introduction

is chosen instead of the Sino-Japanese reading shi ‘four’ in many numeral
compounds using Sino-Japanese components (for instance yo-nin rather than
*shi-nin ## ‘four persons’), so that it behaves like a Sino-Japanese word.
Finally, let us mention the word kouhii #### ‘coffee’, a Dutch loan {koffie},
which is sometimes written in kanji (##) instead of katakana. The effective
placing of a lexeme in such or such a class can also vary according to the
speaker. Thus there do not exist absolute criteria to determine which class
a lexeme belongs to. In many cases, whether an item belongs to a given
stratum or not cannot be determined on the basis of surface distribution
patterns (Ota, 2004). For instance, there is nothing in the surface phonology
of the Yamato word tonbo ‘dragonfly’ which suggests that it does not belong
to the same stratum as tenba ‘flying horse’, which is a Sino-Japanese word,
or konbo ‘combo’, a Western borrowing. The script is often one of the crucial
elements for native speakers, alongside the phonological characteristics of
the word.
Itô and Mester (1995a, 1999) have proposed a concentric model, or core–
periphery organization of the lexicon, whose internal structuring is governed
by the interaction of constraints. The lexicon is viewed as an abstract space
with a core and a periphery. At the periphery stand the lexical items which
are least assimilated (gairaigo and gaikokugo), in the centre, the native
lexemes (Yamato). Sino-Japanese lexemes appear in intermediate position.
In this model, the maximum set of lexical constraints holds in the core lexical
domain, occupied by lexical items traditionally labelled as Yamato. Itô and
Mester (1995b) propose a slightly different implementation of this view. They
postulate that all lexical items obey the same markedness constraints but
that there exist different versions of stratum-specific faithfulness constraints.
The constraints which demands faithfulness for Yamato words are ranked
lower than those demanding faithfulness for kango, which in turn are lower
than those demanding faithfulness to gairaigo. So as the peripheral zone
of the lexicon is approached, many of the constraints cease to hold (are
‘turned off’) or are weakened in various ways. However, such a concentric
conception of the lexicon organization does not solve all the problems,
whatever the type of implementation which is adopted (cophonology
approach or the indexed faithfulness approach).
As Itô and Mester observe, it is not possible to impose a total ordering
on vocabulary strata because the domain of application of constraints
is not continuous, since a constraint might hold for two strata which are
separated by another (p. 24 ) stratum. There exist certain constraints
which apply to more peripheral members and not to those located at the
Page 27 of 30

Introduction

centre, for instance the constraint governing the length of Sino-Japanese
words: they are one or two mora long, whereas Yamato words, on the one
hand, and Western loans, on the other hand, can be longer than two moras.
One of the issue currently debated in recent papers dealing with lexical
classes in OT works is whether one of them should be considered as more
marked than the others, or unmarked (in the OT sense, which is also, mutatis
mutandis, the structuralist sense). For instance, Itô and Mester (1995a, b)
argue that wago are the most unmarked items, following the traditionally
implicit assumption of Japanese linguistics, while Kawahara et al. (2003), on
the contrary, claim that it is the Sino-Japanese stratum which is the most
unmarked. Yet, it seems that none of the strata should be regarded as more
marked or unmarked with respect to others. Each stratum should be seen
as a coherent class, independently and absolutely defined, and associated
with a set of associated formal and pragmatic (usage) properties such as the
ones mentioned in this chapter. The real question is whether a given lexical
item is marked with regard to the features that prototypically characterize
the stratum it belongs to etymologically. For instance, as a kango,haka (in
hakase ## ‘doctor’) is marked because it is bimoraic and does not end with i
or u, tanpopo ‘dandelion’ is marked as a Yamato lexeme because it contains
an unvoiced stop after the mora nasal, and so on.

Notes:
(1) For instance, it is somewhat surprising that a 520-page book entitled The
Handbook of Japanese Linguistics, recently published by Blackwell, includes
only about 10% of Japanese titles in its abundant list of references.
(2) As we will see in Chapter 6, ‘syllabary’ is not a proper term, since kana
denote moras rather than syllables. However, for the sake of convenience, I
will use the term syllabary to refer to katakana and hiragana thoughout this
book.
(3) The basic and most important prosodic unit of Japanese is the mora. The
mora corresponds to one phonological beat. For instance, sequences such as
okinawa° [okinawa] ‘Okinawa’, toukyou° [toːkjoː] ‘Tôkyô’, konpon° [kompoN]
‘basis’, and gakkari [ɡakˡkaɾi] ‘disappointed’ all count as four beats, i.e. four
moras, according to native speakers’ intuitions. See Chapter 6 for an indepth presentation of the prosodic components of Japanese, and a discussion
on the structure and nature of the mora.

Page 28 of 30

Introduction

(4) The terms ‘fifty sounds’ refers to the theoretical number of letters given
the number of rows and lines (5 x 10). It was coined before the invention of
the kana # /N/, which was added later on. The table actually never contained
more than 47 or 48 items.
(5) An average adult Japanese speaker is exposed to about 4000 characters
in his or her daily life. It has to be noted however that he or she does
not necessarily know all the meanings or readings of a given character.
Word-processing software contains between 6000 and 7000 characters, in
conformity with the set of lists approved by the computer industry, which
has agreed on a standard encoding for Japanese, the JIS (Japanese Industrial
Standard). The most complete character dictionary in Japan, the Daikanwa
Jiten ##### (published by Taishûkan) contains about 50,000 characters.
(6) A number of recent Japanese researchers sometimes use the term
onomatope ##### {onomatopée} (from French) as a cover term for the
mimetic class of words. However, since onomatopée originally refers only to
words which are supposed to imitate a sound of the extra-linguistic world,
the terms mimetic or ideophone seem more appropriate in the case of
Japanese, because a large number of Japanese mimetic words are not sound
imitation but rather express feelings, sensations, attitudes, visual states, and
so on in an iconic manner.
(7) However, a number of mimetic words based on Chinese or Western
lexemes exist, for instance gou-gou ## ‘with a rumbling sound’ (ch.), chikutaku {tic tac}, or rabu-rabu° {love love} ‘in love’.
(8) Of course, there exist Yamato words which have been created after the
fifth century, and even very recently. They are nearly always the result of
compounding, for instance odakagata° ‘oxytonic’, or kakitome° ‘registered
mail’.
(9) The status of final i and u in Sino-Japanese bimoraic morphemes will be
addressed in section 2.4.

Page 29 of 30

Introduction

Page 30 of 30

Introduction

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Vowels
Laurence Labrune

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0002

Abstract and Keywords
Chapter 2 presents the five vowels /a, i, u, e, o/ and their corresponding long
vowels in Tôkyô Japanese, with a look at other modern dialectal systems
and the ancient Kyôto language. The special status of the high vowels /i/
and /u/, which undergo frequent elisions or insertions, and are the locus of
devoicing, a phenomenon of major relevance in the phonology of Japanese,
is discussed in detail. This chapter also provides a detailed description of
prosodic lengthening and shortening, and proposes a discussion and analysis
on the status of the so-called diphthongs.
Keywords: prosodic shortening, prosodic lengthening, devoicing, high vowels, elision,
insertion, Japanese vowels

2.1 The Vowels of Standard Japanese: Outline of the System
And General Characteristics
Standard Japanese has the following five vowels:
i

[i]

front high unrounded
vowel

[ɯ]

back high unrounded
vowel

[e]

front mid unrounded vowel

[o]

back mid rounded vowel

Page 1 of 42

Vowels

[a]

low central vowel

The distinction between short and long vowels is relevant: [i] vs. [iː], [e]
vs. [eː], [ɯ] vs. [ɯː], [o] vs. [oː], [a] vs. [aː] (see section 2.7). There is no
significant quality difference between the short and long members of a pair.
Generally, the articulation of Japanese vowels is rather clear, but not very
tense. Japanese /i/, /e/, and /o/ are slightly less tense than the corresponding
cardinal vowels. /o/ is the most rounded and most posterior of all Japanese
vowels. /u/ is generally rather unrounded, especially in Tôkyô Japanese. Its
phonetic quality varies between [ɯ], [̈ɯ], [ᶶ], and [ᶤ]. However, roundedness
is at least phonologically present, since the fricative /h/ is always bilabial
([ϕ]) before /u/, while it is not before /a/, /o/, /i/, and /e/. This would be
unexplainable if /u/ did not contain a certain degree of phonological labiality,
that is, of roundedness. One encounters a centralized allophone [̈ɯ] after /
s/, /t/, /z/, and after the palatalized consonants (Cy), for example in the word
gyuunyuu° ‘milk’ [gj̈ɯːnj̈ɯː].
The low vowel /a/ is generally central, sometimes even slightly posterior ([a])
after velar consonants but lip-rounding is not very marked.1
The five vowels of this system can be classified, from the most open to
closest, in the following order: a # o# e # u # i (Mabuchi, 1971) or, from
longest to shortest: a # e # o # i # u (Shimizu Han, 1962). According to
Shimizu Han (1962), /a/ is almost 1.5 times longer than /u/. We will see
further in section 2.4 that /i/ (p. 26 ) and /u/ display a number of remarkable
properties due to their closeness and brevity.
From the point of view of general linguistics, Japanese thus displays a
rather classical triangular vowel system with five elements, the commonest
system among the languages of the world (Maddieson, 1984), except for the
presence of the unrounded back high vowel [ɯ].
(1) Vowel system of Japanese

Page 2 of 42

Vowels

The three distinctive features [high], [low], and [front] are sufficient to
characterize this system:
i

high

−

low

−

front

−

2.2 Old And Dialectal Vowel Systems
According to Hashimoto Sh. (1928), Archaic Japanese—until the beginning
of the ninth century approximately—had an eight-vowel system whose
elements can be denoted, for want of anything better, as i1, i2, u, e1, e2, o1,
o2, a. The transcription i, ï, u, e, ë, o, ö, a is also commonly used in Japanese
historical linguistics. The vowels ï, ë, and ö are called otsu, or type A, vowels
(otsu boin ###) in opposition to the kô, type B, vowels (kô boin ###). The
exact number as well as the phonetic quality of these vowels constitute one
of the most debated issues of Japanese historical phonology (in addition to
works by Hashimoto Shinkichi, see also Arisaka, 1955, Ôno, 1980, Morishige,
1975, Matsumoto, 1975, Hattori, 1976, among others, and Yasuda, 1982, for
a review of the various assumptions).
At the turn of the seventeenth century, the Japanese language as described
by the Iberian missionaries was characterized by the existence of a
distinction between a close-mid o and an open-mid o, both long, /oː/ and /ᵓː/,
transcribed as ô and ǒ in the roman alphabet texts of the time. These two
vowels are termed respectively gôon (##) and kaion (##). The former was
pronounced more or less like present-day long o [oː] and corresponded to
the pronunciation of (p. 27 ) sequences transcribed as (C)ou, (C)eu (ou #
##kou ###sou ###eu ###keu ###seu ##, and so on), while the latter
[ᵓː] corresponded to the realization of sequences originally comprising the
written group (C)au (au ###kau ##, etc.), all very frequent in kango. A
number of modern dialects have maintained this opposition, which has
disappeared in Standard Japanese where both vowels are now realized with a
long o ( [oː]).
Three-vowel systems (for instance /i, u, a/ in the Ryûkyû dialect of Yonaguni,
Okinawa prefecture), four-vowel systems (/i, u, o, a/, Miyakejima dialect,
Tôkyô prefecture, or /i, ï, u, a/, Amami dialect, Kagoshima prefecture), sixvowel systems (/i, u, e, o, ▱, a, Sendai), seven-vowel systems (/i, u, e, o, ▱,
æ, a/, North of Honshû and Niigata area), and up to eight-vowel systems (/
Page 3 of 42

Vowels

i, y, u, e, ∅, o, æ, a/, in which /æ/, /y/, and /∅/ are phonetically long, Nôbi
dialect, Aichi prefecture) have been reported. These systems are generally
regarded as representative of the relatively recent innovations starting from
the five-vowel triangular system /i, u, e, o, a/ presented above, rather than
as direct descendants of the archaic system with eight vowels. Additional
phonemes in the dialectal systems having more than five vowels generally
result from the coalescence of two simple vowels: for example, in Aichi
Japanese, /y/ ([yː]) results historically from /ui/, /∅/ [∅ː] from /oi/, and /æ/
({ː]) from /ai/.

2.3 Distributional Characteristics of /e/
The vowel /e/ stands out from the other Japanese vowels by its special
distribution in Yamato and mimetic words. In morphemes longer than one
mora, it seldom occurs in the initial, and it never appears twice in a root.
Thus forms such as *meni or *kaseme are ill-formed as mono-morphemic
Yamato words. This suggests that /e/ was probably absent in the protosystem. Besides, a number of modern words ending in /e/ display an
alternating, non-independent form in /a/, for instance ame ‘rain’ occurs as
ama- in ama-do (‘rain’ + ‘door’) ‘shutter’, sake° ‘alcohol’, as saka- in sakagura° (‘alcohol, sake’ + ‘cellar’) ‘sake cellar’. The same type of alternation
occurs, but to a lesser extent, between /i/ and /o/: ki ‘tree’ but ko-kage
° ‘shade of the trees’. Such alternations are no longer productive in the
modern language.
/e/ is also the least frequent of all the five Japanese vowels
(see section 2.9).
In mimetic words, /e/ generally brings a negative connotation, as in herahera ‘in a meaningless manner’ or beta-beta ‘sticky’.
Another characteristic of /e/ is that it cannot be palatalized, i.e. preceded by
the semi-consonant y (see section 3.11) in the Yamato and Sino-Japanese
strata. The moras kye,mye,hye, etc. do not exist and they are also rare in
gairaigo.
The long version of /e/ also deserves a number of remarks, which will
be made further in section 2.7.1. We will also see in section 2.6. that /e/ is, of
all the Japanese vowels, the least likely to undergo devoicing.
(p. 28 )

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Vowels

2.4 Phonological Status of /i/ And /u/
The high vowels /i/ and /u/ are characterized by a number of remarkable
properties. First, they have devoiced allophones in certain contexts, for
example hiku° [C̥ikɯ] ‘to draw’, desu [des̥ɯ], or even sometimes [des] or
[desμ] (Copula). This is a phenomenon of major importance for the phonetics
and phonology of Japanese, which also concerns the other vowels but to a
lesser extent. It will be discussed in more detail in section 2.6. In addition,
the presence of the vowels /i/ and /u/ modifies in a significant way the
phonetic realization of the consonants /t/, /d/, /h/, /s/ and /z/ which occur
before them. This leads to the neutralization of a number of phonological
oppositions which will be considered in Chapter 3 devoted to the description
of the consonant system.
It is necessary also to mention the very frequent cases of neutralization
between /i/ and /u/ after /s/ and /z/ (sh and j) in Tôkyô Japanese, even though
they are seldom reflected in the spelling: for example shujutsu /syuzyutu/
‘surgical operation’ is often realized as shijitsu /sizitu/, shinjuku° as shinjiku
° ‘Shinjuku (a district of Tôkyô)’, geshuku° as geshiku° ‘pension, hotel’.
This phenomenon, called chokuonka (?##?#), seems to occur particularly
frequently before the moras ku,tsu, and ju. It also appears in Western loans
in a larger variety of contexts: rejume° /rezyume/ {résumé} may become
rejime°. This confusion dates back at least one century, since it is already
mentioned by Aston (1904).
Lastly, /u/ and /i/ function as the epenthetic vowels par excellence. They are
also the most likely to undergo deletion under certain conditions. These two
aspects, which also concern, though to a lesser degree, the other vocalic
segments, will be the topic of the following section.

2.5 Vowel Insertions And Deletions
Insertion and deletion of vowels are extremely frequent in Japanese, but the
data are various and complex. We shall consider here the issue of vowel
epenthesis occurring in Western loans, for example resutoran {restaurant},
as well as the alternations between CV and /Q/ triggered by vowel deletion
in some Sino-Japanese morphemes containing an etymologically epenthetic
vowel, as in ## (p. 29 ) gakusei° ‘student’ / ## gakki° ‘school term’, two
Sino-Japanese words which both start with the morpheme gak(u) ‘study’.
The lexemes belonging to the Western stratum contain many epenthetic
vowels. The goal of such epentheses is obviously to get surface forms which
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Vowels

conform to the prosodic structure of Japanese, and in particular to avoid
word final consonants and illicit consonant clusters. In the first loans from
European languages, the quality of an epenthetic vowel was often obtained
by copying that of a surrounding vowel: for example garasu° # {glas}
(Dutch) ‘glass’, kirishitan # {cristão} (Portuguese) ‘Christian’, gorofukuren
# {grof grein} (Dutch) ‘camlet’, paatere (accent unknown) # {pater} (Latin)
‘priest’. In Modern Japanese, it is mainly /u/ which is used, but the vowel /
i/ is also encountered after sh and ch and occasionally after k, as well as /
o/ after t and d: huransu° ‘France’ {France}, sukasshu ‘squash’ {squash},
sutoraiki ‘strike’ {strike}, sutoraiku ‘strike (in base ball)’ {strike}, shichuu°
‘stew’ {stew}, or tekisuto ‘textbook’ {text}.
At the level of phonetic realization, some of these vowels can undergo
drastic reduction, and even become almost inaudible, including, quite
unexpectedly, in contexts which are not normally devoicing contexts. This is
the case, for instance, of /u/ following /r/ in amusuterudamu {Amsterdam}.
One of the problems raised by these vowels to phonological theory is the
following: although phonetically present, they are sometimes—but not
always (hence the problem)—invisible at the phonological level (Kubozono,
1996, 2001b, 2006b). For example, whereas four-mora long Western loans
ending with a -CVCV sequence are normally atonic (e.g. arizona° {Arizona}),
those ending with an epenthetic /u/ behave differently, displaying the tonic
pattern, with penultimate or initial accent. Thus words having a (C)VCVCVCV
pattern like sutoresu {stress} or adoresu {address}, with final epenthetic
u, are tonic, as are words with a (C)VCVCVC pattern ending with the mora
nasal, such as guratan {gratin} and rimujin {limousine}. It looks like the
final vowel of sutoresu and adoresu was absent at the phonological level,
and that these words had a (C)VCVCVC structure, like guratan and rimujin.
In Chapter 6, we shall see that the moras containing such epenthetic vowels
must be considered as belonging to the set of what I call deficient moras.
It also happens that an accent which is expected to fall on a vowel of
epenthetic origin is shifted one mora leftward: we thus have amusuterudamu
{Amsterdam} instead of *amusuterudamu, which would be expected
by application of the antepenultimate accent rule (see section 7.2.4), or
andesu-kai ‘club of the Andes’ instead of *andesu-kai, which is the form
in conformity with the general rule of compound accentuation. The exact
characterization of these vowels thus poses very serious problems to current
phonological theories, which still await a proper solution.

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Vowels

In the Sino-Japanese stratum, non-etymological /i/ and /u/ occur
after /t/ and /k/, at the end of bimoraic morphemes, as stated before in
section 1.6.2, and as the examples below illustrate.2
(2) Non-etymological /i/ and /u/ in Sino-Japanese morphemes
(p. 30 )

Old
Chinese

Japanese

#
*kiet

/
kiti/, /
kitu/

kichi,
kitsu

‘good
fortune’

#
*buət

/
butu/

butsu

‘Buddha’

#
*tıok

/
tiku/

chiku

‘bamboo’

#
*ɦıuək

/
iki/, /
yoku/

iki,
yoku

‘territory’

In almost all cases, the choice of the vowel depends on the context (Itô and
Mester, 1996; Tateishi, 1990). After /t/, /u/ is normally used (for example # /
butu/ butsu ‘Buddha’, # /setu/ setsu ‘to touch’, # /katu/ katsu ‘energy’). It
is the same after /k/ (# /tiku/ chiku ‘bamboo’, # gaku ‘study’, # huku ‘good
fortune’), except when the Sino-Japanese morpheme in question contains
the front vowel /e/ in its first mora, in which case /i/ is selected after k: # teki
‘enemy’, # reki ‘passing of time’. The only context in which non-predictable
variation between /i/ and /u/ occurs is that of Sino-Japanese morphemes
which may contain an /i/ in the first mora: kichi or kitsu (/kiti/ or /kitu/) for #
‘good fortune’, iki or yoku for # ‘territory’. These differences between the
two forms of a pair are generally explained by the fact that the two phonetic
forms were borrowed at different historical periods.
In the modern language, such final i and u do not appear before a voiceless
consonant when the morpheme is used in compounding. The preceding
consonant k or t remains as the first part of a geminate (/Q/). In the case of /
k/, the phenomenon occurs only before another /k/ (3a) whereas it may occur
before all voiceless consonants in the case of /t/ (3b).
(3) CV / Q alternation in Sino-Japanese
a.

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Vowels

gaku +
kai

#
gakkai
°

‘congress’

gaku +
sei

#
gakusei
°/
*gassei

‘student’

ichi /
iti/ +
satsu /
satu/

#
issatsu
/
iQsatu/

‘one
book’

ichi /
iti/ +
kai /
kai/

# ikkai
/iQkai/

‘once’

ichi /
iti/ +
tou /
toR/

# ittou
°/
iQtoR/

‘first
class’

ichi /
iti/ +
hon /
hoN/

#
ippon3
/iQpoN/

‘one
long
object’

(p. 31 )

The first issue to consider is whether these non-etymological vowels must,
in synchrony, be considered as epenthetic or not. The traditional position
of Japanese linguists and philologists is that they should not: /i/ and /u/ are
regarded as belonging to the underlying lexical form of the Sino-Japanese
morpheme. However, Itô and Mester (1996) defend an opposite and radical
point of view. They argue that the final V which appears after t and k in
bimoraic Sino-Japanese stems should be regarded as epenthetic even in
contemporary Japanese. Their principal argument rests on the observation
that the quality of the second vowel of the Sino-Japanese morphemes is
almost always predictable.
However, not only does this line of analysis fail to explain alternations of the
kichi / kitsu type, which is totally non-predictable, but it also neglects the fact
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Vowels

that a great number of these morphemes carry a final accent at the lexical
level, for example jitsu # ‘truth’ (see also section 7.2.3 about this type of
word), a fact which is difficult to account for theoretically, since one hardly
sees how a segment which is absent at the underlying level could receive
an accent, especially in consideration of the fact that epenthetic vowels are
known to resist accent attribution, in Japanese as well as in other languages.
Kubozono (2001b) discusses another argument which could adduce evidence
for the absence of these vowels at the phonological level. He considers
that the morphemes at stake sometimes behave in an exceptional way, as
if they had a CVC structure (their final vowel would thus be, according to
Kubozono, invisible) in compound words, because they involve accent shift to
the antepenultimate mora, that is, on the last mora of the first component,
instead of following the rule which stipulates, according to Kubozono’s
theoretical interpretation (see section 7.3.1), that a non-final lexical accent
is preserved in the second component of a compound. For example the
compound yoyaku° + seki (‘reservation’ + ‘seat’) is accented as yoyakuseki ### ‘reserved seat’, with accent shift, rather than *yoyaku-seki in
which the accent would be kept on the initial mora of the second member.
However, it seems simpler and more straightforward to treat the vowelfinal allomorphs as basic, since, as pointed out by Vance (1987), it is not
automatically recoverable from the Q-final allomorph. For instance, the
form /riQ/ can correspond to /ritu/ # ‘to stand’, /riki/ # ‘strength’, or /riku/ #
‘land’. In addition, as pointed out by Tanaka and Yamane (2000), apart from
the specific case mentioned by Kubozono (2001b) and cited above, vowels of
epenthetic origin in Sino-Japanese morphemes behave in all other cases like
underlying vowels rather than like epenthetic ones. This issue nevertheless
requires further consideration, but it appears preferable for the moment to
consider that, in Modern Japanese, final /i/ and /u/ in words such as kichi # /
kitsu # or gaku # belong to the underlying representation of bimoric SinoJapanese morphemes of the shape CVCV, and that they may be deleted
under certain conditions (see also McCawley 1968:110ff., Vance 1987:158ff.,
Kurisu 2000 and (p. 32 ) Nasu1996, among others for discussions and
theoretical treatments of this phenomenon in addition to the references cited
above). This by no means prevents us from recognizing the special status
of the segments /i/ and /u/ themselves, or of the prosodic units (moras) that
contain them, as I shall propose in Chapter 6. Besides, the vowels /i/ and /u/,
be they epenthetic or not, display several other peculiarities in Japanese.
Another problematic issue is that of the non-systematic application of the
CV → Q process. Otaka (2009) argues that Sino-Japanese morphemes of
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Vowels

the shape CVCV should be categorized in three classes with respect to the
CV / Q alternation: (a) the morphemes which always generate a geminate
consonant regardless of the onset consonant of the second morpheme,
unless it is voiced, for instance ichi /iti/ # ‘one’, jitsu /zitu/ # ‘real’, juu /zyuu/
# ‘ten’; (b) the morphemes that generate a geminate consonant when the
onset consonant of the second mora is identical to the onset consonant
of the first mora of the second morpheme and they are both voiceless,
for instance soku /soku/ # ‘instant’, seki /seki/ # ‘red’; (c) the morphemes
that do not generate a geminate consonant, regardless of the phonological
environment, such as shuku /syuku/ # ‘inn’, shichi /siti/ # ‘seven’.
Vance (1987:159) observes that the CV / Q alternation does not display
the same degree of regularity. While the tsu -# Q and ku -# Q processes
are regular or almost automatic, chi -# Q is inconsistent and ki -# Q clearly
irregular. Otaka (2009) also invokes frequency effects to account for the ku
/ Q alternation as observed for instance with kaku # ‘each’. Kaku # + koku
# ‘country’, which is extremely frequent, is always geminated (kakkoku or
kakkoku° ## ‘each country’) while kaku # + ko # ‘door’, which is seldom
used, is less often so (kakko or kakuko ## ‘each home’ both coexist). There
also exists at least one minimal pair where the presence or absence of
gemination may be distinctive: roku # ‘six’ + hou # ‘law’ with a geminate
(roppou / roppou° ##) means ‘the Compendium of Law’ while rokuhou ##,
without gemination means ‘six kinds of laws’. Note that roppou and rokuhou
are both made up of the same morphemes.
In addition to /u/ and /i/ deletions just discussed, which are listed in
dictionaries and completely lexicalized, there exist vocalic deletions rarely
mentioned but which are just as frequent and interesting. A word such as
gaku + sei # gakusei° ## ‘student’, referred to above, is frequently realized
with an elision of /u/, i.e. [gakseː] rather than [gakɯseː]. The vowel deletion
in gakusei° [gakseː] is—quite rightly—regarded as the result of vowel
devoicing, whereas that of gakkai° (gaku + kai) ‘congress’ is not. Admittedly,
the fall of /u/ seems more systematic in gakkai° than it is in gakusei°—even
if that remains to be demonstrated in spontaneous speech for a dialect like
Tôkyô Japanese in which vowel devoicing is particularly frequent. The point
is, however, how gaksei° should be analysed with respect to gakkai°. Are
we dealing, in both cases, with the same (p. 33 ) phenomenon, the only
difference being that the vocalic deletion in gakkai° is lexicalized, recognized
by dictionaries, and reflected in the kana spelling, whereas that of gaksei° is
not? Or does one have to consider that two distinct processes are operating?
The answer to this question is likely to have important consequences for the
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Vowels

conception and definition of the basic rhythmic unit of Japanese. Indeed, a
form such as gaksei° contains a phonetically closed syllable, gak, with a coda
which is NOT the first part of a geminate, a structure that would be quite
novel in Japanese.
Moreover, note that in gaksei°, the deletion of the vowel cannot be
transcribed in Japanese writing. Indeed, in their actual state, the kana offer
no possibility of writing a consonant that is not followed by a vowel, with the
exception of the mora nasal and the first part of a geminate.
According to M. Beckman (1996), the deletion of /i/ in shokikan ###
‘secretary’ (/syoki/ + /kan/) does not yield a homophone for shokkan° #
# ‘tactile organ’ (/syoku/ + /kan/), because the first /k/ of shokikan is still
released. However, it remains to be proved that such a difference exists, and
that, if it does, it is indeed perceptible at the auditory level. But in any case,
these two words being accentually different, they could not be completely
homophonous.
The problem is particularly acute because the deletion of a high vowel is
not so systematic and the factors which condition it are not completely
identified. Doublets like tekikaku° / tekkaku° ## ‘exact’, kakukai° / kakkai
° ## ‘the sumô world’, sankakukei / sankakkei ### ‘triangle’, sakkyokuka
° / sakkyokka° ### ‘music composer’, or shougakukin° / shougakkin° ##
# ‘scholarship, grant’, seem to be quite frequent. Moreover, intra and interspeaker variation is extremely widespread. The degree of lexicalization of
the compound and its morphological cohesion are also certainly among
the determining factors, but they are probably not the only ones. In many
respects, this phenomenon is reminiscent of mute e (schwa) in French
phonology.
Particularly interesting also is the fact that, as noted by many scholars,
morphological structure is relevant to account for the surface form when
the Sino-Japanese compound contains more than two characters (or stems).
As Itô and Mester (1996), building on Vance (1987), McCawley (1968),
Martin (1952), and Kubozono (1993b) put it, contraction (i.e. CV reduction
to /Q/) seems to occur at the end of a stem, provided that it is not the end
of a word, or, as Vance (1987:161) states, the Q-final allomorph does not
appear before the major constituent break in Sino-Japanese words of three or
more morphemes. For instance, the character betsu° # ‘special’, undergoes
gemination in besseki° ## ‘assigned seat’ (betsu° # + seki #) but not
in tokubetsu-seki / tokubetsu-seki ### (tokubetsu° ## ‘special’ + seki
#) because the structure of the latter is (XX)(X). One can further observe
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Vowels

that the form *tokubesseki ###, if it was to (p. 34 ) be created, could be
interpreted as ‘a specially assigned seat’, with a (X)(XX) structure.
Another point to be taken into consideration is the fact that the vowel
deletions which generate geminations also occur in the Yamato stratum
when the speech rate is fast, and that they also concern vowels other than /
u/ and /i/. For example kaki-komu ‘to swallow one’s meal’, or doko ka
‘somewhere’ are frequently realized kakkomu and dokka. In fact, vowels
which occur between two /k/ seem more particularly concerned by such
‘wild’ deletions, whereas those located in a /tVC/ environment undergo
deletion only in highly lexicalized Sino-Japanese morphemes like /iti/ + /
kai/ # /iQkai/ ikkai ## ‘once’ or /iti/ + /sai/ # /iQsai/ issai ## ‘one year
old’. Actually, some of these cases can also be accounted for by vowel
devoicing, a phenomenon which will be presented in the following section.
A general study of Japanese gemination based on oral, spontaneous, and
authentic data, which would also take into consideration the problem of
vowel devoicing, remains to be carried out.

2.6 Vowel Devoicing
Vowel devoicing, unvoicing, or devocalization (boin no museika ######)
more particularly characterizes the dialects of Kantô and Kyûshû. The IPA
diacritic which transcribes devoicing is ̥, for example [̥i], [̥ɯ].
Devoicing is not a recent phenomenon in Japanese. Collado (1632) already
remarks that certain Japanese /i/ and /u/ are sometimes inaudible.
Devoicing affects mainly the high vowels /i/ and /u/ in the two following
contexts:
1. – when the vowel (be it accented or not) is placed between two
voiceless consonants (this also includes before the first part of a
geminate) (4a);
2. – when the vowel is unaccented and placed after a voiceless
consonant and before a pause (4b).
Devoicing is almost compulsory in Tôkyô Japanese, except when several
devoiceable vowels occur in consecutive moras (see below).
/a/ and /o/ also undergo devoicing but in a more occasional manner, and
under more restrictive conditions. They must, in theory, be unaccented,
occur between two voiceless consonants, and, in addition, the same vowel
must occur again in the following mora (4c). The vowel /e/ seems to be the
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Vowels

least affected by devoicing (Maekawa, 1993; NHK, 1985; Akamatsu, 1997).
However, Amanuma et al. (1989) mention the existence of realizations
containing a devoiced /e/ (4d).
(p. 35 ) (4)
a.
hiku°

[h̥ikɯ],
[ç̥ikɯ]

‘to
pull’

gakusha°

[gak̥ɯɕa]

‘scholar’

tsuki

[ts̥ɯˡki]

‘moon’

pikkoro
°

[p̥ikkoɾo]

‘piccolo’

ka
rasu

[ˡkaɾas̥ɯ]

‘crow,
raven’

a
ki

[ˡak̥i]

‘autumn’

ke
chi

[ˡketɕ̥i]

‘stinginess’

kokoro

[k̥oˡkoɾo]

‘heart’

hokori

[h̥okoˡɾi]

‘pride’

haka

[hḁˡka]

‘tomb’

sekkaku°

[s̥ekkakɯ]

‘on
purpose’

keshou

[k̥eˡɕoː]

‘make
up’

Figures 2.1 and 2.2 present the oscillograms and spectrograms for the word
aki ‘autumn’, first in a devoicing context (aki kara ‘since the autumn’, Figure
2.1) with a devoiced /i/, then in a non-devoicing context (aki demo ‘even

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Vowels

Figure 2.1. Spectrogram and oscillogram of aki kara (with devoiced i)
(0.430s)
(p. 36 )

Figure 2.2. Spectrogram and oscillogram of aki demo (no devoicing of i)
(0.410s)
in autumn’, Figure 2.2). The instrumental analysis shows that the devoiced
vowel is characterized by the absence of the first formant and of the socalled ‘voice bar’ that corresponds to the vocal folds vibration in aki kara,
contrary to aki demo.
Devoicing can lead to total disappearance (deletion) of the vocalic element
on the surface (Vance, 1987). This is particularly obvious when the high
vowels /i/ and /u/ occur after a fricative, especially in word-final position.
For instance shita° /sita/ [ɕta] ‘under’, desu [des] ‘Copula’, -masu [mas]
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Vowels

(Politeness Auxiliary). However, even in such drastic examples, the mora
containing the orphan consonant preserves its prosodic weight and still
counts as one rhythmic unit. This is one of the reasons why the vowel cannot
be considered to be deleted at the phonological level. Another reason is that
the quality of the reduced vowel can be recovered from the articulation of
the consonant which precedes it (see below). As Faber and Vance (2000)
observe, Japanese voiceless vowels maintain this supralaryngeal integrity
regardless of their surface duration, both in influencing the articulatory and
acoustic characteristics of adjacent phonological units and in mediating
longer-distance effects of one segment on another.
When an accented vowel is devoiced, the accent frequently shifts to
an adjacent mora, especially in the conservative Tôkyô speech. However, the
factors determining the choice of the new accent location—when a possibility
of choice exists—remain unclear. Note that such accent shifts are becoming
less frequent because it is now common to maintain an accent on a devoiced
vowel. This new trend seems to go back to the second half of the twentieth
century, since it is already reported by Akinaga (1967).
(5) Accent shift due to devoicing
(p. 37 )

ki
te

k̥i
te

‘to
come
and…’

mushiken

mush̥i
ke
n

‘examfree’

sankakukei

sankak̥ukei

‘triangle’

Tanaka (2001) assumes that, in cases where several adjacent vowels are
likely to receive the accent after it has been displaced, the principle is that
the high pitch remains within the same foot, as the following examples
illustrate (brackets indicate feet boundaries).
(6)
(bi)
(jutsu)
(kan)

Page 15 of 42

(bi)
(jutsu̥)
(kan) /
*(bi)
(jutsu̥)
(kan)

‘museum’

Vowels

(shita)
(kuchi)
(biru)

(shi̥ta)
(ku̥chi)
(biru) /
*(shi̥ta)
(ku̥chi)
(biru)

‘lower
lip’

This is an interesting assumption, and it would be desirable to gather
additional data in order to confirm its validity, since counterexamples, in
which the accent moves outside the foot, or does not move at all, are rather
easy to find. For instance, Yokotani (1997) takes up the following examples:
(tei)(kuu)-(hi)(kou)(ki) ##### ‘low-altitude plane’ in which the accent may
move to the right (tei)(kuu)-(hi)(kou)(ki) (the foot parsing is mine), and
(bou)(shi)-(kake) ‘a hat rack’ in which the accent cannot move. It should
be remembered that feet organization is not always evident. It is the case
of the mushiken (or mushiken with devoicing of i) example, quoted above,
where one hesitates between a structure (mushi)(ken), which builds a foot
every two moras, whatever the morphological structure of the word, and
a structure (mu)(shi)(ken), which respects the morpho-lexical structure of
the word made up of three Chinese characters, ###, and where the unit
corresponding to a character corresponds to one foot, whatever its length in
moras. In the first case (mushi)(ken) the word appears as an exception, since
the accent moves to another foot. In the second case (mu)(shi)(ken),shi is a
monomoraic foot so there is no other mora available within the same foot,
but the choice of the right mora in preference to the left one for accent shift
remains unexplained.
Although the phonetic aspects of Japanese vowel devoicing have been
extensively studied, the factors which condition it remain difficult to capture.
This phenomenon also has important consequences for phonology and
morphology. It causes, among others, the creation of heavy consonant
clusters at the (p. 38 ) surface level, as well as accent displacements. This
is what makes the analysis of vowel devoicing particularly complex and
delicate. Moreover, it is worth noting that, as far as the basic description
of the facts is concerned, few works agree. Many scholars point out
that devoicing cannot occur simultaneously in two adjacent moras, but
exceptions exist. For instance bakuchiku° ‘firecracker’, can yield [bakɯ͡ʨ̥ikɯ]
or [bak̥ɯ͡ʨ̥ikɯ] but never *[bak̥ɯ͡ʨik̥ɯ] (Akamatsu, 1997, the transcription
is mine). One can also mention the extreme example tsukutsuku-boushi
[͡ʦ̥ɯk̥ɯ͡ʦ̥ɯk̥ɯ¹boːɕi] ‘(a variety of) cicada’, which may contain a succession
of four devoiced vowels. One also frequently reads in the literature that
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Vowels

devoicing cannot affect the initial vowel of a word when there is no
consonant (i.e. a vowel in the #_ position), but here also exceptions can be
found, for example ikiru [̥i#kirս] ‘to live’ (Imada, 1981:82).
In addition to those already mentioned, factors likely to favour vowel
devoicing, and which might be relevant in cases where several consecutive
devoiceable vowels occur, are: speech tempo; absence of accent on the
devoiceable vowel; position in the word (vowels occurring in the initial mora
seem more easily devoiced, except when they are onsetless); presence of /
s/ before the vowel; presence of [k] especially, but also of [t], [s], and [ɕ],
after the vowel; presence of [a] in the following mora (Yoshida N., 2002).
Interestingly, these factors do not necessarily cumulate. A vowel placed
after [s] easily gets devoiced, just as a vowel placed before [s] does, but a
vowel placed between two [s]’s remains generally voiced, even though its
loss would create a succession of two s’s similar to a geminate at the surface
level, a sequence which is acceptable in Japanese.
On the other hand, all things being equal, accented vowels occurring in a
word-internal mora, those preceding a morphemic boundary (Kondo, 1997;
Vance, 1992, quoted by Tsuchida, 2001), those followed by /h/ (under its
allophonic forms [ç], [ϕ], or [h]), are more resistant to devoicing. Lastly,
as mentioned just above, devoicing of vowels surrounded by two /s/’s is
rare (Yoshida N., 2002). The interaction of these various parameters is
particularly delicate to model. Tsuchida (2001) presents an attempt to
analyse vowel devoicing within the framework of Optimality Theory, but she
only takes into account a small number of the factors just mentioned.
High vowel devoicing is a rather common phenomenon across languages
(see for example the case of Canadian French). It is basically due to the
fact that /i/ and /u/ are less sonorous and generally shorter than the other
vowels, and also, as Kamiyama Takeki (p.c.) points out, to aerodynamic
and articulatory factors (narrower constriction causing a higher intra-oral
pressure, thus a lower trans-glottal pressure, a lower trans-glottal airflow
resulting in vocal fold vibration harder to realize). Moreover, the devoicing
of /i/ and /u/ is no doubt favoured in Japanese by the fact that a number of
consonants possess specific allophones before high vowels. These allophones
are maintained even when the vowel is (p. 39 ) totally deleted, so that it
is generally possible to recover the quality of the vowel on the basis of the
consonantal allophone which precedes it even if the vowel is deleted (for a
study of how allophones are processed and recognized, see Ogasawara and
Warner, 2009). Thus in the reduced form [͡ʦ¹ki] tsuki ‘moon’, the presence of
Page 17 of 42

Vowels

the affricate allophone [ts‹] of the /t/ consonant is revealing of the underlying
presence of /u/, the only vowel which triggers the affricate realization of the
phoneme /t/. The study by Beckman and Shoji (1984) shows that the deleted
vowels /i/ and /u/ can colour the spectrum of the fricative [ɕ] in the moras shi
/si/ and shu /syu/, thus allowing the vowels to be recovered. The same effect
probably occurs after other consonants, and especially after the affricate ch
[tɕ‹]. Because of this, it seems reasonable to assume that the vowel is not
phonologically deleted.
Finally, recall that vowel devoicing, because it may involve complete
disappearance of the vocalic segment at the surface level, entertains close
and complex relations with the phenomenon of consonant gemination, as
seen in section 2.5. More generally, in colloquial Japanese, devoicing also
creates phonotactic sequences that are deemed to be illicit because they
contain a sequence of two consonants C1C2 (where C1 is neither nasal nor
homorganic with C2), including word-initially. Let us mention again examples
such as desu [des] CVC and shita [ɕta] CCV. Kondo (2000) rightly observes
that, because of the generalization of vowel devoicing, Japanese syllable
structure may have become more flexible and is now in the process of
changing. Kondo (2003) also argues that consecutive devoicing is prevented
because it would create sequences of more than two consonants, which
would upset speech rhythm.
The status and phonological representation of devoiced vowels will be
addressed again in Chapter 6 which deals with prosodic constituents. It
will be argued that prosodic units which comprise a devoiced vowel can be
regarded as structurally defective.

2.7 Vowel Length
Vowel length is distinctive in Japanese. Compare: ku ‘district’ / kuu ‘void’,
obasan° ‘aunt’ / obaasan ‘grandmother’, hiru ‘leech’ / hiiru ‘heel’, tokai°
‘city’ / toukai° ‘destruction’, kegen° ‘dubious’ / keigen°4 (realized as [keːgeᶰ])
‘reduction’.
A long vowel is supposed to last twice as long as a short vowel.
However, instrumental analyses show that the ratio between a long and
a short vowel is closer to 1:2.5 or even 1:3 (Shimizu Han 1962: 65). As
Akamatsu (1997) observes, the point is that native speakers intend (or are
convinced) to pronounce a succession of two isochronous identical vowels
when they articulate a long vowel, and that native listeners perceive them as
such.
(p. 40 )

Page 18 of 42

Vowels

On the phonological level, a long vowel equals two rhythmic units, i.e. two
moras, whereas a short vowel is worth only one. The prosodic weight of the
sequence kou [koː] is thus phonemically equivalent to that of the sequences
kon or koto, that is, twice that of ko.
Except for the particular case of the long /e/ in some of its possible dialectal
realizations (as [ei]), there does not exist any significant quality difference
between a short and a long vowel. Unlike other languages where length is
correlated with quality differences, only duration is distinctive in Japanese.

2.7.1 The case of long e
The case of long e calls for some observations. The long e which is heard
in Sino-Japanese words like sensei [sen¹seː] ‘professor’ or reigi [ɾeː¹gi]
‘courtesy’ goes back to a sequence e + i realized as [eː] in normal speech.
In a more formal, conservative register, for example in the speech of certain
actors or singers, the pronunciation [ei] is frequent. It is also usual in certain
dialects, in particular in the Kyûshû area. One should note that long e
is written as ei in hiragana (##). This is probably why, under the hypercorrective influence of the writing, the pronunciation of long e as [ei] is now
spreading among some speakers of the standard language.
It seems reasonable to consider the phonetic realization [eː] as the output
of an intrinsically long vowel (see section 2.7.3, for the precise definition of
what is an intrinsically long vowel), and [ei] as a sequence of two distinct
vowels, /ei/ (see section 2.8 below).
In some words of the native Yamato lexicon, for example oneesan ‘older
sister’, as well as in recent loans like meekaa ‘maker’ {maker}, long e
always remains [eː]. In such words, the vowel is a true long vowel (intrinsic
long vowel) in the sense defined below. The same applies in principle to
long e’s occurring in Yamato words, which result historically from the loss
of an intervocalic consonant, even though such long e’s are transcribed
as ei in kana, for example ei ## from ehi ‘ray (fish)’, karei ######from
karehi ‘plaice’, mei ## (#) from mehi ‘niece’. However, one will also
frequently encounter the pronunciations [ˡei], [ˡkaɾei], and [ˡmei]. Orthoepic
recommendations concerning this type of words are vague and even
sometimes contradictory.
In cases where there exists a morphological boundary between e and
i, the sequence is pronounced as [ei] in theory, not [eː]. Meiro [ˡmeːɾo] #
# ‘labyrinth’ is segmentally distinct from meiro° [meiɾo] (me+iro) ## ‘eye
(p. 41 )

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Vowels

colour’. However, Amanuma et al. (1989) mention a number of exceptions,
like keito° ‘wool thread’ (ke+ito) ##, realized as [keito] or [keːto], keiro°
‘hair colour’, (ke+iro) ## realized as [keːɾo] or [keiɾo]. I have also heard
[ɯkeːˡɾerɯ] ‘to admit’ for uke-ireru (uke+ireru).
Lastly, note that a long e, realized as [eː] (or [▱ː]) can appear in colloquial
male language in place of ai, ae, and oi. One will thus hear nee for nai ‘there
is not’, omee° for omae° ‘you’, or sugee for sugoi ‘terrible’.

2.7.2 Origin And Distribution of Long Vowels Depending On the Lexical
Strata
The distribution and frequency of the long vowels vary considerably
depending on the lexical strata. Whereas each of the five long vowels occurs
abundantly in Western loans, for example paatii {party} ‘party’, kouto
{coat} ‘coat’, beesu {base} ‘base’, konpyuutaa {computer} ‘computer’,
only uu,ou, and ee (ei) exist in Sino-Japanese, with the exception of a couple
of rare cases of a long i resulting from an irregular evolution (examples (7c)
below).
The case of long a [aː] in Yamato words requires specific comment in spite of
its scarcity. Long a’s surface as the result of prosodic lengthening (a process
that we will examine in section 2.7.5) or at morpheme boundaries as in
the word baai° ## ‘case’. Baai° is originally a Yamato compound which is
generally realized as [bawai], or even [bajai], with an epenthetic glide. A long
a can also result from the opposite process, that is the disappearance of the
semi-consonant /w/ in an original awa sequence, as in mawaru° # maaru
° ‘to turn’ (see section 3.12) but this type of change is not reflected in the
orthography and is considered to belong to a colloquial register.5 According
to Takayama T. (2003), bawai°, which comes from baai°, must be analysed
as a hypercorrection, on the model of maaru° # mawaru°.
Hamada (1986), who provides a very complete picture of the historical
development of long vowels in Japanese, also mentions a number of cases
in which aa or aCa sequences have evolved into a long o (for example mou
# *(i)maa # ima ‘already’ or houki° / houki # hawaki # hahaki ‘broom’),
which would confirm the (p. 42 ) existence of a constraint prohibiting long a’s
in Japanese. Actually, there seems to be no example of a long a historically
resulting from consonant loss in Yamato words.
In the Sino-Japanese stratum, lengthening generally represents the evolution
of an Old Chinese final nasal –ŋ (7a) or plosive (7b), which have turned
Page 20 of 42

Vowels

into diphthongal sequences at the stage of Middle Japanese: -au,-eu,-iu,
and -ou. In this stratum, long a’s do not exist and long i’s are rare. But
lengthening in Sino-Japanese morphemes may sometimes proceed from a
specifically Japanese development which targets a single short vowel or a
vowel followed by an element on the nature of which reconstructions are
dubious (7c). Such cases always resort to readings known as kan'yôon ###
‘usage readings’ (see section 1.6.2).
(7) Long vowels in Sino-Japanese words (reconstructions of the
Old Chinese forms are from Tôdô, 1996, and Karlgren, 1957, as
cited by Kano, 1998)
Modern Jp. (# Old
Jp.)

Old Chinese

(Tôdô) (Karlgren)

Page 21 of 42

kuu

(#
kuu)

*k’uŋ

*k’ung

‘void’

sou

(#
sau)

*siaŋ

*s̯iang

‘thought’

mei

(#
mei)

*mieŋ

*m̯iěng

‘name’

hou

(#
hahu
# papu)

*p#uǎp

*p̯iwǎp

‘law’

hyou

(#
hyau
#
pyaku)

*p’ǎk

‘beat’

shuu

(#
sihu
# sipu)

*̥diəp

*dz̯iəp

‘study,
learn’

hyou

(#
heu)

*p#ɔg

*p̯iog

‘surface’

suu

(#
suu)

*sïug

*sl̯iu

‘number’

Vowels

huu

(#
huu)

*p#uag

*p̯iwo

‘man’

shii

(#
shi)
in
#
#
shiiji

*sied

*siəd

‘four’ (in
the
expression
‘four
seasons’)

shii

(#
shi)
in
#
#
shiika

*thiəg

*śiəg

‘poetry’ (in
the
expression
‘Chinese
and
Japanese
poetry’)

rou

(#
ro)
in
#
#
hirou

*̊glag

*glâg

‘reception’

In Yamato words long vowels are less common. Archaic Japanese had neither
long vowels nor diphthongs. The long vowels which occur at the phonetic
level in Modern Yamato words result from the following three processes: (i)
the loss of an intervocalic consonant (this phenomenon is known as onbin
##, see also section 5.4), yielding a succession of two consecutive vowels
which have then turned into a long vowel (8a); (ii) the fortuitous juxtaposition
of two vowels (p. 43 ) across a compound word boundary (8b); (iii) prosodic
lengthening, the mechanism by which an etymologically short vowel is
lengthened in certain cases (8c).
(8) Long vowels in Yamato words
a. Long vowel resulting from consonant loss (with possible
coalescence)

Page 22 of 42

shirohito #
shirouto

‘amateur’

kinohu #
kinou

‘yesterday’

Vowels

Page 23 of 42

ahugi #
augi # ougi

‘fan’

wakahito #
wakauto #
wakoudo

‘youngster’

sumahi #
sumou°

‘sumô’

kiuri #
kyuuri

‘cucumber’

karihito #
kariudo #
karyuudo

‘hunter’

kehu #
keu # kyou

‘today’

kamibe #
kaube #
koube

‘Kôbe’

###

ikamu #
ikau # ikou

‘let us go!’

#####

arigataku #
arigatau #
arigatou

‘thank you’

##(#)

ohoki #
ooki(i) /
ouki(i)

‘big’

towo # too /
tou

‘ten’

###

mochiwiru #
mochiiru

‘to use’

nihigata #
niigata°

‘Niigata’

###

yasashiki #
yasashii°

‘gentle’

suhu # suu°

‘to smoke, to
inhale’
Vowels

###

kikite # kiite
°

‘to hear
and…’

b. Sequence of two identical vowels at compound word internal
boundary
#

mizu+umi #
mizuumi

‘lake (water
+ sea)’

sato+oya #
satooya°

‘foster
parent
(village +
parent)’

ha+ari #
haari°

‘winged ant
(wing + ant)’

c. Long vowels resulting from prosodic lengthening (see also
section 2.7.5)
####

oneesan

‘older sister’

########

hi i huu mii

‘one, two,
three’

#####

Ma a-chan

‘little Masaki
(diminutive)’

ka a-dou
(kaa-dou°)

‘Tuesday and
Saturday’

Some of the long vowels in the Yamato and Sino-Japanese examples above
represent special developments due to the coalescence (or fusion) of two
vowels of different quality which triggered compensatory lengthening
between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Some of these evolutions,
for example karihito # kariudo / karyuudo, do not seem strongly motivated
from an articulatory standpoint, while others are more commonplace from
the cross-linguistic (p. 44 ) point of view. The most frequent and systematic
coalescences are summed up in (9), with approximate dates:
(9) Long vowels resulting from compensatory lengthening

Page 24 of 42

[eɯ]

#
you
[joː]

(c.
1200–
1300)

[oɯ]

#
ou
[oː]

(c.
1200–
1300)
Vowels

[iɯ]

#
yuu
[jɯː]

(c.
1400–
1500)

[aɯ]

#
ou
[oː]

(c.
1700–
1800)

[ei]

#
ee
[eː]

(c.
1900)

Note, in the examples above, that palatalization developed when the first
part of the diphthong was one of the front vowels /i/ or /e/ followed by /u/.
Palatalization has also occurred in a number of older Western loans, for
instance youroppa ‘Europe’, from Portuguese {Europa}, where the sequence
eu [eɯ] has undergone the regular transformation you [joː]. The phonetic
evolution of this word shows in addition that the change eu # you, initiated
at the stage of Old Japanese, extended over several centuries, and at least
until 1500, when the first Westerners from Portugal—who introduced the
word ‘Europa’—reached Japan.
The modern writing in hiragana has maintained some of these old
diphthongs (in particular ou and ei) in the current kana script, while
the others have vanished without leaving any orthographic trace in the
contemporary language. Moreover, as already mentioned, the evolution ei #
ee, the most recent one, is not yet realized by all speakers and not reflected
in the writing.

2.7.3 Phonological Status And Representation of Long Vowels:
Intrinsically Long Vowels Vs. Double Vowels
For the linguist Kindaichi Haruhiko, as for a majority of Japanese
phonologists, the second part of a long vowel in words such as imouto
‘younger sister’ or kuukou° ‘airport’ is identified as a ‘special segment’
denoted as /~/ or /R/ (sometimes also /H/) in phonemic transcription,
and as [ː] in phonetic transcriptions (see section 5.3), rather than as a
succession of two identical short vowels. Imouto ‘younger sister’ will thus
be transcribed phonemically /imoRto/ and phonetically [imoː#to], kuukou
° ‘airport’ /kuRkoR/ and [kɯːkoː]. Within the auto-segmental framework,
an intrinsically long vowel of this sort is conceived as one single segmental
Page 25 of 42

Vowels

unit associated with two prosodic positions. As we shall see in Chapter 6,
where a detailed presentation of the prosodic components of Japanese and
arguments for the structural organization of the mora will be provided,
the basic Japanese rhythmic unit is conceived in this book as a maximally
binary structure corresponding to a mora. So a word such as kou° [koː] ‘this
manner’ corresponds to two rhythmic units (two moras), as shown in (10).
(p. 45 ) (10) Intrinsically long vowel: ## kou [koː]

However, some of the phonetically long vowels of Japanese must be analysed
phonemically as a succession of two distinct segments with identical
phonetic quality (double vowels) rather than as a single vocalic segment
associated with two prosodic positions. The relevant representation appears
in (11). Such vowels do not structurally differ from the sequences of two
different vowels presented further in section 2.8. Simply, the two vowels in
question are of identical quality.
(11) Succession of two identical vowels (double vowels): ##
koo /koo/ realized as [koː] or [koo]

Such representations allow us to better capture the phonological difference
existing between pairs such as the following which are familiar textbook
examples:
(12)
a.
#
#
#
satouya
°
(satôya)

Page 26 of 42

[satoːja]
*[satoʔoja]

‘sugar
shop’

Vowels

#
#
satooya
°

[satoːja]
or
[satoʔoja]

‘foster
parent’

#
#
suuri
(sûri)

[¹sɯːɾi]
*[¹sɯʔɯɾi]

‘mathematical
theory’

#
#
#suuri
(suuri)

[¹sɯːɾi]
or
[¹sɯʔɯɾi]

‘vinegar
seller’

The difference between the two items of a pair constitutes an issue much
debated in the domain of Japanese phonology (Kindaichi 1950; Hattori, 1955,
1961; Hamada, 1951, etc.). In (12a), the first word comprises something
which can be analysed as an intrinsically long vowel, the second one a
succession of two identical vowels. Although such sequences are generally
realized in an identical way in normal speech, a phonetic difference between
the two members of each pair may appear in slow or formal speech, that
is, it is possible to have a hiatus, materialized in the form of a pause or a
light glottal stop [ʔ], between the first and the second element of a double
vowel, but not between the two parts of an (p. 46 ) intrinsically long vowel.6
The representations in (10) and (11) account for this difference in a natural
manner: in (11), there are two distinct segments, but only one in (10).
The sequence uu in suuri ‘vinegar seller’, whose phonetically long vowel
results from the succession of two short u’s, separated by a morphological
boundary (su ‘vinegar’ + uri° ‘salesman’), belongs to the second type as
illustrated in (11), that of two-vowel sequences, whereas suuri ‘mathematical
principle’ (suu ‘mathematics’ + ri ‘principle’), which has only one
(phonetically and phonemically) long vowel, pertains to the type represented
in (10). The phonological representations of these two words will thus be as
follows:
(13) suuri /suRri/ ‘mathematical principle’ (a) vs. suuri /suuri/
‘vinegar seller’ (b)

Page 27 of 42

Vowels

The following pairs are also to be structurally distinguished:
(14)
##

koou°
[kooː]
or
[koʔoː]

‘acting
in
concert’

kouo
[¹koːo]
or
[¹koːʔo]

‘likes
and
dislikes’

They correspond to the representations in (15):
(15) koou° /kooR/ ‘acting in concert’ vs. kouo /koRo/ ‘likes and
dislikes’

(p. 47 )

The vowels ou and uu of Sino-Japanese words seen above in (7), the
majority of the vowels in (8a) which result from vowel coalescence
(sometimes caused by the loss of an intervocalic consonant) with subsequent
compensatory lengthening and in some cases modification of the vocalic
quality, as well as the vowels which result from prosodic lengthening (8c),
are to be analysed as intrinsically long vowels, except in cases where the
vowel plays a flexional role as the final i in yasashii° (‘gentle’), the final u in
suu° (‘to smoke’), and the second i in kiite° (‘to hear and…’, cited in 8a).
On the other hand, the vowels shown in (8b) correspond to double vowels,
i.e. to a sequence of two identical vowel nuclei, in which a hiatus is possible.
When a long vowel results from the loss of a consonant surrounded by two
identical vocalic segments, like kohori # koori° ‘ice’ or ohoki # ooki ‘big’,
Page 28 of 42

Vowels

things are more ambiguous, as the kana spelling reflects. In such words, long
o is written as oo ## and not ou ##. The problem is comparable to that of
the long e written as ei, already discussed. It would be rash to assume that
all speakers of Japanese have exactly the same phonological representations
for the long vowels which occur in these types of words. It is probable that
for certain speakers, the [oː] of koori° # ‘ice’ from kohori (a Yamato lexeme)
and that of kouri ## ‘axiom’ (a Sino-Japanese lexeme) have the same
phonological representation today, with an intrinsically long vowel, while
they have a different representation for other speakers, koori° having a
double vowel under the influence of the spelling. It is necessary to keep
in mind that in non-Western words, all the intrinsically long vowels of the
modern language derive from double vowels (following the evolutionary
pattern VCV # VV # Vː as in ahugi # augi # ougi ‘fan’, or VC # VV # Vː in
certain Sino-Japanese words, for instance tong # tou # ‘East’), except for the
case of prosodic lengthenings. The natural fate of a double vowel is thus to
turn into an intrinsically long vowel, and the moment of this transformation
naturally varies according to words or individual speakers.
The distinction between an intrinsically long vowel and a double vowel is
further justified by the fact that the latter has a property of which the former
is deprived: in double vowels, the second element can carry an accent,
for example, mizuumi ‘lake’, tookereba ‘if it is far’, ooi ‘many’, whereas
intrinsically long vowels can only bear an accent on the first part of the
vowel.

2.7.4 Prosodic Shortening
A long vowel is frequently reduced to a simple vowel, as in the following
examples: koukou° # kouko° ‘Japanese pickles’, hontou° # honto° ‘true’,
konpyuutaa # konpyuuta ‘computer’ {computer}, akanbou° # akanbo
° ‘baby’, daijoubu # daijobu ‘all right’, sensei # sense ‘teacher, master’.
According to Sukegawa et al. (1999), about one third of all long vowels
undergo this type of (p. 48 ) reduction in spontaneous speech. The
phenomenon, known as ‘prosodic shortening’, occurs primarily in Western
loans, and to a lesser extent in Sino-Japanese words. It is especially common
in a non-formal register, and concerns mainly medial or final vowels in moras
which follow another long vowel or a mora nasal as in kouko° ‘salted white
radish’ or honto° ‘true’, respectively derived from koukou° and hontou°
(KKK, 2004). This is the reason why, according to Takeuchi (1999:46), words
such as ryokou° ‘voyage’, or burezaa ‘jacket’, do not undergo prosodic
shortening, whereas hontou° # honto° ‘true’ or konpyuutaa # konpyuuta
Page 29 of 42

Vowels

{computer} are among the words most frequently shortened. The study by
Sukegawa et al. (1999) also establishes that vowel shortening is rare in wordinitial position, including words which can be regarded as monosyllabic, for
example mou (mou°) ‘already’.
Vowel quality also plays a role with regard to prosodic shortening, but its
relevance can mainly be observed in Western loans, since this is the only
stratum which allows all five long vowels of the Japanese system to occur
freely and frequently in any word position. In Western abbreviations, final
prosodic shortening more frequently targets the [−high] final vowels /a/, /e/,
and /o/ than the [+high] vowels /i/ and /u/, as shown by Figure 2.3 (Labrune,
2007).
In 80% of the cases at hand (20 words out of 25), final length tends to be
maintained after /i/ and /u/ word-finally, whereas it is deleted in more than
60% of the cases after /e/, /o/, and /a/ (58 words out of 88). For instance,
kanningu peepaa {cunning paper} ‘cheat sheet’ becomes kan-pe / kan‐pe
°, with final shortening, rather than *kan‐pee, while bataa piinatsu {butter
peanuts} is clipped as bata-pii°, rather than *bata-pi.

Figure 2.3. Final vowel shortening in Western clippings
(p. 49 )

2.7.5 Prosodic Lengthening

A number of micro-paradigms of the Yamato stratum have long vowels
which do not result from the historical evolutions of the type VCV # VV and/
or VV # Vː as described above. Such long vowels are prosodically derived
from a short vowel by secondary lengthening. The paradigms in question
generally have emotional, impressionistic, or emphatic connotations. They
can be divided in three subtypes. The first type includes family terms based
on vocatives, hypocoristics, baby talk, and manner deictics (for instance
okaasan ‘mama’, yuu-chan ‘little Yuko’, kou ‘this manner’); the second
type contains interjections and mimetic adverbs or interrogatives (zuutto
Page 30 of 42

Vowels

‘continuously’, naani ‘what’); the third group consists of bases which are
all one-mora long, and generally belong to nominal or numerical series (nii
‘two’, kaa ‘Tuesday’). They are described below in detail for the sake of
completeness, but the reader who is not a specialist in Japanese can skip this
section and come back to it at a later stage.
Type 1
A. Kinship terms vocatives:
kaa-san ‘mum’, too-san ‘dad’, jii-san ‘grandpa’, baa-san ‘grandma’, niisan ‘older brother’, nee-san ‘older sister’, respectively built on the roots
*ka,*to,*ji,*ba (which are found in the reduplicated forms kaka ‘mum’, toto
‘dad’, jiji ‘grandfather’, baba ‘grandmother’), as well as on ani ‘older brother’
and ane° ‘older sister’.
Let us also mention imouto ‘younger sister’, otouto ‘younger brother’,
shuuto° / shuutome° ‘father-/ mother-in-law’ in which the presence of a long
vowel seems to result from regular evolution of the older forms *imohito,
*otohito, *shihito (*imohito # *imouto # imo:to, *otohito # *otouto #
oto:to, *shihito # *shiuto # shuuto°), and thus pertains, at first sight, to the
evolution V1hV2 # V1V2 # Vː rather than to prosodic lengthening. However,
as noted by Hamada (1951), if things had really occurred that way, one
would expect the t of hito to be voiced, that is, one would have had *imobito
# *imoudo, *otobito # *otoudo, *shibito # *shuudo, as is the case in other
derived terms containing the element hito, for example akindo,shiryuudo
(akihito # akindo ‘trader’, shirihito # shiryuudo ‘acquaintance’). However,
since voicing has not occurred in the imouto type set of words, they must
have followed some other evolution pattern. These facts suggest that
analogy may have played a role within this paradigm of kinship terms, and
that the long vowel of imouto,otouto and shuuto° represents the same type
of element as that of tousan, kaasan, etc., rather than the direct result of a
straightforward phonetic evolution from *imohito, *otohito, *shihito.
The word hii-mago° (or hii-mago) ‘great-grandson /-daughter’,
in which the vowel of the morpheme hi is etymologically short is also
noteworthy. Lengthening in hii would thus be explained by the fact that the
morpheme hi refers to a kinship term (Wenck, 1966: footnote 26).
(p. 50 )

Finally, note that the forms jijii ‘grandpa’ and babaa ‘grandma’, with final
lengthening, are vulgar and depreciative (Kubozono, 2000).

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B. Hypocoristic of personal names (Poser, 1990):
in hypocoristic derivatives such as Yuu-chan (based on the first name Yumi),
or Maa-chan (for Masaki), secondary lengthening of the originally short
vowel of the base occurs in a very regular manner.
C. Baby talk:
one encounters in one variety of obsolete baby talk7 (reported by Hamada,
1951) forms such as beebee / beebe / bebe ‘clothing’ (origin unknown),
haahaa / haaha ‘tooth’ (from ha ‘tooth’), hiihii / hiihi ‘fire’ (from hi ‘fire’).
They are all characterized by reduplication and the presence of one or two
long vowels derived from the corresponding short vowel.
D. Manner deictics:
this paradigm contains the following four forms: kou° ‘like that’ (1st degree,
near to the speaker), sou° ‘like that’ (2nd degree, near to the listener)’, aa°
‘like that’ (3rd degree, far from the speaker and listener), dou ‘how, in which
manner?’. According to Hamada (1951) and a majority of dictionaries, the
manner deictic kou° has been derived from kaku ## (ka ‘3rd degree deictic’
+ ku ‘adverbial ending’), according to the following evolution: kaku # kau #
kou°. This form kou° would then have been reinterpreted as derived from ko,
the 1st degree deictic morpheme which one finds in kore° ‘this’, koko° ‘here’.
Later, under the pressure of analogy, the forms sou°,aa°, and dou,8 would
have developed, by means of prosodic lengthening out of the bases so,a,do.
Note that the bases ko,so-,a-, and do- are all monomoraic, a characteristic
which no doubt also played a role in the development of the lengthened
series, since, as we will see below, one type of prosodic lengthening precisely
affects monomoraic morphemes.
The four series of forms which have just been described do not
concern isolated, single lexemes but rather paradigms whose paradigmatic
coherence is precisely marked by the presence of a long vowel derived from
a short one. We are thus dealing with a rather systematic usage of vocalic
lengthening, which may be analysed as an instance of template morphology.
(p. 51 )

Type 2
The second type pertains to expressive and emphatic lengthening occurring
in interjections and mimetics, and in a number of interrogative words. The
corresponding forms with short vowels almost always exist. We thus find:
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Vowels

A. Interjections:
for example oui [#oːi] ‘hey!’, eetto° ‘well’, nee ‘listen!’.
B. Onomatopoeia and ideophones:
zaazaa ‘water pouring heavily’, gee° (expression of dislike), huutto° (puffing
sound or action).
C. Adverbs and interrogatives with emphatic connotation:
zuutto° ‘continuously’, youku ‘often, well’, naani ‘what?’. The long vowels
which are phonetically realized in these types of words are only seldom
denoted in the conventional orthography.
Type 3
Lastly, there exists a type of prosodic lengthening of one-mora-long bases,
most of which pertain to enumerative series or lists: days of the week, SinoJapanese or Yamato numbers, animals of the Chinese zodiac, as well as
reduplicate verbal radicals. It is to be noted that all these forms are accented
on the initial mora.
A. Days of the week:
the expression for ‘Tuesday and Saturday’, a compound made of the first two
monomoraic morphemes of ka-youbi ‘Tuesday’ and do-youbi ‘Saturday’ is
realized kaa dou (or kaa-dou°). Only ‘Tuesday’ and ‘Saturday’ are concerned
with prosodic lengthening, since they are the only weekday bases which are
monomoraic.
B. Sino-Japanese numbers in enumeration:
Sino-Japanese numbers present the following forms when they are recited
(underlined forms mark secondary lengthenings): ichi ‘1’, nii ‘2’, san° ‘3’,
shii ‘4’, gou ‘5’, roku ‘6’, shichi ‘7’, hachi ‘8’, kyuu ‘9’, juu ‘10’. (Compare
with ichi ‘1’, ni ‘2’, san° ‘3’, shi ‘4’, go ‘5’, roku ‘6’, shichi ‘7’, hachi ‘8’,
kyuu ‘9’, juu ‘10’, the basic forms which are found elsewhere than in
enumeration). The series 4–5–6–2–1 will be thus pronounced shii°-gouroku-nii-ichi. The lengthening in 2, 4, and 5 is never denoted in the kana
writing. On the other hand, that of 9 and 10 is etymological, and does not
constitute a case of prosodic lengthening.

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Vowels

(p. 52 )

C. Yamato numbers:

the same type of phenomenon occurs with the following numbers of Yamato
origin (Komatsu, 1981:115): hii ‘1’, huu ‘2’, mii ‘3’, you ‘4’, ii ‘5’, muu
‘6’, naa ‘7’, yaa ‘8’.9 Compare with the full forms of the more widespread
series: hitotsu ‘1’, hutatsu ‘2’, mittsu ‘3’, yottsu ‘4’, itsutsu ‘5’, muttsu ‘6’,
nanatsu ‘7’, yattsu ‘8’.
D. Abbreviated zodiac signs:
ne° ‘rat’, u° ‘rabbit’, mi° ‘snake’, and i° ‘pig, wild boar’ are pronounced
respectively nee, uu, mii, and ii° in the enumeration of the twelve Chinese
zodiac signs (nee ushi tora uu tatsu mii uma hitsuji° saru tori° inu ii°, ‘Rat,
Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig’).
E. Reduplicated verb bases:
the vowel of a monomoraic verb base lengthens when it undergoes
reduplication in order to form an adverbial expression indicating simultaneity
(Kageyama, 1976/1977; Martin, 1987; Itô, 1990): miru ‘to look’ # mii mii
‘while looking’, suru° ‘to make’ # shii shii° ‘while making’. Such lengthening
never occurs with bimoraic verbal bases.
There also exists a small number of other isolated cases of prosodic
lengthening, such as the word see # (written # se in kana)10 ‘height
(of a person)’. Lengthening further occurs sometimes in familiar speech
following the dropping of an enclitic particle after a monomoraic word, for
example hi (wo) totte kure ‘bring me fire!’, which is actually realized as
[ˡhiːˡtottekɯɾe] or [ˡçiːˡtottekɯɾe] (Hayata, 1980). Kubozono (2000) also
reports some other marginal cases in slang or in the secret language zûjâ-go,
used by jazz and rock musicians. In Kansai dialects, prosodic lengthening of
monomoraic forms is systematic: thus we have [hiː] (with a low-high accent)
‘fire’ (standard hi), [͡ʨiː] (with a high-high accent) ‘blood’ (standard chi°), etc.
even when the word is followed by a particle, in which case lengthening is
merely optional.
It is noteworthy that in all the above-mentioned series, any of the five vowels
of Japanese can undergo lengthening, including the vowel a, of which no
other occurrence as a true long vowel can be found in a Yamato or SinoJapanese morpheme (except the cases discussed in section 2.7.2).

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2.8 Sequences of Two Different Vowels: the Problem of
‘diphthongs’
(p. 53 )

Sequences of two different vowels are very frequent in Modern Japanese.11
All the possible combinations between the five vocalic elements are attested,
namely iu, ie, io, ia, ui, ue, uo, ua, ei, eu, eo, ea, oi, ou, oe, oa, ai, au, ae,
ao. Each vowel in these sequences represents one mora, and is distinctly
articulated. However, as noted by Takayama T. (2003), apart from the
V1V2 sequences in which a morpheme boundary separates the two vowels,
existing combinations in modern Yamato or Sino-Japanese words are
limited to a/i/u/o + i/e/o, namely ai,oi,ui,ie,ae,oe,ue,io,ao,uo (ei occurs but
it generally corresponds to a long e, see section 2.7.1). The groups Vu and
Va are unattested, for various reasons. The Vu sequences have all evolved
into long vowels, palatalized or not: iu # yu:, eu # yo:, au # o:, ou # o: (see
section 2.7.2), except at morpheme boundary. We thus find ka-u° ‘to buy’,
omo-u ‘to think’, and so on. On the other hand, the Va sequences never
existed in Yamato or Sino-Japanese monomorphemes, except for a few cases
of prosodic lengthening. It is interesting to note, following Takayama T.
(2003), that even in Western loanwords or at morpheme boundary, where
Va is likely to occur, a transition glide is frequently inserted: thus shiai°
[ɕᵢjaᵢ] ‘match’, takuan [taˡkɯʷaN] ‘salted radish’, itaria° [itaɾiʲa] ‘Italy’. This
suggests that Va sequences (ia,ea,oa,ua as well as aa) are problematic (on
aa / a: see also section 2.7.2).
Sequences of three or four vowels, or even more, are easy to find: for
example in the place name aioi ##, the adjective aoi ‘blue’, the noun ie-ie
‘houses’. We could thus build a sentence made up uniquely of vowels such
as aioi e aa iuu aoi uo o ou (#############) ‘to follow such a blue fish
towards Aioi’.
The term diphthong (nijûboin #### or jûboin ###) is frequently used in
the phonetic descriptions of Japanese. However, the definition of what the
various scholars mean by ‘diphthong’ is not always precise. Amanuma et
al. (1989:93–98) operates a distinction between renboin ### ‘vowels in
succession’ and jûboin ### ‘diphthong’, and considers that certain V + i
sequences can be qualified as diphthongs (jûboin) in the traditional sense
of the word. However, the evidence for such a distinction seems rather
morphological in nature since Vi is regarded as a ‘diphthong’ when there
is no morphological boundary between V and i, as in the word kai ‘shell’.
Kawakami (1977) considers (p. 54 ) the sequences ai,ui,oi,ae,ao, and oe as
diphthongs (nijûboin) while specifying that one cannot always speak of a
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true diphthong when a clear morphemic boundary separates the two vowels.
According to Saitô (1997:85), the sequences ai,ui,ae,au easily turn into the
‘diphthongs’ a̯i,u̯i,ae̯, au̯ except when they are separated by a semantic
boundary (haisha, ha+isha° ‘dentist’), and except in bimoraic Yamato words:
oi° ‘nephew’, ei ‘ray (fish)’, ou° ‘to follow’. However, in an experiment I
undertook in 2001 with the help of Jôo Hakutarô, the forms haisha ### (haisha) ‘dentist’ and haisha ## (hai-sha) ‘loser’ appeared to have the same
phonetic realization, although a morpho-semantic boundary between a and i
exists in the first word but not in the latter.
The question of whether the existence of a morpheme boundary between
the two vowels of a sequence is relevant is also evoked by Hashimoto M.
(1977:27). According to him, the pairs kai # ‘a meeting’ (one morpheme)
and kai ## ‘lower rank’ (two morphemes ka+i), or kui # ‘regret’ (one
morpheme) and kui ## ‘meaning of a phrase’ (two morphemes ku+i) are
perceived as different in certain dialects. However, this does not prove that
there is a truly phonetic or even phonological difference between them. It is
quite possible that speakers’ perceptions are heavily influenced by writing
or morphological structure. Moreover, accent might also be involved, since
there exist dialects which can operate an accentual distinction between
CVi pairs, for instance between the pairs kai ‘shell’ and kai ‘a paddle’ (Izu
dialect, Uwano, 2003). More experimental studies are thus necessary in
order to clarify this point. It is nonetheless a major issue because it is closely
related to the problem of the interaction between mora and syllable in
Japanese. Indeed, if there were any evidence that two phonetically and
phonemically different sorts of V1V2 sequences exist in Standard Japanese
(for example a difference between kai # and kai ##, as already mentioned),
one could then argue that the first type is monosyllabic while the second is
dissyllabic. This would imply that both the mora and the syllable are distinct
and relevant units in Japanese, an assumption which is challenged in this
book, as we shall see in Chapter 6.
I consider that it is mistaken to regard V1V2 sequences as diphthongs since
I know of no phonetic or phonological evidence which would prove that they
are. They are simply a succession of two distinct vocalic nuclei, each with
its own prosodic weight representing one mora. A number of arguments can
be brought forward in order to justify this analysis. First, the quality of the
vowels involved in such sequences is not notably different from what it is
when they are realized in isolation. There is no significant gradual change
of the quality of the first vowel towards the second one, no crescendo nor
decrescendo between V1 and V2, contrary to what generally occurs with
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diphthongs in other languages. Second, in slow or careful speech, a pause
—sometimes even a glottal stop—is frequently inserted between the two
vowels, something which would be impossible in the (p. 55 ) case of true
diphthongs like those of English or Chinese, for example. The group [ai]
in the English word sky cannot be articulated in two syllables, i.e. ska.i,
whereas the Japanese words ue° ‘above’, ai ‘love’, uo° ‘fish’ respectively
[ɯ.e], [ˡa.i], and [ɯ.o] are normally uttered in two beats. Moreover, in
such groups, the second vowel can carry an accent, for example kai-nushi
‘owner (of a pet)’, even though it is true that a tendency to de-accent vowels
which are not preceded by an onset consonant can be observed,12 as the
possible realization of kai‐nushi as kai‐nushi attests. Lastly, in Japanese, no
sequence of two vowels results from the diphthongization of a monophthong.
There is no example of an evolution V(:) # V1V2 like the ones so frequently
encountered in Romance or Germanic phonology, for instance Latin bene
[beːne] # French bien [bj̃▱]; old English nama [næːmə] # modern English
name [n▱I‸m]), and so forth.
It is clear that the recognition of true diphthongs in Japanese is determined
by one’s conception and definition of the prosodic units of the language. If
one assumes a priori that syllables exist in Japanese and that syllabic weight
distinctions are relevant, one is rather easily (too easily?) led to talk about
‘diphthongs’, even though there does not exist any real evidence for their
existence. But the assumption that diphthongs are distinct phonological
entities should in turn imply a re-examination of all the vocalic Japanese
sequences because these are not limited to Vi sequences, the elements most
frequently regarded as ‘diphthongs’: one finds for example ae in hae° ‘fly’,
oe in koe ‘voice’, au in mausu ‘(computer) mouse’, ao in kao° ‘face’. It thus
becomes necessary to inquire whether these vowel sequences belong to the
same prosodic unit (to the same ‘syllable’, if one believes in the existence
of the syllable in Japanese) or not. However, very few authors are cautious
enough to consider such cases and to set forth a thorough analysis of them
within the syllabic framework. I am not aware of any strong internal or
external evidence for operating a structural distinction between hai° ‘ash’
and hae° ‘fly’, or between kai ‘shell’ and kao° ‘face’.
Curiously enough, there actually exists in Japanese one case for which the
label ‘diphthong’ could be correctly used. I have in mind the sequences
transcribed as ya, yu, yo (with short or long vowels) occurring after a
consonant in words like hyaku # ‘hundred’, ryokou° ## ‘trip’, or nyuusu
#### {news} ‘information’, known as yôon (##) in the traditional
terminology. However, these elements are generally not categorized as
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Vowels

‘diphthongs’ by Japanese (p. 56 ) scholars, even by phoneticians, whereas
ai,ui,oi etc. generally are. Yet, ya,yu,yo present all the properties of phonetic
diphthongs as generally defined: the palatal semi-consonant which occurs
in first position can colour the quality of the following vowel (for example /u/
frequently becomes [̈ɯ]); the CyV groups count as only one mora, not two;
diaeresis is impossible; finally, strict phonotactic rules exist, which limit the
possibilities of combinations between y and the following vowel. Only ya,yu,
and yo are possible. The yi group is unattested, and ye is rare (see section
3.11).
From the point of view of their phonetic realization, these ya, yu, and yo
groups could thus belong to the category of diphthongs in the classical sense
of the word. Yet, as we shall see in 3.11, there is benefit in treating them
as palatalizations of the preceding consonant at the phonological level. The
difference simply consists in considering that the segment y is associated
with the consonant (onset), not with the vowel (nucleus). The adequate
phonological representation of such Japanese entities thus corresponds
to a palatalized consonant as represented in (16), rather than to a rising
diphthong as in (17).
(16) Palatalized consonant (does exist in Japanese)

(17) Rising diphthong (does not exist in Japanese)

In conclusion, there is no real need to talk about phonological diphthongs in
Japanese. In Chapter 6, a theory of the Japanese prosodic unit (the mora) will
be further developed, which considers that there exist only two structural
positions in a rhythmic unit: an onset (C) and a nucleus (V). Only the C
position can be the locus of palatalization. It results from this configuration

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Vowels

that, in a phonetic sequence VV, each of the two vowels must be regarded as
pertaining to two different rhythmic units.
(p. 57 )

2.9 Relative Frequency of Vowels

The vowels of Japanese do not all have the same frequency in the language.
It is thus interesting to examine some quantitative information relative
to this question. I shall first present some statistical data for the archaic
language, then some for the modern language. Both concern token
frequency.
For Archaic Yamato Japanese (Nara), which possessed eight vowels, the
data are provided in Figure 2.4 (based on Ôno, 1980). It can be seen that /a/
exhibits the highest frequency before /i/, /u/, /ö/, and /o/. The vowel /e/ has a
relatively low

Figure 2.4. Token frequency of vowels in Archaic Japanese (based on the
data by Ôno, 1980)

Figure 2.5. Token frequency of vowels in Modern Japanese (based on
Campbell, 1999)
frequency, while /ë/ and /ï/ are extremely rare. By adding the values
of each member of the pairs which have merged after the archaic period,
(p. 58 )

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Vowels

we get the following classification: /a/ is still at the top, but /o/ now comes
second, before /i/ and /u/: a # o (ö + o) # i (ï + i) # u # e (ë + e).
As for modern Japanese, the data provided in Figure 2.5 are adapted from
Campbell (1999). In contrast with Archaic Japanese, /o/ ranks first, almost
equally with /a/, before /i/ then /u/; as in the archaic language, /e/ is still the
least frequent of all.

Notes:
(1) Note that the lips are not much used in the articulation of Japanese, be it
for vowels or consonants. On this issue, see section 3.12.
(2) Some rare cases in which a surrounding vowel has been copied, rather
than /i/ or /u/ inserted, exist in a couple of very old Sino-Japanese loans, for
example hakase ## ‘doctor’ (also hakushi). The character #, read here
haka, is normally pronounced haku.
(3) On the h / p alternation after /Q/, see section 3.7.1.
(4) Recall that vowel length is transcribed by doubling the vowel in the cases
of a,i, and u (aa,ii,uu), and by use of the letter u in the case of o (ou), and by
i in the case of e (ei), except in some special cases like tooru ‘to go through’,
oneesan ‘older sister’, etc. where the transcription remains faithful to the
kana spelling (### and #####).
(5) These examples seem to illustrate the existence of a conflict between
two contradictory tendencies in Japanese: the first tendency militates for
the deletion of w before a, and can be regarded as the result of a diachronic
process of /w/ weakening, which first affected w before i and o, and is
nowadays achieved. The w weakening is presently affecting /w/ before a (see
section 3.12); the second tendency banishes long a’s in Yamato and SinoJapanese words. When the first tendency is stronger, w disappears, when it is
the second, w is maintained.
(6) In contrast with Kindaichi, Hattori (1955, 1960, 1961) assumes the
presence of a zero consonant /’/ to distinguish long vowels resulting from
the succession of two vowels separated by a morphological boundary (in
our terminology, double vowels) from those which constitute intrinsically
long vowels. According to him, the latter represents a succession of two
vowels with no consonant inbetween. Hattori adopts the notation /V’V/
for the former, and /VV/ for the latter, for example /suuri/ ‘mathematical
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Vowels

theory’ and /su’uri/ ‘vinegar seller’. The zero consonant of Hattori can be
reinterpreted as an empty onset.
(7) Japanese baby words are characterized by the following prosodic
patterns, all with initial accent on the first mora of the stem:
MmM (HL in syllabic terms), for instance onbu ‘piggyback’, nenne ‘sleep’,
an’yo ‘walk’.
MmMm (HH in syllabic terms), as in oppai ‘breast’, haihai ‘crawl’, ponpon
‘belly’.
Finally, a few forms are made by reduplication of a monomoraic stem and oprefixation, for instance o-tete ‘hand’, o-meme ‘eye’.
(8) According to Yanagida (1991), aa° is first attested in texts of the end
of the Edo period (nineteenth century), after kou° and sou°, while the first
attestation of dou is older, dating back to 1527.
(9) ‘9’ is pronounced kono in recitation. It is the only numeral which does not
have a form with a long vowel. The long vowel in too ‘10’ is etymological,
and does not result from prosodic lengthening (towo # too). Moreover, in this
series, ‘4’, ‘5’, and ‘7’ also have the alternant forms yon,itsu, and nana.
(10) This word also admits the phonetic form [¹seː] or [¹sei], written sei ## in
kana, for instance in the expression sei-kurabe ‘height comparison’.
(11) The situation was very different in Nara Japanese, since the rhythmic
units (syllables or moras) were all of the form V or CV. Onsetless vowels were
not allowed except morpheme‐initially.
(12) However, note that this type of deaccentuation concerns first and
foremost the high vowels /i/ and /u/, and that it also appears under certain
conditions when these vowels are preceded by a consonant (Tanaka, 1998).

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Vowels

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Consonants
Laurence Labrune

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0003

Abstract and Keywords
This chapter examines in turn each consonant of the Japanese system,
presenting its main allophones and phonotactic characteristics. Special
attention is dedicated to the phonology of the consonant /h/ which has
developed out of*/p/, and to the issue of the velar nasal, through an
enlightening comparison of two competing approaches of the problem, that
of Kindaichi Haruhiko (1942) and that of Junko Itô and Armin Mester (1997).
This chapter also offers new insights on the phonology of the Japanese /r/
and on newly introduced consonants.
Keywords: allophones, phonotactic characteristics, velar nasal, Kindaichi Haruhiko, Junko
Itô, Armin Mester, new consonants

3.1 General Characteristics of the Consonant System
Two major features characterize the consonant system of modern Japanese.
First, the number and phonotactic possibilities of the consonants differ
considerably according to the lexical strata. Second, many of the consonants
display a high number of allophones. While none of these characteristics
is, by itself, specific to Japanese, it seems that in this language, the extent
of the phenomenon is without common measure with what one currently
observes in most other languages.
Under these conditions, it is somewhat difficult to present a synoptic table
of the system of the Japanese consonants. In Table 3.1 that I propose here,

Page 1 of 55

Consonants

brackets indicate consonants whose phonemic status is debatable, while
braces mark consonants which occur only in the most recent Western loans.
The two moraic contoids /N/ (the mora nasal) and /Q/ (the first part of an
obstruent geminate), which are generally referred to as ‘special phonemes’
or ‘special segments’ in the Japanese tradition, may be added to this list
as two additional consonant phonemes. Since their phonology is particular
because of their moraic status, they will be dealt with in detail in Chapter 5.
Consonant allophony occurs mainly before the high vowels /i/ and /u/. It
involves particularly the consonants /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, and /h/. This propensity
to allophony is also characteristic of the special moraic segments /N/ and /
Q/, and, to a lesser extent, of /r/ and /k/. Such allophonies are the source of a
number of neutralization processes and also the origin of several phonemic
splits, as we will
Table 3.1. Consonantal phonemes of Japanese
Labials

Alveolars

Plosives

Fricatives

{ϕ β}

(ɕ, ʑ)

{͡ʦ}

(͡ʨ)

Affricates
Nasals

Velars

Glottal

Glides
Liquid

Palatals

h
(ŋ)

y [j]

see in the next pages. The possibility for such rather important
variations in the articulatory realizations of the Japanese consonants is
probably due to the relatively modest size of the inventory.
(p. 60 )

Assimilations of a consonant to the following vowel, that is, if one thinks
in terms of prosodic constituents, assimilations of an onset to the nucleus
(for example the fact that /t/ undergoes affrication before /u/: [͡ʦɯ]), is
a manifestation of the very tight link which stands between a consonant
and the following vowel in Japanese. One can subscribe entirely to the
formulation by Daniels (1958:58, quoted by Coleman, 1998:268), according
to whom Japanese ‘consonants are said to be “prefixed” to vowels rather
than to ‘precede’ them because…in Japanese it is necessary to put the
speech organs into the position of the vowel…before producing the
consonant’. This type of co-articulation is of course attested in all languages,
but it would seem that Japanese is rather extreme in this respect.
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Consonants

In the following pages, we will successively review all the consonants of
Japanese, in the following order: plosives (p, b, t, d, k, g), fricatives and
affricates (s, z, ɕ, ʑ, tɕ, ts, h), nasals (m, n, ŋ), glides (y, w), the liquid (ɾ), and
finally consonants which have recently been introduced into the language
due to the influence of loanwords.

3.2 /P/ And /b/
The bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/ are realized as [p] and [b].
The voiced plosive /b/ calls for no special comment, except for those which
apply more globally to voiced obstruents, to which Chapter 4 is devoted.
Let us merely observe that in Modern Japanese, /b/ functions morphophonologically as the voiced counterpart of /h/, for example under the
application of rendaku (see section 4.2). H thus becomes b, as in yama +
hato # yama-bato° ‘wild pigeon’.
The voiceless bilabial plosive /p/, on the other hand, is remarkable in
a number of respects. It is currently the least frequent of all Japanese
consonants (see the data in section 3.15). It also displays a limited
distribution in words of the Yamato and Sino-Japanese strata. In non-mimetic
and non-expressive Yamato words, /p/ generally occurs only as an alternant
of /h/ or /b/, and almost solely under the geminate form [pp]. Singleton
p is found only after the mora nasal /N/ in a limited number of examples.
The geminate pp occurs almost exclusively at morphemic boundaries in
Yamato lexemes: mapputatsu (ma- + hutatsu) ‘(to separate) in two parts’,
hipparu (hiki° + haru°) ‘to draw’, kodomoppoi (kodomo° + -poi) ‘childish’,
hitorippochi (hitori + -bochi/pochi) ‘all alone’, hoppe (probably *ho, ‘cheek’
+ expressive suffix -pe) ‘cheek’, tanpopo ‘dandelion’ (the etymology of (p.
61 ) this word is dubious, perhaps from tanpo ‘swell, bundle’ + -po, a suffix
of obscure value). Thus /p/ never appears at the beginning of independent
words.
It is necessary to consider separately the case of mimetics and of familiar
expressive words, including words of Chinese origin which are no longer
perceived as such, where /p/ can appear word-initially. For example pukapuka / puka-puka ‘floating’, ponpon ‘belly (child language)’, pochi (a
common dog name), pakuru ‘to filch’, peten° ‘head’ or ‘fraud’ (reverse form
of Sino-Japanese teppen). It is generally considered that, in the native words
of this type, the ancient bilabial plosive which has otherwise evolved into /h/
(see section 3.7) has been maintained in the initial because of its expressive
value.
Page 3 of 55

Consonants

In mimetic roots, except for some rare exceptions, /p/ always occurs as a
geminate stem internally. It functions very regularly as the reinforced form
of /h/, for example in yappari ‘indeed’, from yahari, or even as that of /b/ in
certain cases: saba-saba # sappari (describes a straightforward personality)
(Hamano, 1998:195ff.).
In Sino-Japanese words, /p/ exists only as an alternant of /h/ after /Q/ and /
N/, as in the already mentioned examples (see also section 3.7): shuppatsu
° ## (shutsu + hatsu) ‘departure’, or kenpou ## ‘constitution’ (ken +
hou). However, /h/ does not automatically turn into /p/ when the compound
contains more than two morphemes, in other words, when it consists of more
than four moras (McCawley, 1968; Kubozono, 2005; Itô and Mester, 1996).
We shall revert to this issue in section 3.7.
Furthermore, the contrast between p and pp is never relevant in Yamato,
Sino-Japanese, and mimetic words, since it is impossible to find minimal pairs
based on the [pp] / [p] opposition.
In Western loans, on the other hand, no distributional constraint bears on /
p/. It appears freely in the initial or medial positions as a singleton, or as
a geminate word medially, for instance in poteto {potato}, kyapashitii
{capacity}, hippii {hippie}. In English loans, geminate /p/ is generally the
reflex of a double p in the orthography, as in hippie.
It is interesting to note that in the first loans from European languages, p
was systematically adapted as a geminate inside words: for example kappa
°, from the Portuguese {capa} ‘rainwear’, or youroppa from Portuguese
{Europa} ‘Europe’. The appearance (or rather, the reappearance, see
section 3.7) of a simple /p/ in Modern Japanese would thus be posterior to the
sixteenth century, the date at which these words were introduced into the
language.
So it turns out that it is only in gairaigo and in mimetics that [p] and [h]
are fully contrastive, since [p] does not normally occur as an intervocalic
singleton in Yamato and in Sino-Japanese, and, as we shall see in section 3.7,
[h] appears (p. 62 ) intervocalically only in predictable environments. Even
in mimetics, it would seem that h and p can be considered in most cases
as stylistic variants of the same consonant; for instance huu-huu and puupuu both express the action of blowing strongly through pursed lips, with the
difference that lips are more narrowly pursed in puu-puu than in huu-huu.
However, in some cases, there exists a clear difference in meaning between
two mimetics differing only by the presence of h or p; compare for instance
Page 4 of 55

Consonants

huka-huka ‘fluffy’ and puka-puka ‘lightly floating in the air’ / ‘exhaling a lot
of smoke’.
As we shall see in section 3.7, the special distribution pattern of p and its
scarcity in the modern language result in fact from the evolution of an
archaic */p/ into the fricative /h/. However, it seems that a number of */p/’s of
the archaic language have not undergone this process of spirantization. This
is the case, in particular, of the geminate /p/, with expressive connotation,
which one encounters in forms like appare ‘admirable’ or moppara° (or
moppara) ‘exclusively’, derived from *apare and *mopara. We will return to
the status of /p/ and /b/ in section 3.7 devoted to /h/.

3.3 /t/ And /d/
The alveolar plosive /t/ has three allophones: the apico-alveolar (or apicodental) [t] before a,e, and o; two affricate consonants: [͡ʨ] before i and y and
[͡ʦ] before u.
(1) Realizations of /t/

The combinations *[ti] and *[tɯ] do not exist in modern Yamato and
Sino-Japanese words.1 However, the non affricate realization [t] may be
found before i and u in some relatively recent loanwords such as tii baggu
[tiːˡbaggɯ] {tea bag}, or fasshon tatuu [ˡtatɯː] {fashion tattoo}, but only in
the speech of certain speakers. In older Western loans, for example chiimu
{team} or tsuaa {tour}, only the affricate realization is attested.
The consonant /d/ displays even more varied realizations: [d] before
a,e, and o in any position, and, inside words, [ʑ] before i and y, and [z] or [d͡z]
before u. Word-initially, it is frequently realized as [d͡ʑ] before i and y, and as
[d͡z] before u.
(2) Realizations of /d/
a. In word-internal position:
2.
(p. 63 )

b. In word-initial position:
Page 5 of 55

Consonants

The combinations *[di] and *[dɯ] do not exist in Yamato and SinoJapanese words. But in recent loanwords, a majority of speakers have
the pronunciations [di] and [dɯ] to render the foreign combinations
di and du, for example in dinaa [ˡdina:ː] {dinner}, duu itto yuaserufu
[dɯ:ːittojɯaˡseɾɯϕɯ] {do it yourself}. It would seem that, all things being
equal, the realizations [di] and [dɯ] are more widespread in these types of
recent loans than their voiceless counterparts [ti] and [tɯ]. This difference
no doubt results from the existence of a neutralization concerning /z/ and /
d/ before /i/, since /zi/ and /di/ have the same phonetic realization, [ʑi] or
[d͡ʑi]. The same applies to /zu/ and /du/, both realized as [zɯ] or [d͡zɯ] (see
also sections 3.5 and 3.6 below). On the other hand, /t/ remains always
phonetically distinct from /s/, whatever the following vowel.
The phonological status of /d/ will also be discussed in the chapter devoted to
the phonology of voicing.

3.4 /k/ And /g/
The Plosive Consonants /k/ And /g/ are Always Clearly Velar Before e,a,
And o, Even More So Than the Corresponding Sounds of English Or French
for Instance, Which often Seem Like Palatalized Consonants To Japanese
Ears, Especially Before a. This is Illustrated By the Fact That Certain French
Or English Words Like (p. 64 ) {cabaret}, {career}, Or {caramel} Have
Been Adapted As kyabaree, kyaria, And kyarameru° In Japanese, With A
Palatalized k.
Some Speakers Realize /g/ As A Plosive [ɡ] Word-initially But As A Nasal [ŋ] In
Intervocalic Position Under Certain Conditions. Other Speakers Pronounce It
As A Plosive In All Contexts, Or Possibly Sometimes As A Spirant ([ɣ]) Inside
Words In Familiar Register Or Fast Tempo (for Example [kaɣaˡmi] kagami
‘mirror’). the Status of the Dorso-velar Nasal [ŋ] Poses A Number of Problems
Which Will Be Addressed In Detail In section 3.10.

3.5 /s/ And /z/
The fricative /s/ has two main allophones: [s] before u,e,o, and a, and a predorso-palatal [ɕ] (or dorso-palatal [ç]) before i and y.
Page 6 of 55

Consonants

(3) Realizations of /s/

The realization of /s/ as [ɕ] or [ç] before i and y causes a neutralization with /
h/, since /h/ is also often realized as [ɕ] or [ç] in the same context. We will
reconsider this question in section 3.7.
The /z/ consonant has two or even three realizations: [z] before u,e,o, and
a inside words; [ʑ] or [d͡ʑ] before i and y, and finally, for certain speakers,
[d͡z] before u,e,o,a word-initially or after the mora nasal /N/. Before u, the
affricate consonant [d͡z] sometimes occurs even in word-internal position.
(4) Realizations of /z/
a. In word internal position, except after /N/:
2.

b. In word-initial position or after the mora nasal /N/:

(p. 65 )

The opposition between /d/ and /z/ is neutralized nowadays before u and i,
as well as before y in Standard Japanese in the Yamato and Sino-Japanese
strata, although there exist four different kana symbols to write /du/, /zu/, /
di/, and /zi/. This is the vestige of an opposition which used to be relevant
between the four moras [dɯ], [zɯ], [di], and [ʑi]. This neutralization is known
as yotsugana no kondô (#######, lit. ‘four kana merging’) in Japanese
linguistics.
(5) ‘Four kana merging’: neutralization of /d/ and /z/ before /i/
and /u/ in the standard language
kana

Page 7 of 55

Kunrei /
(Hepburn)
romanization

Phonetic
realization

Phonological
transcription

Consonants

du /
(zu)

zu /
(zu)

di /
(ji)

zi /
(ji)

[zɯ]
or
[d͡zɯ]

/
zu/

[ʑi]
or
[d͡ʑi]

/
zi/

The four kana merging seems to have developed around the sixteenth
century, the moment when it begins to be reflected in the writing. It is
nowadays more or less advanced depending on the dialects. The standard
dialect, in which there is commonly confusion between /du/ and /zu/ on the
one hand, and /di/ and /zi/ on the other hand, is called a ‘two-kana dialect’.
Several dialects of Kyûshû and Shikoku (prefectures of Kagoshima, Miyazaki,
and Kôchi) maintain a four-way distinction between /du/, /zu/, /di/, and /zi/
(realized as [d͡zɯ], [zɯ], [d͡ʑi], and [ʑi]), while other dialects, such as the
famous zûzû-ben of Northern Honshû, confuse /du/, /zu/, /di/, and /zi/ under
one single realization, either [nd͡zɨ] or [nd͡zʉ] (with central vowels, and prenasalization of the voiced obstruents). In these areas, the neutralization also
affects the corresponding voiceless consonants, namely /su/ and /si/ realized
as [sʃɨ] or [sʉ], while /tu/ and /ti/ are realized as [t͡sɨ] or [t͡sʉ].
In a number of very recent loans, a realization as [dɯ] distinct from that
of [zɯ] is appearing, as illustrated in the already cited example duu itto
yuaserufu [dɯ:ittojɯaˡseɾɯϕɯ] {do it yourself}.
On the other hand, it is important to note that *[si] and *[zi] are not found
in any of the strata, not even in very recent loans where [si] or [zi] of the
source language are adapted under the written forms ## or ##. The oral
realizations of these sequences are by no means faithful to the writing, since
## is (p. 66 ) pronounced as [ɕi] or [çi] and ##as [ʑi] or [d͡ʑi]. It would be
interesting to determine the exact reasons explaining why certain impossible
combinations in the language at a certain time of its history come to be
easily accepted, like [dɯ], whereas others, like [si], resist faithful adaptation.
Of course, the [ɕ] or [ç] realization of /s/ before /i/ can be seen as an instance
of regressive palatal assimilation, but some Japanese scholars, for instance
Hamada (1964) estimate that this could well be the vestige of the earlier
phonetic value of /s/, which might have been realized as a hushing fricative
Page 8 of 55

Consonants

before all vowels and not only before /i/. There is no doubt that /s/ was
hushed before /i/ and /e/ until the seventeenth century, as reflected in
the Jesuits’ romanization of xe for # (as in Portuguese) for instance in #
# ‘reproach’ romanized as xeme (seme in Modern Japanese). Hoffmann
mentions that # is pronounced as se,she, or even tse in his 1868 grammar.
The [ɕe] realization can still be heard in a number of dialects, and even
marginally in the affected pronunciation of certain Tôkyô words such as in
[ˡmiɕete] instead of [ˡmisete] ‘show me’ (seductive, or baby-talk register).
Opinions of Japanese philologists as to what /s/ might have sounded like even
earlier diverge. Mabuchi (1959) proposes that /s/ might have been [∫], Kamei
(1970) and Arisaka (1936, 1955) opt for [ts], and Kobayashi (1981) for [t∫].
As a voiced obstruent, /z/ displays all the properties specific to this type of
Japanese consonant, to which I will revert in Chapter 4. However, note that
contrary to /d/, /b/, and /g/, it is not at all certain that /z/ was prenasalized at
an older stage of the language.

3.6 The Phonological Status of Hushing And Affricate
Consonants
3.6.1 Sh [ɕ], j [ʑ], and Ch [t͡ɕ]
Although sh,j, and ch are sometimes transcribed by means of the IPA
symbols [∫], [Ʒ], and [t͡∫], the closest IPA transcription of these sounds is
[ɕ], [ʑ], and [t͡ɕ] (or [ç], [ʝ], and [t͡ç] before i and y), since they are actually
alveolo-palatals or pre-dorso-palatals. Note in addition that they are
articulated with no marked lip-rounding, and a flattened tongue blade.
We have already seen that before i and y, [ɕ] and [ʑ] were allophones of /s/
and /z/, and [t͡ɕ], an allophone of /t/.
The sounds [ɕ], [ʑ], and [t͡ɕ] are frequent, particularly in Sino-Japanese
words and in recent loans, before all five vowels, as the following examples
illustrate.
(p. 67 ) (6)
1. ɕ:

Page 9 of 55

kisha

[kiˡɕa]

‘train’

shu
uri

[ˡɕɯːɾi]

‘repair’

Consonants

bi
shobisho

[ˡbiɕobiɕo]

‘wet’

jari
°

[ʑaɾi]

‘gravel’

ju
u

[ˡʑɯː],
[ˡd͡ʑɯː]

‘ten’

joudan

[ʑoːˡdaN],
[d͡ʑoːˡdaN]

‘joke’

ocha
°

[ot͡ɕa]

‘tea’

konchuu
°

[kont͡ɕɯː]

‘insect’

cho
tto

[ˡt͡ɕotto]

‘a
little’

ʑ:

tɕ :

At first glance, it looks as if these consonants constitute true phonemes of
their own, which could stand in opposition with /s/, /z/, and /t/. However,
following the Japanese linguistic tradition, it is preferable to consider that
they correspond phonologically to simple consonants followed by the palatal
element y: sh [ɕ] = /sy/, j [ʑ] = /zy/ or /dy/, ch [t͡ɕ] = /ty/. This is actually the
analysis suggested by the Japanese writing system, which uses the kana #
(shi), # (ji) or # (chi), # (ji), each followed by # ya, # yu, or# yo in reduced
size in order to transcribe these units (see section 1.5). Note in passing that
the official romanization system (Kunrei, ###), which transcribes si, zi, ti,
di, sya, zya, tya, dya, etc. and not shi, ji, chi, ji, sha, ja, cha, ja, as in the
Hepburn system, has been directly inspired by the spirit of the Japanese
kana. It is also much closer to the postulated phonological representation.
One of the arguments in favour of this analysis comes from the observation
that in Yamato and Sino-Japanese, the sequences *she */sye/,2 *je */zye/
and *che */tye/ do not exist. This must be considered in relation to the
fact that no palatalized consonant can occur before the vowel e. The
combinations *kye, *gye, *nye, *hye, *mye, *rye, etc. are unattested, just as
*ye is also, except in some recent loans. If one supposes the independent
existence of the consonants sh /ɕ/, j /ʑ/, and ch /t͡ɕ/, the absence of the
Page 10 of 55

Consonants

combinations she /ɕe/, je /ʑe/, and che /t͡ɕe/ in a large part of the lexicon
receives no explanation. But if one supposes that she,je, and che represent
palatalizations of /s/, /z/, and /t/ before e, these gaps are simply the
consequence of the fact that palatalization is impossible before the vowel e,
whatever the nature of the preceding segment (on ye, see also section 3.11).
Besides, even in Western loans in which she,je, or che would be expected,
they are sometimes realized as se,ze, or chie: for instance shepaado #
sepaado ‘sheepdog’ {shepherd}, jeneraru # zeneraru {general}, cheen #
chien {chain}.
In addition, it is necessary to observe that [ɕ] and [ʑ] are also very
rare in Yamato words before a,u, and o. Before a, there also exists an
occasional free alternation between [s] and [ɕ], or [z] and [ʑ] in the Yamato
and Sino-Japanese strata. For example, sake / shake ‘salmon’, saboten
° / shaboten° ‘cactus’, zari° / jari° ‘gravel’, can be analysed as cases of
alternation between a vowel preceded by a simple consonant (CV) and a
vowel preceded by a palatalized consonant (CyV).
(p. 68 )

According to this analysis, the consonants /ɕ/, /ʑ/, and /͡ʨ/ (alias /∫/, /Ʒ/ and /
t͡∫/ in certain transcriptions) can be removed from the phonemic inventory.

3.6.2 ts [t͡s]
The question of the affricate consonant [t͡s] must be set in different
terms from that of /ɕ/, /ʑ/, and /͡ʨ/. At first glance, this consonant is also a
conditioned allophone of /t/ before u. However, a few occurrences of [t͡s]
before vowels other than /u/ can be found. Although almost all these cases
occur in recently borrowed loans like tsetse-bae ‘tsetse fly’, tsoisu {Zeus},
tsaratsusutora {Zarathustra}, it is necessary to mention the existence
of certain Yamato forms with [t͡s] such as otottsan [oˡtott͡saᶰ], a variant of
otousan ‘dad’. It is because of this type of example that /t͡s/ (sometimes
noted as /c/) is included as a phoneme in the consonant charts proposed by
linguists such as Hattori Shirô or Kindaichi Haruhiko, who nevertheless do not
regard /ɕ/, /ʑ/, and / ͡ʨ/ (sh, j, and ch) as phonemic.
Moreover, ts [t͡s] and its corresponding palatalized version ch [͡ʨ] stand
in a curious relationship with /s/. These two sounds frequently work like a
strengthened version of /s/ after gemination,3 i.e. when preceded by /Q/ (see
section 5.2), particularly in emotional or expressive forms, or in baby talk
(Hamada 1954:74):
(7)
Page 11 of 55

Consonants

otousan

otottsan

‘dad’

chiisai

chicchai

‘small’

de+shiri

de
cchiri,decchiri
°

‘chubby
buttocks’

massugu

mattsugu

‘straight’

shoushuu

sho
cchuu

‘often’

Let us also mention the forms -chan, -chama, which are expressive and babytalk-like alternants of -san,-sama (personal suffix, ‘Mr, Miss, Mrs’).
(p. 69 )

3.7 /h/

The fricative /h/ has the following realizations: [h] before a,e, and o, [ç] or [ɕ]
before i and y for many speakers (especially in Tôkyô speech), and [ϕ] before
u:
(8) Realizations of /h/

For certain speakers, the opposition between /h/ and /s/ is neutralized before
i: hi /hi/ and shi /si/ are pronounced identically. The opposition is neutralized
to the benefit of /h/ in the Kansai area (/hi/, /si/ = [hi]), to the benefit of /s/ in
the Kantô area (/hi/, /si/ = [çi] or [ɕi]), as shown below. These mergers were
already attested at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
(9)

Page 12 of 55

Kansai

Kantô

shima
/
sima/

[hima]

[çima] /
[ɕima]

‘island’

hima
/
hima/

[hima]

[çima] /
[ɕima]

‘(free)
time’

Consonants

The change in place of articulation of /s/ to [ɕ] before /i/ can be regarded
as an assimilation, since /i/ is a palatal vowel. But there is also a possibility
that the coronal fricative /s/ has actually preserved its original place of
articulation before /i/ in the modern language, since /s/ might have been a
hushing, palato-alveolar segment before all vowels at an earlier date, as we
have seen in section 3.5.
[h] is very rare intervocalically in Yamato monomorphemes, where it has
usually turned to [pp], [w], or disappeared, as will be seen in more detail in
section 3.7.2. It occurs for instance in haha ‘mum’, hoho ‘cheek’, ahureru ‘to
overflow’.
The voiceless bilabial fricative ϕ, one of the allophones of /h/ before u, has
been recently phonemized in newly introduced loans, so that it now occurs
contrastively before vowels other than /u/, for example famirii [ˡϕamiɾiː]
{family}. So pairs such as hitto [ˡhitto] {hit}, and fitto [ˡϕitto] {fit} which
stand in opposition in this stratum can now be found. In older loans dating
back to the beginning or the middle of the twentieth century, [h] appears
regularly as the adaptation of {f} in Western loans before vowels other than
[ɯ]: telehon [ˡteɾehoᶰ] {telephone} (see also section 3.14).

3.7.1 Phonological Correspondence Between h,b, And p
A number of alternations involving h,p, and b deserve special
consideration.
(p. 70 )

Geminated /h/ is rendered as [pp], not *[hh]. Consider for example the
emphatic or expressive forms in (10a), as well as the Sino-Japanese
compounds in (10b) which involve the CV # /Q/ process already discussed in
section 2.5:
(10) /hh/ # [pp]
a. Emphatic or expressive forms

Page 13 of 55

yahari4

yappari

‘actually’

suki
+
hara

sukippara
°

‘empty
stomach’

su
+
hadaka
°

suppadaka

‘naked’

Consonants

b. Sino-Japanese compounds
shutsu
+
hatsu

shuppatsu
°

‘departure’

ichi
+
hon

i
ppon

‘one
long
object’

(compare
with
ichi
+
kai

ik-kai

‘one
time’)

As we will see below, this can be accounted for diachronically, since modern
h derives from *p.
It is only in some recent loans, for example gohho {(van) Gogh}, bahha
{Bach}, and in a limited number of Sino-Japanese or mixed compounds,
for example juhhari ## ‘ten stitches’ (Sino-Japanese + Yamato, Lawrence,
1999), zehhuchou° ### ‘(to feel) awful’ (Sino-Japanese), that occurrences of
[hh] or [ϕϕ] can be found.
In Sino-Japanese words, h turns into p after the mora obstruent /Q/ and the
mora nasal /N/ (see also the examples in 14). For instance, the Sino-Japanese
morpheme # ‘hair’ is pronounced hatsu or patsu depending on the phonetic
environment.
(11) h → p / /Q/ _ or /N/ _
hatsu ‘hair’ # (Sino-Japanese)

Page 14 of 55

#
#

/
haku/
+/
hatu/

hakuhatsu
°

‘white
hair’

#
#

/
kiN/
+/
hatu/

kinpatsu
°

‘blond
(golden)
hair’

#
#

/
ketu/

keppatsu
°

‘tied
hair’

Consonants

+/
hatu/

The same alternation can occasionally occur in Yamato words, for instance
nan(i) ‘what’ + hito° ‘person’ becomes nan-pito° ‘what person’ (obsolete,
nan-bito° is more common) and suki- ‘empty’ + hara ‘belly’ becomes sukippara° ‘empty stomach’.
[h] can nonetheless follow the mora nasal /N/ in some cases. For
instance, the Sino-Japanese morpheme # meaning ‘brush, pencil’ occurs as
pitsu in enpitsu° ‘pencil’ but as hitsu in mannenhitsu ‘fountain pen’. In both
cases, the preceding morpheme ends in /N/. McCawley (1968:78) states that
in native and Sino-Japanese, the distribution between [p] and [h / ϕ] can be
predicted on the basis of the syntactic information. He claims that [p] occurs
after the mora nasal when the Nh combination is in the ‘innermost layer of
compounding’, as the following examples with hitsu ‘pencil’, hun ‘powder’,
and hatsu ‘emit’ illustrate:
(12)
(p. 71 )

##
enpitsu
° /eN/
+/
hitu/

((en)
(pitsu))

###
mannenhitsu
/maN/
+/
neN/
+/
hitu/

(((man)
(nen))
(hitsu))

‘pencil’

‘fountain
pen’
###
denpunshitsu
/den/
+/

Page 15 of 55

(((den)
(pun))
(shitsu))

Consonants

hun/
+/
situ/
‘starchy
matter’
###
shinhatsumei
/siN/
+/
hatsu/
+/
mei/

((shin)
((hatsu)
(mei)))

‘new
invention’

This is what has led McCawley (1968:77–78) to posit /p/ rather than /h/ in
the underlying inventory of the native and Sino-Japanese strata, with a rule
converting /p/ into [h] word-initially and under the morphological conditions
stated above, even though a few exceptions exist, especially in numeral
compounds.
While it is true that McCawley’s analysis provides a satisfactory and
simple account of most of the facts pertaining to the h / p alternation, it is
not followed by most native Japanese scholars, who, as Shibatani (1990)
observes, find it very counter-intuitive. Note that there are still some cases
which must be handled as exceptions. McCawley cites a dozen words or so
which are not transparent compounds but still contain an intervocalic h,
such as ahiru° ‘duck’, haha ‘mother’ (see also section 3.2.). As mentioned
in section 3.2. one can also find some word-initial or intervocalic p’s such as
peten° ‘head’, tanpopo ‘dandelion’, or pakuru ‘to filch’ in words of Yamato or
Sino-Japanese origin (most are slang or familiar words). Another interesting
example is the Sino-Japanese word chapatsu° ## ‘hair dyed brown’, whose
second morpheme is # ‘hair’, already cited in example (11) above. In
chapatsu°,p is neither geminated nor preceded by /N/. This word seems to
be an analogical formation recently coined out of kinpatsu° ‘blond hair’ to
refer to brown dyed hair, a new hairstyle colour which became fashionable in
Japan in the 1990s.
(p. 72 )

Page 16 of 55

Consonants

A possible synchronic explanation of the fact that /h/ is rendered by /p/ after
the special segments /Q/ and /N/ is the following: /N/ and /Q/ have no place of
articulation of their own underlyingly. In order to receive full surface phonetic
content before a consonant, these two elements require that the following
segment should have a fully specified place of articulation, to which they
will be able to link. However, the laryngeal consonant /h/ does not fulfil this
condition, since it can be regarded as placeless at the phonological and
phonetic level (Ladefoged, 1982, 1990)5. This is arguably why the labial /
p/ has been maintained after /Q/ and /N/. Another explanation would be
that fricatives do not undergo gemination as easily as other consonants,
in particular stops. A fricative occurring in a position or context in which
gemination is likely to occur sometimes undergoes a change in manner
of articulation, by a process which can be regarded as strengthening. The
fricative takes the feature [−continuous], that is, it turns into a stop. As
previously mentioned (see footnote 3, this chapter) the other voiceless
fricative of Japanese, the alveolar /s/, displays the same tendency to
occlusion in the event of gemination.
In Modern Japanese, /h/ also works as the voiceless counterpart of /b/
morpho-phonologically, despite the fact that this role should be assigned
to /p/ at the strictly phonetic, articulatory level. This is first manifest in the
writing, since the kana denoting ba,bi,bu, be, and bo are derived from those
denoting ha, hi, hu, he, and ho by addition of the diacritics used to indicate
obstruent voicing (the nigoriten, or dakuten ##, example 13), in the same
way as the moras starting with d,z, and g are derived from those starting
with t,s, and k (see section 1.5). (p. 73 ) The CV combinations starting with
the voiceless bilabial stop p also take as a basis the kana starting with h, but
they use a special symbol, the handakuten (###), a small circle, which has
appeared relatively recently in the history of the Japanese writing system,
around the sixteenth century according to Okumura (1972).
(13) Kana writing of p and b
h:
b

Page 17 of 55

ha
hi
hu
he
ho
#
#
#
#
#

ba
bi
bu
be
bo
#
#
#
#
#

Consonants

h:
p

ha
hi
hu
he
ho
#
#
#
#
#

pa
pi
pu
pe
po
#
#
#
#
#

The phonological relationship between h and b is also manifest in the
rendaku (## ‘sequential voicing’, see Chapter 4). The stop /b/ functions
like the voiced alternant of /h/, for example in tabi + hito° # tabi-bito°
‘traveller’ (‘travel’ + ‘person’).
The special link between h,b, and p is further evidenced by a number of
cases of alternation between these three consonants. Such alternations are
mainly observed in the mimetic vocabulary and in numeral compounds of
the form Numeral + Specifier. They are conditioned either by the phonetic
environment (thus /h/ becomes /p/ or /b/ after /N/), by application of
the rendaku rule or of post-nasal voicing (see Chapter 4), or by register
considerations in the case of mimetics. In some Yamato compounds, [pp]
also works like a marker of compounding, and thus fulfils a role somewhat
similar to rendaku. Compare for instance the three free alternant forms
sukihara° / sukibara° / sukippara° ‘empty stomach’ in the examples below.6
(14) Alternation between /h/, /p/ and /b/
a. Mimetic words
ha
rahara(to)

pa
rapara(to)

barabara
°(ni)

‘fluttering, scattering’ (with various stylistic
nuances)

b. Sino-Japanese compounds
-hon
#:

Page 18 of 55

ippon
#
#

nihon
#
#

sanbon
#
#

Consonants

(specifier
of
long
objects):

‘1
long
object’

‘2
long
objects’

‘3
long
objects’

hu
#:

hu-sai
#
#

ninpu
#
#

joubu
°
#
#

‘man’

‘married
couple’

‘labourer’

‘robust’

(p. 74 )

c. Yamato compounds
ha
#

mushiba
°
#
#

deppa/
deba
#
(#)
#

‘tooth’

‘decayed
tooth’

‘buck
teeth’

sukihara
°
#
#
#

sukibara
°
#
#
#

sukippara
°
#
##
#

‘empty stomach’ (suki- ‘empty’ + hara ‘belly,
stomach’)

The h / p / b alternation in numeral compounds is rather irregular. Some
specifiers starting with /h/ occur with [b] after the numeral san° ‘3’ and the
interrogative nani / nan ‘how many’ but keep [h] after yon ‘4’, for instance
hai ‘cups’ or hiki ‘small animal’, while others have [p] after ‘3’, ‘4’, and ‘how
many’, for instance hun ‘minute’, hou ‘direction’, and so on (see (15)). All of
them have [p] after ichi ‘1’, roku ‘6’, hachi ‘8’, juu ‘10’, by application of the
CV # /Q/ rule presented in Chapter 2.5.
Page 19 of 55

Consonants

So there are two sets of /h/ starting specifiers. Those which have allomorphs
in [h], [b], and [p] and those which have allomorphs in [h] and [p] only, as
the following examples show. According to Otaka (2009), the second type
is more numerous than the first, but specifiers of the first type are of more
frequent use.
(15)

Page 20 of 55

h/p/
b

h/p/
*b

hai #
‘cup’

hun #
‘minute’

‘x
cup(s)’

‘x
minute(s)’

1 ichi

i p-pai

i ppun

2 ni

ni -hai

ni hun

3 san°

sa
n-bai

sa
n-pun

4 yon

yo
n-hai

yo
n-pun

5 go

go-hai
°

go hun

6
roku

ro ppai /
rokuhai

ro ppun

7
nana

nanahai

nanahun

8
hachi

ha ppai /
hachihai

ha ppun /
hachihun

9
kyuu

kyu
u-hai

kyu
u-hun

Consonants

10 juu

ju ppai /
jip-pai

ju ppun /
jippun

‘how
many’
nan(i)

na
n-bai

na
n-pun

(p. 75 )

3.7.2 Diachronic Development of /h/
The articulatory variety of /h/ in the modern language actually reflects
the complex and lively history of this consonant in Japanese. The series
of evolutions it has undergone is known as ha-gyô tenkoon (#####) in
Japanese linguistics, literally ‘phonetic change of the sounds of the h-row’.
In Yamato and Sino-Japanese words, h is generally considered as going
back to a labial plosive *p (Ueda, 1898; Hashimoto Sh., 1928; Martin, 1987).
Archaic Japanese (or pre-archaic Japanese according to some scholars) would
thus have had no laryngeal fricative, which explains why, in the oldest loans
from Chinese, an original /h/ is regularly adapted as the velar /k/ in Japanese,
while /p/ is adapted by means of the sound transcribed by the kana currently
denoting the moras starting with the /h/ consonant (ha-gyô ##). These facts
point to the conclusion that the initial consonant of this graphemic series
was not [h] but some other sound, most probably [p]. Some examples are
given in the chart below. For the sake of comparison, I also provide the
corresponding Sino-Korean forms, which very regularly maintain the original
initial of the Chinese lexemes.
(16) *h and *p in Old Chinese, and their reflexes in SinoJapanese and Sino-Korean
Old
Chinese

Modern
SinoJapanese

Modern
SinoKorean

– ch *h : jp k

Page 21 of 55

‘blood’

*huet

ketsu

hjɔl

‘China’

*han

kan

han

‘perfume’

*hıaŋ

kou,
kyou

hjaŋ

Consonants

– ch *p : jp h
#

‘root’

*pսən

hon

pon

‘wave’

*puar

pʰa

‘cloth’

*pag

hu,
ho

pʰo

Loans made by Ainu from Japanese are also revealing of the original value
of modern /h/. For example, the Ainu word potoki ‘Buddha’, a very old loan
from Japanese, corresponds to the Modern Japanese form hotoke / hotoke
°. Since Ainu does possess a glottal fricative [h] in its system, the logical
interpretation is that the Japanese word in question began with *p, not with
*h, at the time of borrowing. In addition, in several modern Ryûkyû dialects, /
p/ corresponds very regularly to Japanese /h/: jp hi / rk pi ‘fire’, jp hatake° /
rk pataki ‘field’.
It is most probable that */p/ had evolved into a bilabial fricative as early
as the Nara period (eighth century, Hashimoto Sh., 1928; Hamada, 1954),
except in mimetic words. The bilabial realization ϕ has been maintained
up to now before /u/ in Standard Japanese and even before all the vowels
in certain dialects of the Tôhoku area and in the prefectures of Nagano,
Shimane, and Nagasaki.
Around the tenth century, ϕ is thought to have turned into w
intervocalically (18a), until its complete disappearance, except before /a/
where it gave rise to [w]. Word-initially, it is maintained (18b) and remains
labial at least till the seventeenth century. This is attested by the notations
of Portuguese and Spanish missionaries, who transcribe fodo ‘degree’, fafa
or faua ‘mother’, feike monogatari ‘Tale of the Heike’ (today hodo°, haha,
heike). A riddle of the Muromachi period provides us with another invaluable
indication (Komatsu, 1981, also cited in Martin, 1987). To the question
‘What is it that meets twice for mum, but not even once for dad?’ (###
###############), the expected answer was kuchibiru° ‘the lips’.
We thus know that ‘mum’ (Modern Japanese haha) was pronounced with a
bilabial, presumably as [ϕaϕa] or [ϕawa] at that time, and that in turn it was
undoubtedly *[papa] at an even earlier time.
(p. 76 )

This consonant pursues its transformation, evolving into a segment with
a laryngeal place of articulation, i.e. [h], except before /u/ where it is still
nowadays a bilabial.7 Recall also that before /i/, one often encounters a

Page 22 of 55

Consonants

(pre-)dorso-palatal [ɕ] or [ç]. Such a palatal realization of /h/ already existed
at least at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
This series of evolutions is recapitulated in (17) (following the proposal by my
colleague Takayama Tomoaki, in Labrune and Takayama, 2004):
(17) Diachronic evolution of h

Other hypotheses have been proposed. Let us mention in particular that of
Hayashi Ch. (1992), who considers that archaic */p/ was maintained as [p]
until the ninth century at least, and that the *p # ϕ # w evolution occurred
subsequently, and at once. Another approach is that of Hamano (2000), who
assumes that the evolution of */p/ towards /w/ in intervocalic position has
gone through the following stages: *p # *b # *β # *w.
(p. 77 )

h/:

Here is a series of examples illustrating the evolution of */p/ towards /
(18)
a. Intervocalically (V __ V)
*[kapa] #
[kaϕa] #
[kaˡwa]

/
kawa/

kawa

‘river’

*[sipo] #
[siϕo] #
[siwo] #
[ɕiˡo]

/
sio/

shio

‘salt’

*[ipe] #
[iϕe] #
[iwe] #
[ije]8
#
[iˡe]

/
ie/

‘house’

b. Word-initially (# __)

Page 23 of 55

Consonants

*[paɾɯ] #
[ϕaɾɯ] #
[ˡhaɾɯ]

/haru/

ha
ru

‘spring’

*[pikaɾi] #
[ϕikaɾi] #
[hikaˡɾi]
(/
[çikaˡɾi])

/
hikari/

hikari

‘light’

*[pɯne] #
[ˡϕɯne]

/hune/

hu
ne

‘boat’

The semi-consonant w having supposedly disappeared before e,o, and
then i between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, many sequences of two
consecutive vowels VV in the modern language correspond in fact to a
former VwV sequence, which in turn represents evolutions from VpV forms
(see section 3.12).
This series of changes explains why the glottal fricative h has almost
disappeared from the Yamato lexicon intervocalically. It exists only in words
resulting from a reduplication such as haha ‘mother’, hoho ‘cheek’, hatahata° (hata-hata, hata-hata) ‘sandfish’, hara-hara ‘flutteringly’,9 and in
transparent compounds such as asa-hi ‘morning sun’, shira-hata° ‘white
flag’, and shira-ho° ‘white sail’. These two types of words have maintained an
internal h in order to ensure morphological transparency and paradigmatic
identity of the morpheme, and to preserve the reduplicative character of
the compound in the first case. Intervocalic [h] is also found in a couple of
other exceptional cases such as ahureru ‘to overflow’ (presumably a back
formation from abureru) or ahou ‘idiot’ (Kansai dialect).

3.8 /m/
The bilabial nasal /m/ is realized as [m] in all positions.
A rather peculiar segment realized as a moraic m (IPA [̩m]) is sometimes
heard in the speech of older speakers, or in certain forms of the traditional
Japanese theatre. This nasal is found in words starting with um-, like ume
° ‘plum tree’, uma ‘horse’, umareru° ‘to be born’, which are phonetically
realized as [̩mme], [̩mˡma], [̩mmaɾeɾɯ], or even, if we follow Vance
(1987:39), as [ʔmːˆ^ma] for uma. This seems to be the vestige of an archaic

Page 24 of 55

Consonants

pronunciation, which must have (p. 78 ) been much more widespread
formerly since it is well attested in documents of the Heian period.

3.9 /n/
The nasal consonant /n/ is apico-dental or apico-alveolar. A majority of
Japanese phoneticians mention a palatal realization [ɲ] before the vowel i
and the glide y, but it seems to me that palatalization is not very marked.
The sequence nV frequently undergoes vowel deletion and subsequent
transformation of /n/ into /N/ (the moraic nasal) in familiar speech: kodomo
° no toki # kodomontoki,kodomontoki ‘during childhood’, juugonichi #
juugonchi ‘the fifteenth (day)’ (Akinaga, 2008).

3.10 The Status of the Velar Nasal [ŋ]
The phonological status of the dorso-velar nasal consonant [ŋ] (bidakuon ##
# or ga-gyô bion ####) in Tôkyô Japanese has been a much debated issue.
The question is: is [ŋ] a mere alternant of /g/ or is it phonemically different
from /g/?
Let us first observe that this sound does not possess its own symbol in the
two kana syllabaries. It is transcribed with the g kana series: #, # = [ga]
or [ŋa], #, # = [gi] or [ŋi], #, # = [gu] or [ŋս], #, # = [ge] or [ŋe], #, # =
[go] or [ŋo].10 Second, the sound [ŋ] is regarded as a disappearing segment
even in the dialects in which it is attested, as we will see in more detail
below (Kindaichi, 1942; Inoue, 1971; Hibiya, 1999), although it continues
to be, even now, held as a distinctive mark of ‘beautiful Japanese’. But ŋ is
absent in the speech of many speakers, where it is replaced by [g] or [ɣ].
So, in many Japanese dialects, the [g] / [ŋ] alternation is simply not relevant
(see the Japan Linguistic Atlas for information concerning the dialectal
distribution and phonetic realizations of /g/11). The study by Hibiya (1999)
clearly demonstrates that there is a clear pattern of age stratification in
the use of [ŋ], which drops off as age diminishes. Note however that the
velar nasal [ŋ] is thought to have appeared relatively recently in Japanese,
probably around the eighteenth century. It is generally assumed to be the
result of a phonemic split out of the /g/ consonant, which has spread from
central Japan (including the Tôkyô and Kyôto areas), to outer regions (Inoue,
1971).

Page 25 of 55

Consonants

Next, in the speech of speakers who realize [ŋ], the distribution of
this sound is peculiar: [ŋ] does not appear at the beginning of independent
morphemes (19a). It is found only word-internally (19b).
(19)
a.
(p. 79 )

goma
°

[goma]
*[ŋoma]

‘sesame’

geta
°

[geta]
*[ŋeta]

‘geta
(Japanese
clogs)’

kagami

[kaŋa¹mi]
*[kaga¹mi]

‘mirror’

nigeru

[ni¹ŋeɾɯ]
*[ni¹geɾɯ]

‘to
flee’

These examples could suggest that [g] and [ŋ] stand in complementary
distribution in the speech of speakers who possess the two sounds, the
velar stop appearing in word-initial position, the velar nasal in word-medial
position. It would then be tempting to regard [ŋ] as a simple alternant
of /g/ (as an idiolectal, sociolectal, or regional variant), with the following
allophonic rule:
(20)

However, once again, things are not so simple. A number of small facts make
the issue somewhat more complicated.
First, there exist some cases of semantically relevant contrasts between
[g] and [ŋ], as in the oft-cited pairs doku-ŋa (doku-ŋa) ## ‘poison fang’ vs.
doku-ga° (doku-ga) ## ‘Oriental tussock moth’, daigo ## ‘fifth’ vs. daiŋo #
# ‘ghee’, juugo ## ‘fifteen’ vs. juuŋo ## ‘home front’. But such examples
of minimal pairs remain rare, and, for certain linguists, they do not justify the
existence of an additional phoneme in the system of Japanese.

Page 26 of 55

Consonants

Second, the conjunction ga (‘but’) can be realized as [ŋa] even at the
beginning of a sentence. One may also hear the sound [ŋ] at the beginning
of the words gurai° ‘approximately’, or gotoshi° ‘identical’ (NHK, 1998) when
they appear utterance-initially as independent morphemes, even though
they rarely do so.
Lastly, the [ɡ] / [ŋ] alternation is not systematic. A non-initial /g/ is never
realized as [ŋ] in mimetic or expressive reduplicated words (21), at the
beginning of the morpheme go (or go°) ‘five’ (22), after the polite prefix o(23), and in recent loans (24.a) except if a velar nasal already exists in the
source form (24.b):
(p. 80 ) (21) Reduplicated mimetic and expressive words
gunyagunya
°

[gɯnjagɯnja]
*[gɯnjaŋɯnja]

‘flabby’

gejigeji°
(geji-geji)

[geʑigeʑi]
*[geʑiŋeʑi]

‘millipede’

However, reduplications expressing plurality or intensity undergo velar
nasalization, such as kuni-guni [kɯ¹niŋɯni] ‘countries’. But variation does
exist, and descriptions are often contradictory. For example the adjective
gyougyoushii ‘ostentatious’, which consists of the reduplication of a SinoJapanese morpheme followed by the Yamato suffix -shii, should be realized
as [gjoːgjoː¹ɕii], not *[gjoːŋjoː¹ɕii] according to Kamei (1956). Yet NHK (1998)
indicates the pronunciation [gjoːŋjoː¹ɕii].
(22) Morpheme go ‘five’
ju
ugo

[¹ʑɯːgo]

*[¹ʑɯːŋo]

‘fifteen’

Note that in the fully lexicalized word juugo-ya° [ʑɯːŋoja] ‘full moon night
(‘night of the fifteenth day’)’, where the morpheme go has lost its numeral
meaning, the nasal, rather than the stop, appears.
(23) Polite prefix o-

Page 27 of 55

o+
genki

[o¹geŋki]

*[o¹ŋeŋki]

‘health’

[ogɯai]

*[oŋɯai]

‘(your)
health’

Consonants

guai
°

(24) Recent loans
a. Containing [g] in the source word
ra
gubii

[¹ɾagɯbiː]

b. Containing [ŋ] in the source word
ha
ngaa

[¹haŋgaː]

*[¹ɾaŋɯbiː]

‘rugby’

or
[¹haŋŋaː]

{hanger}

The word igirisu° [iŋiɾisɯ] ‘England’, from the Portuguese {Inglês} probably
belongs to the case depicted in (24b).
As for compounds belonging to types other than those which have just been
mentioned, the situation is somewhat murky. Three cases exist: certain
words regularly display [ŋ], for example hiyori° + geta° # hiyori-ŋeta
[hijo¹ɾiŋeta] ‘geta for dry days’; others always maintain [g], as shiro + goma
° # shiro-goma° [ɕiɾogoma] ‘white sesame’; a third group licenses the two
realizations [g] or [ŋ], for example keshi + gomu° [keɕiŋomɯ] or [keɕigomɯ]
‘eraser’. Curiously enough, in compound words whose second member starts
with /g/ and which fulfil the conditions for rendaku application (see Chapter
4), /g/ may not undergo nasalization; for example kuro + goma° (‘black’ +
‘sesame’) becomes kuro-goma° [kɯɾogoma] rather than *[kɯɾoŋoma] ‘black
sesame’ (Kamei, 1956).
Hibiya (1999) states that when the second element of a compound is a single
Sino-Japanese bound root starting with /g/, the root initial /g/ is realized as
[ŋ], as (p. 81 ) in hogo ## ‘protection’ [¹hoŋo]. It is important to note that
descriptions such as dictionaries or articles do not necessarily concord with
each other. The reader should consult Vance (1987) who provides a very
rich list of examples and a review of the Japanese literature concerning the
velar nasal issue. Vance (1987) also remarks that in three-character SinoJapanese compounds of the shape (X)+(YZ), /g/ seems not to be nasalized
at the beginning of Y as in the example /dai+gen.soku°/ dai-gensoku ‘major
principle’ (with [ɡ]). On the other hand, in words of the shape (XY)+(Z), we
seem to get [ŋ] after the major division, for instance /zi.dai°+ geki/ jidai-ŋeki
‘period drama’.
According to Akamatsu (1997:130), the fluctuation between [ɡ] and [ŋ]
can be accounted for by two main causes: demographic movements and
Page 28 of 55

Consonants

speakers’ age. According to this scholar, the generalization of the [ɡ]
realization in internal position results from the influence of non-standard
regional pronunciations in which [ŋ] does not exist, due to the migrations
after the end of World War II. It would have then spread among younger
speakers. As already mentioned, [ŋ] occurs less in the speech of the younger
generation. Yuzawa and Matsuzaki (2004:20) show that [ŋ] has practically
disappeared in the speech of Tôkyô speakers under forty, whereas it
occurs in the speech of nearly all speakers over eighty. According to Hibiya
(1999), analyses of real-time data have all indicated that native speakers
of the Tôkyô Yamanote dialect had word-internal [ŋ] until at least the late
nineteenth century, and so the decline of [ŋ] must have started in the
early twentieth century. It is heading towards completion in the younger
generation of today.
Since the status of the velar nasal constitutes one of the most debated
issues in the phonology of Japanese, it seems interesting to present in more
detail two extremely different and complementary approaches, each quite
representative of its time and tradition: the treatment proposed by Itô Junko
and Armin Mester, published in 1997, which belongs to the most recent
Western theoretical prospect, and that by Kindaichi Haruhiko, published in
Japan in 1942, which draws meticulous attention to the data and variation
in a sociological dimension, and which is very characteristic of the Japanese
linguistic tradition.

3.10.1 Itô And Mester’s Treatment (1997)
In their 1997 paper, the linguists Itô Junko and Armin Mester proposed a
novel analysis of the phonology of ŋ in Japanese. They observe that the two
following cases are observed in compounds whose second member begins
with g: (i) possible variation between [g] and [ŋ] at the compound juncture;
(ii) no variation, only [ŋ] is possible. The first type is that of words whose
second component starts with an underlying /g/ in isolation (examples (25)),
the second type concerns words which start with an underlying /k/ and have
undergone (p. 82 ) rendaku voicing (examples (26)).12 As we shall see in
the next chapter, rendaku is a morpho-phonological process of Japanese
which requires the initial consonant of the second member of a compound to
become voiced under certain conditions.
(25) /g/ → [ŋ] or [g] in compounding
niwa
°
+
Page 29 of 55

niwageta
°

‘garden
clogs’

Consonants

/
niwaŋeta
°

geta
°

shima
°
+
gara
°

‘striped
pattern’

shimagara
°
/
shimaŋara
°

(26) /k/ → [ŋ], *[g] in compounding
yuki
+
kuni
°

yukiŋuni

*yukiguni

‘snow
country’

ori
+
kami

oriŋami

*origami

‘origami’

The difference shown in the above examples between an underlying /g/ and
a /g/ induced by the rendaku of an underlying /k/ is quite puzzling. Itô and
Mester (1997) proposed a particularly elegant analysis of these facts. Their
proposal accounts for, on the one hand, the asymmetry between niwa-geta°
/ niwa-ŋeta° in (25) and yuki-ŋuni / *yuki-guni in (26), but also, on the other
hand, for the impossibility of velar nasalization occurring in reduplicated
mimetic words as shown above in (18), as well as for the existence of
minimal pairs such as doku-ga and doku-ŋa.
The analysis by Itô and Mester (1997) is cast within the framework of
Optimality Theory. Four main constraints are used:
(27)

Page 30 of 55

*[ŋ

ŋ is prohibited
initially in a
prosodic word.

Voiced dorsal
obstruents are
prohibited.

Consonants

IdentLS

Lexical–Surface
correspondents
are identically
specified for
[nasal].

IdentSS

The bound form
of a stem is
segmentally
identical with its
corresponding
free form.

To account for the rendaku-induced [ŋ]’s, as in yuki-ŋuni for example, it is
necessary, in addition, to refer to the SeqVoi constraint (sequential voicing,
i.e. rendaku), which stipulates that the second component of a compound
starts with a voiced consonant. This constraint is the highest in the hierarchy
together with *[ŋ. The relative hierarchy between these two constraints
remains unspecified.
The analysis supposes that the two constraints *g and IdentSS are
unranked, or freely ranked, with respect to each other, thus providing an
account of the observed variation. Free-ranking of these two constraints
entails the derivation of two possible outputs in cases where the second
component starts with [g] in isolation. Recourse to two different hierarchies,
or to one hierarchy with two constraints left unranked with respect to each
other, constitutes a traditional treatment of variation in Optimality Theory.
The hierarchy (adapted) is as follows:
(28)
(p. 83 )

The choice between hierarchies (a) and (b) is left open by the grammar.
Compare now the tableaux for niwa° + geta° → niwa-ŋeta° and yuki + kuni°
→ yuki-ŋuni, both with the nasal, with respect to the two hierarchies (accent
will not be indicated in the tableaux).
(29) niwa + geta ‘garden clogs’

Page 31 of 55

Consonants

(p. 84 )

(30) yuki + kuni ‘snow country’

[g] is allowed in internal position in niwa-geta (29a) because it satisfies the
IdentSS constraint which is ranked higher than *g. In other words, niwa-geta
is possible because /g/ is identical to the autonomous surface form geta,
whereas *yuki-guni in (30a or b) is not because /g/ does not appear in the
autonomous surface form kuni. In (29b), niwa-ŋeta is the best candidate
because it does not violate *g, which outranks IdentSS in the alternative
hierarchy.
In this model, the possible variation between niwa-geta and niwa-ŋeta thus
results from the free-ranking of *g and IdentSS. However, in yuki + kuni
(30), the two different ranking scenarios do not make any difference to
the output. With either ranking, the same candidate yuki-ŋuni is selected.
Candidate *yuki-guni cannot emerge as the winner since the /g/ consonant
does not reflect a segment present in the autonomous form of the lexeme
kuni (violation of IdentSS). Consequently, under both hierarchies, the winner
is yuki-ŋuni.

Page 32 of 55

Consonants

Lastly, to account for the case of reduplicated mimetic stems, in which /g/
occurring at the beginning of the second part is never nasalized, Itô and
Mester adopt McCarthy and Prince (1995)’s analysis, calling upon a wellknown constraint in Optimality Theory, the constraint IdentBase-Reduplicant,
which they place above *g.
IdentBase-Reduplicant requires identity between the base and the
reduplicant, so a surface form like *gara-ŋara is not optimal. Neither is
*ŋara-ŋara because, according to the proposed hierarchy, prohibition to
have a velar nasal ŋ at the initial of a word is ranked very high. Under these
conditions, gara-gara is the optimal candidate.
(p. 85 )

The analysis by Itô and Mester is appealing in many respects. It has strong
explanatory capacity, and makes it possible to achieve a unified treatment
of seemingly disparate facts, in particular with regard to the obligatoriness
of ŋ resulting from the rendaku of [k]. In addition, the general principles
which govern their analysis seem independent of the formal framework
they use, which still reinforces the interest of their approach, and is likely to
give it lasting value, irrespective of the evolutions of the theory. The g / ŋ
alternation basically comes down to a paradigmatic uniformity issue.
However, this analysis is not without its defects, in particular concerning
the data. The main criticism which one can formulate has to do with the
empirical basis of the study. It explicitly presents the patterns of optional
or obligatory alternations as systematic, implying that the data are firmly
established and indisputable. However, this is far from being so because
exceptions are easy to find. For example, according to authors as normative
as Amanuma et al. (1989) or NHK (1998), who deal precisely with the variety
of Japanese adopted by Itô and Mester, certain compound words whose
second component starts with /g/ in the free base form, such as hiyori° +
geta° ‘geta for dry days’ or shiro + goma° ‘white sesame’, have only one
possible realization, the first with the nasal [hijo¹ɾiŋeta], the second with the
stop [ɕiɾogoma]. In addition, words containing a rendaku frequently present
variation between g and ŋ for speakers who do possess the velar nasal, but
the conditions which determine the variation remain unclear (Kamei, 1956;
Kindaichi, 1942). It would also have been relevant to refer to the results of
Kindaichi’s survey, which we will present below, since it is precisely the interand intra-speakers’ variations investigated by Kindaichi that Itô and Mester
are interested in. In sum, the data do not seem representative enough of the
Japanese language at the end of the twentieth century, and it does not either
seem to be the variety described in previous studies, for example Kindaichi’s.
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Consonants

Interestingly, the study is supposed to concern the variety of language
spoken by the ‘older residents of the Yamanote area’ of Tôkyô, ‘which forms
the basis for the modern standard language’ and ‘is reflected in standard
pronunciation dictionaries’. This is precisely the variety of language, taken
from that very same Yamanote area, which Kindaichi Haruhiko investigated
in his 1942 study.13
(p. 86 )

3.10.2 Kindaichi’s Treatment (1942)

During the winter of 1941, the linguist Kindaichi Haruhiko conducted a
sociolinguistic survey in a junior high school of the Suginami district of Tôkyô,
located in the Yamanote area, which forms the basis of Standard Japanese.
The survey consisted of the reading out loud of a list of 13 words, comprising
an internal velar likely to be realized as [g] or [ŋ], by seventy 15- and 16year-old students, born and raised in the capital.
Firstly, the results of this investigation provide evidence for the extreme
variety of the realizations among the speakers. Three different groups can
be distinguished: speakers who realize all the /g/’s as [g] (21 speakers),
speakers who realize them as [ŋ] except in the word juugo ‘fifteen’ (20
speakers), and speakers who present one or the other realization (29
speakers).
Secondly, the survey establishes that the use of [g] or [ŋ] also depends
on the words: some lexemes are more frequently realized with [g] or [ŋ]
than others. Thus kaigun ‘the navy’ presents the [g] realization in 70% of
cases, while ama-gasa (or ama-gasa°) ‘umbrella’ exhibits the nasal [ŋ] in
more than 67% of the examples. But all the words tested do not present a
clear and constant tendency. There is only one word for which all seventy
speakers provide a uniform pronunciation: juugo ‘fifteen’ with [g]. Also, as
Kindaichi observes, kaigun ‘the navy’ and chuugi ‘fidelity’, the two words
most frequently realized with [g] are Sino-Japanese lexemes. This suggests
that this class of word is less prone to velar nasalization. It will be noted that
ama-gasa / ama-gasa° ‘umbrella’ and ha-gaki° ‘postcard’, which have the
highest rate of [ŋ] realization, are Yamato compound lexemes which contain
rendaku. However, one should nevertheless note that more than 30% of the
speakers, including speakers who do have [ŋ] in some other lexemes, do not
nasalize the rendaku compounds ama-gasa (ama-gasa°) and ha-gaki° at the
time of the investigation in 1941. Moreover, Kindaichi observes that gi and
gu are less often nasalized than ga,ge, and go. He also raises the possibility
that the [g] realization occurs more frequently in the second mora than in
Page 34 of 55

Consonants

the third mora of a word. Lastly, his work supports the thesis that women
tend to be less conservative than men socio-phonetically, since they utter
fewer [ŋ]’s than men.
We are thus clearly dealing with a variation phenomenon whose
conditioning, both internal and external, is complex. In addition to the
strong inter-speaker diversity, quite remarkable within such a homogeneous
group as far as age and (p. 87 ) sociocultural background are concerned,
the survey brings forth several other internal factors likely to favour the
appearance of the velar nazalisation: the lexical stratum of a given word,
its length, its degree of autonomy, the degree of lexicalization in the case
of compounds, the morphological status of the velar as a word boundary,
the nature of the vowel which follows the velar, as well as the position of the
mora containing the velar in the word.
Noting, at the time of the investigation, that almost all the subjects over
thirty have [ŋ] in internal position, while this allophone was less widespread
in the younger subjects’ realizations, Kindaichi predicted the progressive
disappearance of [ŋ] to the benefit of [g] in all contexts. Posterior works,
in particular the linguistic survey whose results are described by Inoue
(1993), have regularly confirmed this prediction ever since. The progressive
disappearance of [ŋ] not only in Tôkyô but also in other areas of Japan where
this sound used to be widespread is under way.
Kindaichi also saw a structural reason for the disappearance of [ŋ]. According
to him, the existence of a velar nasal intervocalically in Japanese is a vestige
of the time when all the word-internal voiced stops were prenasalized.
Thus formerly one had [mb], [nd], and [ŋg] where the modern language
generally has [b], [d], and [ŋ] ~ [g] (see also Chapter 4). When prenasalized
consonants began to undergo reduction to one single segment, [mb] and
[nd] passed to /b/ and /d/. Things went differently for [ŋg] because that
sound started to phonologize into /ŋ/ in a number of dialects. The reason
is that since the velar nasal /ŋ/ did not exist as a phoneme in the system,
such phonologization of [ŋ] to /ŋ/ made it possible to maintain or to create
the following new oppositions: m/b, n/d, and ŋ/g, where ŋ filled a gap. The
reason why this did not happen in the case of [mb] and [nd], which did not
become /m/ and /n/ but rather /b/ and /d/, is because labial and alveolar
nasals already existed as established phonemes. The reduction of [mb] and
[nd] to /m/ and /n/ would thus have involved the loss of many oppositions;
for example *kambe ‘wall’ becoming *kame would have merged with kame
‘tortoise’, while kabe was not in competition with any existing form. On the
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Consonants

other hand, the evolution of kaŋge ‘shade’ to kaŋe was not likely to create
confusion since ŋ did not exist as a contrastive unit.
During the twentieth century, according to Kindaichi (1942), the tendency
is that of [ŋ] evolving back to /g/, on the model of the evolutions [mb] → /b/
and [nd] → /d/. The disappearance of [ŋ] would thus constitute the final stage
of a diachronic process of major importance in the history of the Japanese
language, the evolution of which can be traced over several centuries: that
of the denasalization of the prenasalized voiced obstruents, a topic which will
be addressed again in the next chapter.
(p. 88 )

3.11 /y/ (and Palatalization)

The dorso-palatal glide /y/ (IPA [j]) functionally stands as a consonant in the
moraic units ya, yu, yo. It can also appear after another consonant in the
form of a palatalization. Every Japanese consonant excluding the glides y and
w has a palatalized counterpart known as yôon ##. However, it is especially
after the consonants /k/, /g/, /t/, /s/, /z/, and /h/, and in Sino-Japanese words
that palatalizations are most frequent. After /r/, palatalization is generally
rare, and impossible in the mimetic stratum (see section 3.13 below).
As seen in section 2.8, the presence of y does not change the prosodic
weight of a given rhythmic unit: kyu counts as one mora, just as ku,yu, or u
do. The palatal element must be considered as attached to the first position
of the prosodeme (onset), as represented in (31):
(31) Palatalized consonant

Palatalization is always noted y in phonological and Kunrei transcription. The
Hepburn romanization is less consistent because it renders the palatalized
combinations /sy/, /ty/, /zy/ as sh,ch, and j, as already indicated.
The element y only occurs before the vowels /a/, /u/, /o/. The combination of
y with /i/ is impossible in all lexical strata: *yi, *kyi, *myi, etc. do not exist. It
seems that this has always been so in Japanese.
Page 36 of 55

Consonants

The glide y is also absent before /e/, except in some very recent loans or
in certain dialects, in particular in the Kyûshû island. Recall though that
she /sye/ [ɕe] occurs in certain speakers’ speech instead of se [se] but
in a non-distinctive way: for example she /sye/ [ɕe] ‘back’ (standard se,
see footnote 2, this chapter). But /ye/ did exist in the archaic language.
Phonetically, /e/ and /ye/ were distinguished until the middle of the ninth
century approximately before merging to /ye/ in a majority of dialects, as
observed by the European missionaries of the sixteenth century: yedo (for
edo°, the ancient name of Tôkyô), ye, modern e ‘image’. It is only from the
seventeenth century on that the [je] pronunciation of ye started changing
into [e].
The two impossible combinations */yi/ and */ye/ concern vowels which have
a palatal articulation in common with the dorso-palatal glide /y/. The same
type of (p. 89 ) restriction applies to /w/, the dorso-velar glide, which does
not appear before the back (or velar) vowels /u/ and /o/.
Consonantal palatalization is not original in Japanese. It is generally
considered to have appeared in the language under the influence of Chinese
loans. Indeed, palatalizations are particularly frequent in Sino-Japanese
morphemes. They occasionally occur in Yamato words like kyou ‘today’, but
this is always the result of a secondary development, already mentioned
in section 2.7.2. In the familiar register, palatalizations are also frequent
and generally not recorded in writing. We find sore ha° # sorya° ‘this +
Topic marker’, itte ha° # itcha° (/ittya/) ‘going + Topic marker’ (in these two
examples, remember that the topic marker ha is actually pronounced wa),
to iu (actually realized as to yuu°) # chuu° (/tyuu/) ‘so called’ (all of Yamato
origin). The appearance of the palatal element is explained by the presence
of the front vowel /e/ in the first two examples, and by that of /i/ or /y/ in
the last one. Palatalizations are also widespread in mimetics (see below),
as in hunya-hunya° ‘flabby’, as well as in recent Western loans. Note also
the frequent insertion of y after /k/ or /g/ in Western words like kyapashitii
{capacity}, or kyarameru° {caramel}, that reflects the place of articulation
of the velar stops /k/ and /g/ in English and other European languages, which
are more phonetically fronted than the Japanese equivalents.
There exist some CyV / CV (almost) free alternations, such as kyuu ~ ku
‘nine’, shake /syake/ ~ sake /sake/ ‘salmon’. The alternations shu ~ shi
and ju ~ ji (/syu/ ~ /si/, /zyu/ ~ /zi/), as in Shinjuku° / Shinjiku° (place name),
already discussed in section 2.4, are very frequent (this phenomenon is

Page 37 of 55

Consonants

termed chokuonka ?##?#). Lexicalized alternations of the sort yV / i, such as
yuku° / iku° ‘to go’, yuu° / iu° ‘to say’, yoi / ii ‘good’, can also be found.
In a number of cases, palatalization is secondary and works like a
phonaestheme associated with the connotations of childishness, instability,
uncoordinated movement, diversity, lack of elegance, excessive energy.
This is particularly so in mimetic words (Hamano, 1998, originally published
in 1986). Thus beside pota-pota, which suggests an idea of dropping, one
finds pocha-pocha (/potya-potya/), which refers to splashing. This type
of palatalization normally occurs on the rightmost coronal consonant of a
bimoraic mimetic root (32a). If the rightmost consonant is not a coronal,
then the initial consonant will undergo palatalization, whatever its place
of articulation (32b). Although Alderete and Kochetov (2009) show that,
because of the paucity of relevant examples, there is no real empirical
basis supporting the assumption that palatalization affects the leftmost of
two non-coronals (pyoko-pyoko / *pokyo-pokyo in 32b) or the rightmost
of two coronals (dosha-dosha / *dyosa-dyosa 32a), the overall argument
put forward by Hamano (1998) and subsequently by Mester and Itô (p. 90 )
(1989) remains valid and in conformity with native speakers’ intuitions.14 The
only exception to this rule is /r/ (32c), which cannot palatalize when it occurs
in the second mora of the root, an issue which will be further discussed in
section 3.13.
(32)
a. C2 of mimetic root = coronal
ka
sakasa

ka
syakasya

*kyasakyasa

‘dry
objects
scratching
each
other’

do
sadosa

do
syadosya

*dyosadyosa

‘something
falling
heavily’

b. C2 of mimetic root = non-coronal
po
kopoko

pyo
kopyoko

*pokyopokyo

‘hopping
around’

za
buzabu

zya
buzyabu

*zabyuzabyu

‘splashing’

c. C2 of mimetic root = /r/

Page 38 of 55

Consonants

no
ronoro

nyo
ronyoro

*noryonoryo

‘wriggly
and
curving
movement’

ko
rokoro

kyo
rokyoro

*koryokoryo

‘looking
around
restlessly’

Such palatalizations of an expressive nature occur also sporadically
elsewhere: thus, the personal suffix -san becomes -chan (/tyaN/) after
children’s names and diminutives (note also in this example the passage of /
s/ to /t/, which can be interpreted as consonant strengthening, see section
3.6). Overall palatalization is also characteristic of baby talk.

3.12 /w/
The labiovelar glide /w/ is slightly less rounded than its English counterpart
(for instance in way). Its phonetic realization is between that of the symbols
[ɰ] and [w] of the IPA. It can be regarded as the semi-vocalic version of the
vowel /u/ [ɯ] from the articulatory point of view, but functionally, it behaves
as a consonant.
In the modern language, /w/ occurs only before /a/. The combinations /wi/, /
we/, and /wo/15 have all existed at earlier stages of the language but have
disappeared in Modern Standard Japanese. However, they are making a timid
come-back in Western loans. On the other hand, */wu/ never existed. [o] o
and [wo] wo merged around the year 1000 to wo, a pronunciation which was
still heard by the first European missionaries in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. They wrote uo or vo for # (read o in Modern Japanese). The group
[wi] wi (p. 91 ) reduced to [i] i around the thirteenth century. As for [we] we,
it first merged with ye around the thirteenth century. Thereafter ye evolved
to modern [e] (see the preceding section). The first Western romanizations of
the Muromachi period write coye for the modern form koe ‘voice’, which in
turn comes from an earlier form kowe. The existence of w in this word is also
visible in the allomorphic form kowa- for koe, which appears in a number
of compounds such as kowa-iro° ‘quality of voice’ (on the alternation e/a in
compounds, see section 2.3).
The reasons for these changes, which involved a significant decrease in the
sound possibilities of the language, can first be found in the low functional
load of the oppositions at hand, i.e. the small number of minimal pairs
Page 39 of 55

Consonants

involving an opposition between V and wV. Since the moras consisting solely
of a vowel occurred only at the beginning of independent simplex words
in Archaic Yamato Japanese, this was the only position in which the loss of
the glide was likely to create a new homophony. In Sino-Japanese words,
the sequences ye,we,wi, and wo were too rare to cause any problematic
opposition losses. The disappearance of ye, we, wi, and wo also illustrates a
strong trend in the phonology of Japanese (see the charts in section 3.15 for
statistical data): maximal contrast is favoured between the two constituents
of the basic prosodeme (the mora), so that the statistically most frequent CV
combinations mostly involve a voiceless stop + vowel, or a nasal + vowel
(a noteworthy exception is the combination r + V, which will be addressed
in the following section). So it is hardly a surprise that the combinations
between a semi-consonant and a vowel articulatorily close to it (w + u / o
and y + i / e, as well as w + e) were the first to disappear.
Moras of the CwV shape (called gôyôon ### in the traditional terminology)
existed up until recently in certain Sino-Japanese words, for example
okwashi ### ‘cake’, gwaikoku° ## ‘foreign country’. They reflect the
presence of a labial glide in the Chinese original forms. Old Chinese
accepted /w/ after a large variety of consonants, but, apart from a small
number of exceptions attested in documents of the Heian period, it is only
after the velar consonants /k/ and /g/ that /w/ could be found in Japanese.
Although the combinations /kwa/, /gwa/, /kwe/, /gwe/, /kwi/, and /gwi/ all
existed, only /kwa/ and /gwa/ have been maintained until the middle or end
of the nineteenth century, and still exist nowadays in certain dialects, mainly
in the Tôhoku or Kyûshû areas.
The tendency towards w-lenition seems to continue in the modern
language: /w/ is often deleted before /a/ in very familiar speech. Thus one
will often hear maaru° instead of mawaru° ‘to turn’ (see also the remark in
footnote 5, Chapter 2), bia for biwa ‘medlar tree’, akannai for wakaranai
‘not to understand’, korya° for kore wa° ‘this’, or atashi° for watashi° ‘I’ (but
there exists a pragmatic difference between the two forms of this pronoun;
watashi° is rather neutral whereas atashi° has a girly connotation). More
generally, this phenomenon seems to pertain to an overall weakening
process of the labial (p. 92 ) articulations in Japanese. Recall that */p/ has
evolved to /h/ or to zero, that /w/ has disappeared before /i/, /o/, and /e/,
that the labiovelar /kw/ and /gw/ have reduced to /k/ and /g/, and that /u/
is only very slightly rounded. Even the nasal /m/ is no exception to this:
in the familiar language, it sometimes undergoes total deletion in fast
tempo speech, for example suimasen for sumimasen ‘excuse me’. One
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Consonants

might wonder whether the causes for this tendency to delabialization are
not cultural rather than properly linguistic. The progressive disappearance
or near disappearance of labials in the phonological system might be
related to a search for a certain immobility or facial impassibility. Hagège
and Haudricourt (1978) refer to a cause of a similar nature to explain the
absence of labials in the Iroquoian adult language. Note, in addition, that
lip protrusion or exaggerated labialization in the articulation is culturally
codified as an expression of anger in Japanese. Conversely, delabialization
is connoted as a mark of calm and self-control, which are martial qualities
eminently praised in the traditional culture.

3.13 /r/
The prototypic realization of the only Japanese liquid /r/ is [ɾ], the apicoalveolar flap. According to Matsuno (1971), [ɾ] should be considered the
neutral realization of the rhotic in the language because its articulation is
central compared to other variants. However, /r/ displays a large number
of social, geographical, or combinatorial variants. Outside [ɾ], the following
phonetic (social or regional) realizations are attested: [l], [ᶩ], [r], [rː], [d], [ɽ],
[ɮ].
The apico-alveolar lateral [l] is a common variant, frequent before palatalized
vowels (rya,ryu,ryo) and in young women’s speech (Ohnishi 1987; Tsuzuki
and Lee 1992). Retroflex [ᶩ] is also encountered under the same conditions.
The short and long apical trills, [r] and [rː] are socially marked variants,
characteristic of colloquial or even vulgar Tôkyô male Japanese. For
instance, street thugs and yakuzas (gangsters) are easily recognized
by their strongly trilled r, at least in the movies, where it is one of their
conventional attributes. The higher the number of trills, the more socially
marked as vulgar the speech will be. The voiced alveolar stop [d] is a
combinatorial variant which is frequent word-initially in certain dialects,
or in children’s speech. It can also occur word-internally. The retroflex [ɽ]
might be encountered initially before /u/, or intervocalically in sequences
such as /ere/, /ara/, /uru/, /oro/ (Tsuzuki and Lee, 1992). The voiced lateral
fricative [ɮ] is a combinatorial variant occurring before the high vowels /
i/ and /u/. It is also the most common realization of /r/ in some Ryûkyûan
dialects. Phonetically, /r/ is also by far the shortest of all Japanese consonants
(Sagisaka and Tohkura; 1984, Kurematsu, 1997).
In addition to its phonetic diversity, Japanese /r/ stands out as a
segment exhibiting many idiosyncratic peculiarities, which make it unique
(p. 93 )

Page 41 of 55

Consonants

in the phonological system of the language. In Archaic and Old Japanese, /
r/ does not appear at the beginning of independent Yamato morphemes.
Nevertheless, although absent at the beginning of Yamato lexical words, /
r/ is paradoxically the most frequent (or second most frequent depending
on the counting method) of all consonants inside Yamato words (including
mimetics), in Old Japanese, and in Modern Japanese alike (see Labrune,
1993, and Labrune, forthcoming, for a detailed presentation of various
statistical data, and Figures 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 at the end of this chapter).
In Old Japanese, two /r/’s never co-occur within a single word, that is, there
can be only one /r/ per word. This co-occurrence restriction is especially
remarkable in verb stems. Whereas -ru is the most frequent verbal
inflectional ending in Old Japanese (Yoshida K., 1976:87, 101), it is not
attested after roots which already contain an /r/ (Kuginuki, 1982). Thus, while
kaheru,inoru,musaboru and so on are well-formed and attested Old Japanese
verbs, forms with more than one /r/ such as *kiroru, *aramaru, or *somoriru
are impossible, and are indeed unattested, but for one exception (hiroru
‘to spread, to widen’).16 The same type of co-occurrence restriction is also
operative in Old Japanese nouns and other parts of speech.
Moreover, the distribution of /r/ within words is peculiar, since /r/’s are more
likely to occur late in words. Kuginuki (1982) establishes that out of 614
words of the archaic language containing a rhotic, 543 occurrences (88.4%)
of those /r/’s appear in the last mora of the word. In other words, the closer
to the end of the word, the higher the probability for finding /r/. For Kuginuki
(1982), such a distributional pattern makes sense if one supposes that /r/
developed relatively late in the history of Japanese. His hypothesis is that /
r/ was originally added to the phonemic inventory in order to increase the
length of words, which were mostly one or two mora long in pre-archaic
Japanese. Japanese being a suffixing language, these newly added r-moras
are expectedly most frequent at the end of words.
Another remarkable feature of /r/ in Old Japanese is that it stands in
complementary distribution with the zero consonant since moras made of a
single vowel never appear word-internally, and r does not word-initially.
In a well-known paper dealing with palatal prosody in Japanese mimetics in
relation to feature predictability and underspecification in Modern Japanese
(p. 94 ) (see examples (32) above), Mester and Itô (1989) claim that /r/ is the
unmarked sonorant of Japanese and that it is underspecified for the feature
[Coronal].

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Consonants

Building on Kuginuki’s insight and on Mester and Itô (1989)’s proposal
that /r/ is actually the unmarked sonorant of the system, I have argued in
Labrune (1993, forthcoming) that /r/ primarily developed in Proto-Japanese
as a default, epenthetic consonant in the intervocalic position by virtue
of an ‘Emergence of the Unmarked’ mechanism (McCarthy and Prince,
1994) and that the conditions of its development bear on its present-day
characteristics.
The evidence suggesting that the phonological behaviour of /r/ is that of a
phonologically inert, transparent consonant that lacks phonological content
is the following.
First, as already discussed in section 3.11, /r/ fails to undergo palatalization,
an important phonological process which occurs in a systematic fashion in
the mimetic stratum according to Hamano (1998).
Recall that /r/ behaves in an exceptional manner in mimetics because it
cannot be palatalized when it occurs in the second mora, so that noronoro
(32c) does not yield *noryonoryo but nyoronyoro. Moreover, the presence
of /r/ in the root does not block the palatalization of a non-coronal in the
first mora. So /r/ actually behaves like a non-coronal with regard to the
palatalization process depicted in (32).
Note that palatalized /r/’s can be encountered in lexical strata other than
mimetics, so that /ryV/ is not an impossible sequence in Japanese. However,
the difference between mimetic palatalization and non-mimetic palatalization
results from the fact that in mimetics palatalization acts as a ‘feature-sized
morpheme’ (Mester and Itô, 1989) which can be productively attached to a
root under the conditions stated above.
The second process to which /r/ is transparent in Japanese mimetics, and
also in other strata of the lexicon, is gemination. For instance, in -ri suffixed
mimetic adverbs (Kuroda, 1967; Mester and Itô, 1989 citing a personal
communication by Poser), when the second consonant of a C1VC2V root is
voiceless, suffixation of the adverbial ending -ri may cause C2 to undergo
total gemination in cases where it is a voiceless obstruent (33a), or partial
gemination (i.e. prenasalization) in cases where it is a voiced obstruent or
a sonorant (33b). However, in cases where the consonant in question is /r/,
neither gemination nor prenasalization can normally occur (33c).
(33)
a. C2 = [−voiced] → gemination

Page 43 of 55

Consonants

Base

-ri
adverbial

bata

battari

‘with
a
bang’

kaki

kakkiri

‘exactly’

goso

gossori

‘entirely’

(p. 95 )

b. C2 = [+voiced] → prenasalization
gena

gennari

‘to
satiety’

shimi

shinmiri

‘intimately’

boya

bon’yari

‘absentmindedly’

yawa

yanwari

‘gently’

koga

kongari

‘to
be
nicely
roasted
brown’

maji

manjiri

‘sleepless’

c. C2 = /r/ → nothing happens
koro

korori

?*korrori

?*konrori

‘without
effort’

Fully geminated /r/’s are also unattested outside the mimetic lexicon in the
Yamato and Sino-Japanese strata, and they are only marginally reported
in Western borrowings and in some recent mimetic derivatives (Schourup
and Tamori, 1992:137). As for the moraic nasal /N/ + /r/ sequence, it does
occur in Sino-Japanese and Western borrowings, and in a few mimetic forms.
However, in such cases, it represents a recent development and is to be
phonologically analysed as a combination of two distinct segments rather
than the result of a prenasalization process in the strict sense.
According to Mester and Itô (1989), total gemination of /r/ is impossible
because it violates the Nasal Coda Condition requiring all voiced
sonorant codas to be nasal. Even if one does not adhere to a syllabic
Page 44 of 55

Consonants

analysis of Japanese but to a moraic one according to which /N/ stands
as an autonomous prosodeme (mora) as we do in this book, the basic
interpretation by Itô and Mester remains valid: /N/ needs to acquire its place
articulation features from the following consonant. So partial gemination
(= /N/ insertion) is impossible because /r/ is underspecified, and thus has no
distinguishable parts available for separate linkage. Schourup and Tamori
(1992) have criticized this analysis, arguing that the non-occurrence of
palatalization with /r/ in mimetics is best explained by articulatory difficulty.
However, one can object that articulatory factors alone cannot account for
the many other properties of /r/ in Japanese.
Thirdly, /r/ is the most unstable of all Japanese consonants, both
diachronically and synchronically. Throughout the history of Japanese, rV
moras have frequently undergone syncope (de aru # da (copula), karite #
kate, kate ‘provisions’; see also Kishida (1984) for additional examples) or
unexpected addition (paragoge, kabu° # kabura° ‘turnip’, shippo / shippori
(accent unknown) ‘tail’ [dialectal]; see also Labrune (1998b)). As a recent
trend of Tôkyô Japanese, it has also been observed that rV sequences
frequently turn into /N/ or /Q/, for instance wakaranai # wakannai ‘not to
understand’, sou suru to # sousutto ‘doing this’ (Akinaga, 2008). Moreover,
unlike most other consonants, /r/ is never the cause of an assimilation
process in Japanese, that is, there are no cases where a (p. 96 ) consonant
would assimilate to /r/, whereas /r/ frequently assimilates to a surrounding
segment (Labrune, forthcoming).
The liquid also plays a central role in the morphology. It is crucially involved
in the verbal flexion, where it can be regarded as epenthetic (de Chene,
1985; Labrune, 1996), as the following data illustrate:
(34) Verbal inflexion

Page 45 of 55

Consonant
final
base

Vowel
final
base

‘to
write’

‘to
see’

basic
form

ka k-u

mi -ru

negative

kakanai

mi nai

Consonants

hypothetic

ka keba

mi -reba

nominal

kak-i
(kaki)

polite

kaki-masu

mi-masu

passive

kakareru

mi-rareru

imperative

ka k-e

mi -ro

Observe that, before vowel-initial endings (-u,-anai,-eba, etc.), no consonant
surfaces when the base ends in a consonant, contrary to what happens
after a vowel-ending base. According to de Chene (1985) and Mester and
Itô (1989), consonant-stem suffixes display the basic form of the suffixes,
and initial /r/ in vocalic-stem suffixes is epenthetic. What is significant here
is that the surfacing consonant is precisely /r/. The verbal morphology of
Old Japanese provides further arguments for analysing /r/ as an epenthetic
consonant (Labrune, 1996).
Furthermore, /r/ is also extremely frequent at the beginning of several other
nominal, adjectival, and verbal suffixes in the pre-modern language, such
as -ra (plural, directional), -ra / -ro (adverbial), -raka (adjectival ending),
-raku (nominalizer), -ru (passive, potential), -ri (adverbial), -ri (aspectual
auxiliary), -re (deictic suffix), -reru (passive, potential, honorific auxiliary),
-ro (imperative suffix), and -ro (a particle of obscure function in Archaic
Japanese). Most of these r-beginning morphemes are attested in the archaic
language, and are still widely used in Contemporary Japanese.
The behaviour of /r/ in the phonetics, phonology, and morpho-phonology of
Japanese is thus characteristic of what any theory of phonology, whether
structuralist, generativist, or OT-ist, would recognize as an unmarked, default
segment.

3.14 New Consonants
A number of new phonic possibilities have recently developed in the
Japanese language due to the influence of borrowing. Two different types
of new (p. 97 ) consonants can be distinguished: those which result from
the phonologization of sounds already existing in the language but with
Page 46 of 55

Consonants

no phonemic status, like f [ϕ] or v [β], and those which represent new
phonotactic combinations, that is, a sound which is already granted
phonemic status in the native or Sino-Japanese system has come to acquire
new combinatorial possibilities. For instance /y/ y, /w/ w, /ty/ ch, /zy/ j, /sy/ sh
now combine with e, /d/ d now occurs before i or u as [d], /w/ w occurs after
other consonants (kwa,gwo), and ts before vowels other than u, as shown in
the following chart.
(35)

Page 47 of 55

she,
je,
che:

[ɕe]
##

[ʑe]
##

[͡ʨe]
##

tsa,
tsi,
tse,
tso:

[͡ʦa]
##

[͡ʦi]
##

[͡ʦe]
##

[͡ʦo]
##

ti,
di,
tu,
du:

[ti]
##

[di]
##

[tɯ]
##

[dɯ]
##

tyu,
dyu:

[tjɯ]
##

[djɯ]
##

fa,
fi,
fe,
fyu,
fo:

[ϕa]
##

[ϕi]
##

[ϕe]
##

[ϕjɯ]
##

[ϕo]
##

va,
vi,
vu,
vyu,
ve,
vo:

[βa]
##

[βi]
##

[βɯ]
#

[βjɯ]
##

[βe]
##

ye:

[je]
##

wi,
we,
wo:

[wi]
##

[we]
##

[wo]
##

[βo]
##

Consonants

kwa,
kwi,
kwe,
kwo:

[kwa]
##

[kwi]
##

[kwe]
##

[kwo]
##

gwa,
gwi,
gwe,
gwo:

[gwa]
##

[gwi]
##

[gwe]
##

[gwo]
##

Concerning the three last series beginning with w-,kw-, and gw-, note that
they are not always realized as one mora. One often hears the bimoraic
sequences [ɯi], [ɯe] for wi and we, and [kɯa], [gɯi], etc. for kwa,gwi, etc.
Most of the above combinations are only found in loanwords which have
been borrowed in the past twenty or thirty years, and in the speech of
speakers whose sociolinguistic profile is urban, educated, and feminine
(Inoue, 2002). It is important to make a clear distinction between the
katakana transcription, which may contain sequences such as those cited
above (or even other sequences), and the actual pronunciation, which is
often more conservative, and does not always faithfully reflect the kana
spelling. Some people (mainly older speakers) write paatii ##### {party}
but actually (p. 98 ) pronounce [¹paːt͡ɕiː] paachii or [¹paːteː] paatee, thus
avoiding the new phonic combination [ti].
The following chart provides some examples of recently borrowed words
containing new phonetic possibilities (underlined).
(36)

Page 48 of 55

fa
mirii

[¹ϕamiɾiː]

##
#
##

{family}

ti
ssyu

[¹tiɕɕɯ]

###
##

{tissue}

tsi

tsiiru

[¹ts͡iːrɯ]

###
#

{Ziel}
(German
‘goal’)

she

shepaado

[ɕe¹paːdo]

##
##
#

{shepherd
(dog)}

Consonants

kwo

kwo
otsu

[¹kwoːt͡sɯ],
[¹kɯoːt͡sɯ]

###
#

{quartz}

vinteeji

[βin¹teːʑi]

##
#
##
#

{vintage}

yerusaremu [jeɾɯ¹saɾemɯ]
##
#
#
#
#

{Jerusalem}

The combinations fa, ti, tsi, she, kwo, and ye in the above examples actually
represent a broadening of the phonotactic possibilities of already existing
segments. These either exist as allophones of a given Japanese phoneme
(for instance [ϕ] is an allophone of /h/, [͡ʦ] an allophone of /t/), or as true
phonemes with limited distribution in the rest of the lexicon. This is the
case for y, which only occurs before a,u, and o, and for w, which only occurs
before a, in the Yamato and Sino-Japanese strata. In this case, it is the
combination of y and w with vowels other than those admitted in Yamato
or Sino-Japanese words which represents an innovation. It is interesting to
note that some of these combinations have existed at an earlier stage of the
Japanese language, or still exist in dialects, for instance kw,tsa,ye, she.
The sound transcribed as # in kana (v in Hepburn) is never realized as a
labio-dental voiced fricative. Its most common realization seems to be [b]. It
is pronounced [β] by some speakers, a sound which is an occasional variant
of /b/ in the intervocalic position (Kamiyama T., p.c., and Saitô, 1997) for
certain speakers in Yamato and Sino-Japanese words. However, this Japanese
[β] seems to be much less fricative than the corresponding Castillan Spanish
sound in lobo for instance.
In sum, we can say that all the ‘newly introduced sounds’ are not really new:
they already exist in the Japanese language. The only innovation is that they
are now granted a phonemic status.
Other sounds still await a proper and non-ambiguous transposition. Let us
mention for instance those consonants which function as a syllable coda in
the source language. Both English fat and Italian fatto are adapted as ###
#fatto, and there is no way to distinguish them in the Japanese adaptation
Page 49 of 55

Consonants

even in the kana writing. The English interdental fricatives [θ] and [ð] are
not distinguished (p. 99 ) from [s] and [z]. The same is true of l and r. Bari
and Bali are transcribed and pronounced in an identical manner: ## [¹baɾi].
The pairs si and shi,zi and ji, although they sometimes receive a different
orthography in kana, respectively as ## and #, ## and #, are never
phonetically distinguished in the adapted form of loanwords by Japanese
speakers. This is the source of an important number of homophonies.
Note that older loanwords containing sounds or sound combinations which
were unknown in Japanese used to be adapted under patterns more in line
with the native phonology, as the following examples illustrate:
(37)
{telephone} #[¹teɾehoᶰ]
terehon

#
###

rather
than

*[¹teɾeϕoᶰ]

{visa} #
biza

[¹biza]

rather
than

*[¹βiza]

{ticket} #
chiketto

[t͡ɕi¹ketto]

###
#

rather
than

*[ti¹ketto]

Today, these words would presumably be adapted, at least orthographically,
as ##### terefon [¹teɾeϕoN], ### viza [¹βiza], and ##### tiketto
[¹tiketto]. We do actually find newly formed compounds containing the word
telephone such as terefon shoppingu {telephone shopping} or terefon redii
{telephone lady} with a f [ϕ] (Kamiyama Takeki, personal communication).

3.15 Relative Frequency of Consonants
The charts below provide data concerning the frequency of the consonants in
texts, on the one hand, and in the lexicon, on the other hand, both in Ancient
and Modern Japanese.
For Archaic Yamato Japanese, the data concern textual (token) frequency.
They are given in Figure 3.1 (based on Ôno (1980), Man'yôshû corpus). The

Figure 3.1. Textual frequency (in %) of Archaic Japanese consonants
(adapted from Ôno, 1980)
Page 50 of 55

Consonants

symbol F denotes the ancestor of /h/; ’ denotes the zero consonant
(onsetless vowel).
(p. 100 )

What we observe is that the alveolar nasal /n/ is the most frequent of all
consonants. This remarkable textual frequency is undoubtedly due to the
fact that several grammatical words among the most widely used contain a /
n/ (ni,nari,no, etc.). Note that the four voiced obstruents /g/, /b/, /d/, and /z/
occupy the last four positions, preceded by the two semi-consonants /y/ and /
w/.
Figure 3.2 provides data about the lexical (type) frequency in word-initial
position. We see that /’/ (the zero consonant) is the most frequent of all,
since actually nearly one fourth of all Japanese archaic words start with the
zero consonant, that is, with a vowel.
The bar graph in Figure 3.3 provides data for two-mora Yamato nouns of the
modern language. It gives the lexical (type) frequency (in absolute value),
and

Figure 3.2. Lexical frequency (in %) of Archaic Yamato Japanese consonants
for the initial of words (based on the entries of the Nara Japanese Dictionary,
Jidai Betsu Kokugo Daijiten, jôdai-hen, 1967).

Figure 3.3. Lexical frequency in absolute value of consonants according to
their position in bimoraic Yamato nouns in the modern language (KKK, 1984).
(p. 101 )

Page 51 of 55

Consonants

Figure 3.4. Textual frequency of Modern Japanese consonants (according to
Imae, 1960, cited by Hayashi O., 1982).
makes a distinction between initial and medial positions in two-mora nouns.
The figures for the glide y are missing because the data provided by the
source cannot be exploited. As we have already remarked in section 3.13, /
r/ is the most frequent consonant word-medially. It is also interesting to
observe that there exists a discrepancy in the distribution according to word
position for /g/, /z/, /d/, /h/, /b/, /r/ and /’/ (see the sections of the relevant
consonants for comments).
Finally, Figure 3.4 presents the textual (token) frequencies of the consonants
in Modern Japanese. The counting of the source being based on the kana
spelling (except for the particles ha # and wo #, which are not distinguished
from wa # and o #), the figures for the zero-initial ’ are misleading because
they also include the second parts of long vowels: for example, one
occurrence of /’/ is counted in the sequence kou ##, which has been
interpreted as ko’u. The frequency of /’/ must thus be considered inferior.
According to my own estimation, it actually ranges between 10% and 13%.
Here, (j) denotes palatalization (for example y in tya,kyo), while y represents
the initial segment in the moras ya,yu, and yo. The total does not reach
100% because the frequencies of the special segments /N/ and /Q/ are
missing (see section 5.6).
As already mentioned in section 3.12, and if we set aside the special cases
of /’/ and /r/ for the reasons discussed in section 3.13, Japanese tends to
favour ‘strong’ consonants (i.e. consonants which are most consonantal, that
is voiceless obstruents and nasals) in the onset position of its prosodemes
(moras). It thus follows the universal tendency of the world’s languages
which tend to obey a principle of maximal sonority contrast between CV.

Page 52 of 55

Consonants

Notes:
(1) However, it is generally admitted that in Ancient Japanese (and probably
also in Middle Japanese, that is, until the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries), /
t/ was realized as a plosive before all vowels, including /u/ and /i/: [ta], [ti],
[tɯ], [te], [to]. The same goes for /d/.
(2) A few sporadic occurrences of the she /sye/ combination are encountered
in Yamato words, but they are all free variants of se, for instance misete
/ mishete ‘show me!’. This alternation must probably be interpreted as
dialectal, or as an example of affective palatalization, see also p. 66.
(3) This should be considered in parallel with the behaviour of the other
Japanese fricative /h/, after /Q/. /h/ automatically becomes /p/ in cases of
gemination in Yamato and Sino-Japanese words. Voiceless fricatives thus
seem to resist gemination, and they tend to be transformed into occlusives
when preceded by the gemination segment /Q/. One can thus posit a
correspondence /Qs/ = [tss] ~ /Qh/ = [pp], which would be attributed to
a fortition process. Note also that even in Western loanwords, /h/ and /s/
undergo gemination (as [hh] and [ss]) less often than the other consonants
(Kawagoe and Arai, 2002).
(4) The adverb yahari is a mimetic which contains an intervocalic [h] root
internally and is, as such, exceptional. It is sometimes considered to be
etymologically a compound of ya ‘arrow’ and hari ‘tense’ (###).
(5) Thank you to Kamiyama Takeki for pointing out to me the Ladefoged
references.
(6) [pp] is not the only geminate which can mark compounding in parallel
to rendaku. A few examples can also be found with other consonants, for
instance korekkiri (kore° + kiri) ‘this and only this’, decchiri (de + shiri)
‘chubby buttocks’.
(7) It also seems that /h/ had remained a bilabial before /i/ until the
nineteenth century in the Western dialects, according to the descriptions by
Aston (1872) and Hoffmann (1868).
(8) Concerning the evolution we # ye # e, see sections 3.11 and 3.12.
(9) It is interesting to note that in the words haha ‘mother’’ and hoho ‘cheek’
the intervocalic fricative has first followed the general evolution rule h # w,
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Consonants

as indicated by the Jesuit transcriptions faua for haha, and fou (# *howo) for
hoho. However, a phonetic reversal has occurred and the modern forms have
reverted to haha and hoho.
(10) Pronunciation dictionaries sometimes transcribe the moras beginning
with ŋ as ##########.
(11) An electronic version of the maps of the Linguistic Atlas of Japan (Nihon
Gengo Chizu) issued by the Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyûjo (National Institute for
Japanese Language and Linguistics) is available at: http://www6.ninjal.ac.jp/
laj%20map/04/01/.
(12) For the sake of legibility and consistency, some notational and
presentational adaptations are made in the presentation below.
(13) The speakers targeted by Kindaichi’s survey in 1941 were aged fifteen
or sixteen and were Yamanote residents. They must have reached an age
over seventy in 1997, the date Itô and Mester published their paper, that is,
they precisely fall into the category of speakers that Itô and Mester’s study is
supposed to concern.
(14) For analyses of this secondary palatalization, which may be regarded
as an autosegment, and some of its theoretical consequences, see Hamano
(1998) and Mester and Itô (1989).
(15) The object particle # is sometimes romanized as wo, but this is a purely
orthographic convention, that does not reflect the presence of the glide /w/
in the actual realization of the particle.
(16) This principle is not totally preserved in Modern Japanese (cf. oriru ‘to
get down’, ireru° ‘to insert’), but even in the modern language, most verbs
containing two occurrences of /r/ are compounds involving two stems, or are
derived by adjunction of the suffix -eru, which is an innovation of the PreModern language.

Page 54 of 55

Consonants

Page 55 of 55

Consonants

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

The phonology of consonant voicing
Laurence Labrune

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0004

Abstract and Keywords
Chapter 4 first presents a comprehensive overview of the issue of consonant
voicing in Japanese, which is characterised by a number of specific and
rather outstanding properties, including low frequency, phonotactic
restrictions, historical instability and transparency, failure to undergo
gemination and so on. It also considers their historical development and
status in the writing system and offers an original analysis of the internal
structure of the Japanese voiced obstruents within the framework of
autosegmental phonology and feature geometry. This chapter also provides
a detailed presentation of rendaku, one of the most studied and debated
issue in Japanese morpho-phonology, and a section on post-nasal voicing,
before concluding that voicing could be regarded as a supra-segmental
feature rather than as a segmental one in Japanese.
Keywords: gemination, rendaku, post-nasal voicing, Japanese voicing, low frequency,
phonotactic restrictions, historical instability, historical transparency

The four voiced obstruents /b/, /d/, /g/, and /z/ (dakuon ##, literally ‘impure,
or muddy, sounds’ in the traditional Japanese terminology), display several
intriguing properties. In the present chapter, we begin by examining the
general phonological properties of voiced obstruents (section 4.1). We will
then proceed to an overview of rendaku (‘sequential voicing’, section 4.2)
and post-nasal voicing (section 4.3), and end with a discussion concerning
the similarities between Japanese voicing and some supra-segmental
features such as tone and accent (section 4.4).

Page 1 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

4.1 General Properties of Japanese Voiced Obstruents
4.1.1 Limited Distribution, Low Frequency, And Co-occurrence
Restrictions
The voiced obstruents have a limited distribution, especially in Yamato
words. They do not normally occur at the beginning of independent
morphemes, except in a few special cases which will be examined below.
Also, voiced obstruents present an extremely low frequency in Yamato
words, as shown by the statistical data provided at the end of the preceding
chapter. Furthermore, two voiced obstruents rarely co-occur within the
same root. Itô and Mester (1986) state that huda° ‘label, tag’ and buta
° ‘pig’ are possible words of Yamato Japanese, but that *buda is not.
However, forms such as debu ‘fatty’ or gaburi ‘swallowing at once’ do
exist. These are certainly rather marked, but not really more so than buta
‘pig’, whose structure is also rare and highly marked because of its initial
voiced obstruent. So the paucity of bimoraic words containing two voiced
obstruents is more probably a statistical consequence of the fact that words
beginning with a voiced obstruent are rare, and that forms containing
a voiced obstruent in the second mora are far less frequent than those
containing an unvoiced obstruent in the same position.
The voiced obstruents which appear word-initially in Yamato words come
from the following sources. First, one finds a number of cases which result
from secondary voicing of an originally unvoiced obstruent, whose phonopragmatic function is to introduce a pejorative or expressive connotation.
This kind of initial (p. 103 ) voicing generally signals the negative character
(unpleasant, disgusting, dirty, big, heavy, etc.) of the referent (Komatsu,
1981). For example sama ‘appearance’ occurs in the form zama to mean
‘messy appearance, plight’, kani° ‘crab’ becomes gani- in the expression
gani-mata° ‘bandy legs’, hareru ‘to clear up’ yields bareru ‘to transpire,
to be revealed (about a secret)’, sara-sara° ‘smooth, silky’ becomes zarazara° ‘rough’. Incidentally, it is interesting to observe that the first meaning
of the term daku,nigori (#), which has been inherited from the Chinese
phonological tradition, and designates the voiced character of a sound both
in China and Japan, is originally that of ‘dirty’, ‘impure’, or ‘muddy’, that is,
precisely the connotation associated with voiced obstruents when they occur
word-initially in Japanese.
Pairs such as the above are generally lexicalized, and, apart from the
mimetic class, it is rare to find productive and personal derivations
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The phonology of consonant voicing

like zakana ‘rotten fish’ from sakana° ‘fish’, bakimono ‘dirty footwear’
from hakimono° ‘footwear, shoes’, or Beike for Heike ‘those bastards of
Heike’ (Heike is the name of a war clan and the eponymous title of a twelfthcentury epic tale), which are sporadic examples of the Edo period.
There also exist words starting with b,d,g, and z which do have a negative
connotation but whose corresponding voiceless forms do not exist
(or no longer exist). Let us cite, for example, zurui ‘tricky, sly’, gomi
‘rubbish’, bokeru ‘to become senile’, geppu° ‘a burp’, damasu ‘to cheat,
to deceive’ (for additional examples see Wenck, 1987 and Komatsu, 1981).
All the words which contain two voiced obstruents within the same Yamato
root are found within this lexical class. They belong to the familiar or slang
register, for example doji ‘blunder’, or debu ‘fatty’. One should consider
that the two voiced consonants do not share the same status. The one
which appears word-internally is unmarked and primary, while the one
which occurs word-initially is marked and secondary, that is, derived from
an originally unvoiced consonant even if the lexeme beginning with the
corresponding unvoiced obstruent is no longer attested.
In the modern language, there exist some cases of voiced initials in lexemes
which do not carry a pejorative connotation. These are historically derived
from a phonetic transformation involving a nasal, like buchi ‘whip’ (probably
from muchi) or ba° ‘place’ (maybe from niwa° ‘garden’), or they result
from the loss of a high vowel, for example bara° ‘rose’ (derived from ibara
° / ubara°), doko ‘where’ (from iduku), daku° ‘to hold in one’s arms’ (from
idaku) (Komatsu, 1981; Yanagida, 1985; Kishida, 1984). Lastly, it should
be noted that a good number of the forms starting with a voiced obstruent
and which lack a negative phono-pragmatic connotation are animal or plant
names, for instance bora° ‘mullet (fish)’, dani ‘acarid’, buna ‘beech’, gama
(also gama°) ‘toad’ or ‘reed mace’, buta° ‘pig’.
It is obvious that in Japanese, the functional load of voicing is not as strong
as that of other features. Voicing works more like a prosodic feature than
like a (p. 104 ) segmental one, since a voicing difference (very much like a
pitch accent difference) does not seem to impede proper comprehension in
Japanese. I shall return to this interpretation in section 4.4 below.

4.1.2 Failure To Undergo Gemination
The voiced obstruents display another characteristic in Yamato and SinoJapanese words: they cannot undergo gemination. This impossibility is
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The phonology of consonant voicing

absolute in those two strata. Only a few marginally formed mimetics like
zabbun-to ‘with a large splash’ and Western loans such as baggu {bag} or
beddo {bed}, accept the gemination of /b/, /d/, /g/, and /z/. But even in this
last type of example, one will undoubtedly hear more frequently the forms
bakku or betto, with devoicing of the geminate (Kawahara, 2006). Note that
baggu or beddo are noteworthy in three respects from the point of view of
their phonological structure: (i) they begin with a voiced obstruent; (ii) they
contain two voiced obstruents within the same morpheme; (iii) they contain
a geminated voiced obstruent.
Although in native Japanese, they cannot be geminated in the classical sense
of the term, the voiced obstruents may sometimes undergo a strengthening
process which can be analysed as a sort of gemination, since it consists of
the insertion of a mora nasal before the consonant, in a manner parallel to
what occurs with voiceless consonants, which are consistently geminated
in the same context (that is, the special segment /Q/ is inserted before the
consonant). This nasal insertion is sometimes termed ‘partial gemination’.
The functional equivalence and complementary distribution between
gemination and insertion of /N/ is particularly observable and regular in the
mimetic lexicon, as depicted in the examples below. The examples shown
here involve -ri suffixation to a bimoraic mimetic root and gemination or
prenasalization of the second consonant of this root.
(1) Insertion of /Q/ (gemination) and /N/ (prenasalization) in
mimetics
a. Before a voiceless consonant
root

derived
adverb

bata

battari

/
baQtari/

‘suddenly’,
‘with
a
clash’

kaki

kakkiri

/
kaQkiri/

‘precisely’

goso

gossori

/
goQsori/

‘entirely’

/
zaNburi/

‘with
a

b. Before a voiced consonant (except /r/)
zabu

Page 4 of 40

zanburi

The phonology of consonant voicing

big
splash’
maji

manjiri

/
maNziri/

‘not
(to
sleep)
a
wink’

koga

kongari

/
koNgari/

‘well
roasted’

chima

chinmari

/
tiNmari/

‘cosily,
compactly’

huwa

hunwari

/
huNwari/

‘in
an
airy
manner’

(p. 105 )

The complementary distribution of /Q/ and /N/ also occurs with the intensive
prefix bu-, and a few others, but less productively.
(2) Insertion of /Q/ (gemination) and /N/ (prenasalization) in buprefixed (intensive) derivatives
bu +
korosu
°

bukkorosu

‘to
kill’

bu +
tobasu
°

buttobasu

‘to
strike’

bu +
naguru

bunnaguru

‘to
beat’

bu +
toru

bundoru

‘to
grab’

bu +
*dakuru

bundakuru

‘to
take
forcefully’

This Q / N insertion process is also observable in simplex non-mimetic words,
for example in tada # tanda ‘only’ or tabi # tanbi ‘time’ (Hamada, 1952).
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The phonology of consonant voicing

The complementary distribution of /Q/ and /N/ in the above examples
pleads in favour of an analysis which treats the specification of nasality
as pre-existent to /N/ insertion, and thus views nasality as an inherent,
constitutional feature of the phonological structure of the Japanese voiced
obstruents, as we shall see more thoroughly in section 4.1.6.

4.1.3 Instability And Transparency
Another striking characteristic of the Japanese voiced obstruents is their
instability. Both diachronically and synchronically, one observes many
shifts from a voiceless consonant to a voiced one, or from a voiced one to a
voiceless one, as in the following examples (the symbol / indicates variation
in synchrony, while # marks variation in diachrony):
(3) Voiced/voiceless obstruents alternations
hota° / bota° /
hoda°

‘firewood’

shita-tsuzumi /
shita-zutsumi

‘smack of lips’

kurai° / gurai°

‘approximately’

touboku #
touhoku°

‘Province of the
North-East’

tenga # tenka

‘all the country’

abureru #
ahureru

‘to overflow’

kami-gakura #
kami-kagura

‘sacred dance’

tsukumu #
tsugumu

‘to be silent’

sawaku #
sawagu

‘to be noisy’

In classical poetry, there exists a literary device, kakekotoba, consisting of
a pun based on homophony, in which a sequence of sounds was used to
suggest more than one meaning. Interestingly, voicing can be transparent or
irrelevant in kakekotoba. For instance, in poem 423 of the Kokinshû (dating
from the beginning of the tenth century), we find the following kakekotoba.

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The phonology of consonant voicing

Capitalized letters (p. 106 ) indicate the sounds for which voicing distinction
is not relevant, allowing double interpretation of the meaning.
(4) Voicing transparency in kakekotoba
•
kubeki hoDo toKi suginure ya
•
‘the moment it should have come has passed’
•
Or
•
‘the nightingale that should have come’
This verse also contains the noun for the nightingale, hototogisu, in the
sequence hodo toki su(ginure), if one ignores the voicing distinctions.
Considering the fact that such poetry was first composed to be sung aloud, it
appears that voicing differences were felt as secondary and did not impede
the understanding of the poem.
This type of pun actually still exists in Modern Japanese. In goro awase, a
popular mnemotechnic device for remembering phone numbers, dates,
passwords, and so on, numbers may be read following their different
allomorphs corresponding to a number of phonetic values (native Japanese,
Sino-Japanese, or even English, each number has generally more than four
or five possible readings), in order to be used to cue words or phrases (see
Schourup, 2000, for a detailed study). Interestingly, a voiced number can
cue an unvoiced one, and vice versa. For instance, the phone number of
a taxi company is 3563–5151, which reads sa, gorou-san°, koi, koi ‘well,
come and pick me up Mr Goro!’ (Goro is a popular male name).1 Here, the
digit 5 which normally reads go (in Sino-Japanese) is used to cue both the
mora go in Gorou-san ‘Mr Goro’ and the mora ko in koi ‘come!’. Similarly, in
a study of Japanese rap rhymes, Kawahara (2007) reports that consonants
differing only in voicing are frequently treated as similar. It is also interesting
to observe that in Japanese dictionaries, the difference between an unvoiced
and a voiced consonant is not taken into account for the ordering of the
headwords. Thus the entries kara ‘shell’, karada ‘body’, gara ‘design’ will
appear in the following order: kara,gara,karada. The difference between k
and g is simply ignored.2
Ohno (2005) also mentions the fact that recent loanwords in the modern
language are sometimes pronounced with different voicing values, for
instance amejisuto for {amethyst}, batominton for {badminton}.
Finally, let us also note the following phenomenon: in a sequence of
the shape C1VC2V, where C1 is a voiceless consonant and C2 the same
consonant in its (p. 107 ) sonorous version, haplology frequently occurs
in Old and Middle Japanese, in the same way that it occurs between two
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The phonology of consonant voicing

strictly identical consonants: for example mashiji evolved into maji ‘will not,
ought not (auxiliary)’, kuhibisu (*kupibisu) into kubisu° ‘a heel’ (Yamaguchi
Yoshinori, 1988a:203).

4.1.4 Historical Development of Voiced Obstruents
A large number of intervocalic voiced obstruents have developed out of
consonant clusters containing a nasal segment, as illustrated in the following
examples:
(5)
10th century

20th century

humite #

*hunde #

hude
°

‘brush,
pencil’

kamipe #

*kambe #

ko
ube

‘Kôbe’

sumisuri #

*sunzuri #

suzuri

‘inkstone’

ikanika #

*ikanga #

ikaga

‘how’

We also know, from the transcriptions in the Latin alphabet made by
European missionaries during the Muromachi period, and the notations
found in Chinese and Korean materials of the same period, that a vowel
preceding a voiced obstruent used to be realized with a nasalization. Thus
we find, in the documents written by the Iberian Jesuits, romanizations such
as Nangasaqui for Nagasaki (place name), vareranga for warera ga (‘we’),
and so on. This nasality is noted in an especially regular manner before /g/
and /d/. It presumably disappeared progressively during the Edo period, but
note that it is still occasionally heard in the modern language in the speech
of certain speakers of the Tôkyô dialect, and very regularly in the dialects
of the Tôhoku and Tosa (Shikoku) areas. In the standard language, the g / ŋ
alternation, which was discussed in section 3.10, can be regarded as the last
vestige of this once widespread nasalization.
Most linguists agree today in considering that the voiceless/voiced opposition
used to come down to an oral/nasal opposition. According to Yamaguchi
Yoshinori (1997), /b/ would have corresponded to [mb], /d/ to [nd], [nd͡Ʒ],
or [nd͡z], /g/ to [ŋ], and /z/ to [nd͡z], [nd͡Ʒ] in the archaic language. Then,
prenasalization disappeared in the following order according to Inoue
(1971): /(d)z/ # /b/ # /d/, and finally /g/ (see section 3.10 for details
concerning the velar nasal [ŋ]; see also Yamane-Tanaka, 2005, for a
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The phonology of consonant voicing

discussion of the connection between the loss of prenasalized stops and the
history of voiced obstruents within the OT framework).
For Hayata (1980), phonologically voiceless consonants were all phonetically
voiced intervocalically in pre-archaic Japanese, while phonologically
voiced consonants were prenasalized. However, this hypothesis does not
reach full consensus among Japanologists. Hayata also claims that it is
under the influence of Chinese loans—where voiceless consonants occur
intervocalically—that the (p. 108 ) system of Japanese might have undergone
restructuring. Intervocalic consonants would have remained voiceless in
Japanese when they were so underlyingly, while voiced consonants would
have started to lose prenasalization. This assumption is not very different
from that of Hamada (1960), who also considers that the voiceless/voiced
opposition has developed under the influence of the Chinese loans, and
that prior to the Chinese influence, the opposition was not relevant in
Japanese. Only a phonetic opposition would have existed, the obstruents
being voiced between two vowels, but in a non-distinctive way, in a manner
reminiscent of what occurs in Modern Korean. One of the arguments in
favour of this analysis is that the voiceless/voiced difference was not
recorded in the documents of the Heian period and even after. However, a
counter-argument exists, which would contradict the absence of a distinctive
opposition between voiced and voiceless obstruents in Archaic Japanese.
Some of the oldest documents (in particular the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki)
denote very accurately the presence of a voiced obstruent in the passages
transcribed in Japanese, a notation which later, from the Nara period on,
became suddenly optional or erratic, hence a serious problem. The rather
sudden disappearance of voicing indications in the oldest documents
actually constitutes one of the most mysterious enigmas in the history of the
Japanese language, as we shall see in the next section.

4.1.5 Representation In the Writing, Past And Present
Unlike the Latin alphabet, the modern kana writing system captures in a
quasi iconic manner the natural link which exists between a voiced and a
voiceless obstruent. Voicing of an obstruent is transcribed, in hiragana and
katakana, by the addition of two superscript diacritic dots (the dakuten ##
‘voicing dots’) on the right side of the kana used to denote the mora starting
with the corresponding voiceless consonant (see section 1.5). The written
symbol for the voiced sound is thus derived from the voiceless one, in a
uniform manner. This notation actually reflects the morpho-phonological
status of voicing in Japanese obstruents in a rather appropriate manner,
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The phonology of consonant voicing

because obstruent voicing often appears, as we shall see, as a secondary,
derived property.
However, the notation of voicing in the kana system is rather recent. Voicing
has been indicated in a systematic way in the common orthography since
the middle of the twentieth century only. The dakuten used in the modern
kana writing system are actually the product of a long and complex history.
It is interesting to look back at its development across the centuries because
it sheds interesting light on the phonological nature and perception of the
voicing feature in the Japanese language.
First, one has to consider the question of the recognition of the
voicing opposition in Japanese documents. Is voicing indicated or not? In
the Kojiki (712 ad) and the Nihonshoki (720 ad), two of the oldest Japanese
texts, the voicing opposition is nearly always precisely and accurately noted
in the sections written in Japanese or transcribing Japanese nouns (these
two documents also contain parts written in Chinese). The writers used
man’yôgana (Chinese characters that are used for their phonetic reading in
Chinese or Japanese), the ancestor of kana. For instance, to transcribe the
moras ku and gu, they use the following characters:
(6) Sets of man’yôgana used to transcribe the moras ku and gu
in the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki (eighth century)
(p. 109 )

ku: ############etc.
gu: #######, etc.
This mode of transcription is radically different in spirit from the one used
today since there did not exist a single and uniform diacritic mark to
denote voicing. Moreover, this system does not capture the phonetic and
phonological link which exists between a voiced and voiceless consonant in
the system.
In the Man’yôshû, a collection of Japanese poetry whose compilation was
completed around 760 ad, the written distinction between voiced and
voiceless consonants becomes loose, and even absent in a number of
poems. For instance, poem 3645 uses the same character # to transcribe
the sound ki in oki ‘offing’ and gi in wagimoko ‘my lady’. In the texts in prose
which flourished during the Heian period (794–1185), when the man’yôgana
progressively gave rise to the hiragana by way of simplification, the voicing
distinction disappears completely in documents written in hiragana (see
Seeley, 1991 on the history of Japanese writing). One single kana is used
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The phonology of consonant voicing

to represent both the voiced and voiceless version of a given CV mora.
Posterior texts in katakana such as the Hôjôki (1212) follow exactly the same
principle.
However, we know from the first missionary accounts of the Muromachi
period in the Latin alphabet (for instance Rodriguez, 1604–1608) that the
voicing distinction had a phonemic status in Japanese since it is consistently
transcribed in the first documents in the Latin alphabet. It is only in the Edo
period (1604–1868) that a written distinction between voiced and voiceless
obstruents reappears in printed kana documents, by means of the dakuten,
but even in the Edo period the notation of voicing was neither systematic nor
consistent.
To sum up, whereas the voicing distinction is regularly and faithfully
transcribed in the earliest man’yôgana texts, it disappears within a few
decades with (p. 110 ) the completion of the kana systems during the Heian
period, before reappearing during the Edo period several centuries later.
The temporary disappearance of the voicing opposition in the orthography
constitutes one of the most intriguing mysteries in the history of the
Japanese language. Whatever the exact reason for this fact, what we must
retain is that voicing was not felt to be as distinctive as other features for
many centuries. For details about the precise interpretations of these facts,
see Labrune (1998a) or Ohno (2005) and the references cited therein.
Next, we shall look at how voicing was shown in cases where it was. As
pointed out above, different man’yôgana were used in the oldest texts to
denote voicing differences. From the Heian period on, the voicing distinction
is denoted only in kanbun style texts, that is, texts written by the Japanese
in Chinese. A practice starting from the twelfth century makes use of a mark,
posted onto a Chinese character, or onto the kana symbol written next to
a Chinese character, in order to indicate that its pronunciation contains
a voiced obstruent. The marks used vary greatly depending on the texts,
writers, or regions, especially in the older texts. They may consist of a small
circle, full or empty, or two circles, sometimes two or three triangles, placed
in one of the four corners of the square which contains a character, or they
may affect the kana placed next to the character.
Interestingly, the initial function of such marks was to indicate the tone
of the character (in its Chinese pronunciation) but soon enough the mark
also came to denote the voicing status of the consonant, in conjunction
with the tone. Some texts make a marking distinction between ‘original
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The phonology of consonant voicing

voicing’ (hondaku ##) and ‘new voicing’ (shindaku ##), that is, voicing
resulting from rendaku or post-nasal voicing (see sections 4.2 and 4.3 and ).
One also finds a very curious manner of voicing transcription consisting
of writing a given kana under its mirror image to indicate the presence of
voicing (cf. Kokugo Gakkai, 1992, Tsukishima, 1977, or Labrune, 1998a, for
reproductions of the original documents). In the course of time, the so-called
dakuten, that is, the two dots placed at the top right corner of a kana as we
know them today emerged as the most common mark.
It is extremely interesting to look back at the evolution of the utilization and
value of the modern dakuten, because it is an established fact that dakuten
were originally used for the indication of tone. In this respect, it is quite
paradoxical to observe that they were used in documents written in Chinese
characters, a system that is basically logographic, whereas they were not
used in kana texts, even though kana is a truly phonographic system. Some
scholars have posited that the voicing distinction was consistently made
in older texts because those were written by people who were well trained
in Chinese, and were used to distinguish voiced from unvoiced (Hamada,
1960; Ohno, 2005). Less educated people had more trouble in making the
distinction because it was less distinctive than it is in Modern Japanese.
We must not exclude the possibility that dakuten were (p. 111 ) primarily
developed as an aid to understand and pronounce foreign languages
(Chinese and Sanskrit) in kanbun texts, mostly written by monks. If this is
the case, it could mean that it is only in this type of text that the voiced/
voiceless opposition was felt to be really distinctive, underlying the fact that
it was not so in native Japanese (Yamato Japanese). However, it remains
hard to understand why voicing was accurately transcribed in the Kojiki and
the Nihonshoki, the earliest texts in Japanese, except under the hypothesis
that these documents might have been written by non-natives, for example
Chinese or Korean scribes.

4.1.6 The Internal Structure of Voiced Obstruents
In Labrune (1999), I proposed a theoretical treatment of the phonological
structure of voiced obstruents within the representational framework of
autosegmental phonology and feature geometry (Clements and Hume,
1995). The idea is that voiced obstruents are intrinsically specified for
nasality. I argue, first, that voicing on the surface as it presently occurs
in the modern language can be accounted for by the presence of a nasal
specification in the internal structure of the consonant under a Spontaneous
Voicing (SV) node (following the proposal by Piggott, 1992). Second, I claim
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The phonology of consonant voicing

that voiced obstruents in Yamato words possess two root nodes under a
single skeletal position, and must therefore be viewed as heavy segments.
(7) Internal structure of voiced obstruents (Labrune, 1999)
(Place features are omitted)

In the older language, voiced obstruents corresponded to two skeletal
positions, the first one being carried out as a prenasalization. In other
words, /b, d, g, z/ (surface [mb, nd, ŋg, nz]) were contour segments. This
representation also helps to understand why they sometimes alternate with
voiceless geminates, as in migi + kawa # migi-gawa° (# migi-ngawa) / migikkawa° ‘right side’.
In the modern language, nasality is now implemented, in a majority of cases,
by means of a voiced feature at the surface level.
This approach which regards voiced obstruents as containing a nasal
specification at the level of their infra-segmental structure is confirmed by
the evolution process these consonants have gone through during the history
of Japanese (see the next section). It also accounts for certain modern forms
where the presence of an inter-morphemic n is apparently unexplainable,
for example in on-dori° ‘cockerel’, men-dori° ‘hen’ (from o- ‘male’, me‘female’, and tori° ‘bird’), kuman-bachi ‘hornet’ (from kuma ‘bear’ and hachi
° ‘wasp’). There also exist many doublets of the type kobu / konbu ‘sea
tangle’, togaru / tongaru ‘to be sharp’, tobi / tonbi ‘kite (milvus migrans)’,
tabi / tanbi ‘time’. In all such cases, it is not possible to posit the presence
of a rendaku, of the particle no, or of any other morphological element since
we are dealing with simplex words. These modern examples containing
a prenasalization are simply vestiges of a former state of the language.
They reflect a once widespread pronunciation of the voiced obstruents as
prenasalized segments, as is still found in a number of modern dialects.
(p. 112 )

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The phonology of consonant voicing

4.2 Rendaku
Voicing also plays an essential role in Japanese morphology because it
functions as a compounding marker, a process known as rendaku (##),
literally ‘sequential voicing’, or ‘connective voicing’. Rendaku consists of a
phonological alteration which occurs at morpheme juncture when two full
morphemes enter the formation of a compound word, resulting in the voicing
of the initial obstruent of the second component. It affects /k, s, t, h/, which
become respectively /g, z, d, b/.3 If the second element of the compounding
starts with a segment other than k,s,t,h, that is, an already voiced consonant
like b, d, z, m, n, r, w, y, or by a vowel, no transformation can occur, except
for the velar voiced consonant /g/ which may (but in a non-obligatory way)
be nasalized as [ŋ] in the speech of speakers who have this allophone of /g/
in their system (see section 3.10).
Consider the following examples.
(8)
u mi + kame

umi-game° (or
umi-game)

‘sea’ + ‘turtle’

‘sea turtle’

ku ro + satou°

kuro-zatou

‘black’ + ‘sugar’

‘brown sugar’

kaki + tsurai°

kaki-zurai

‘writing’ +
‘difficult’

‘hard to write’

se + hone

se-bone°

‘back’ + ‘bone’

‘backbone’

te + kaki

te-gaki°

‘hand’ + ‘writing’

‘handwriting’

mome° + koto

mome-goto°

‘discord’ + ‘thing’

‘trouble, discord’

(p. 113 )

As can be seen from these examples, rendaku not only occurs when
combining two nouns but also with other types of combinations such as Noun
+ Verb (te-gaki°), Adjective + Noun (kuro-zatou), Verb + Noun (mome-goto
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The phonology of consonant voicing

°), Verb + Adjective (kaki-zurai), and so on, except, as we will see below, in
Verb + Verb compounds.
The principal problem raised by the Japanese rendaku is due to the
unpredictable and apparently random character of its appearance. Take
for instance the oft-cited example of the two Japanese syllabaries’ names
(Martin, 1952). Katakana / katakana (kata / kata ‘side’ + kana° ‘letter’)
has not undergone rendaku of the second constituent so kana remains
voiceless, whereas the second syllabary, hiragana / hiragana° / hiragana
(hira ‘flat’ + kana°), presents a rendaku. However, it is often said that
nothing in the combination mode, the origin, or the phonological structure of
the morphemes implied could explain this difference.4 Examples of this type
are not hard to find. In addition to hiragana and katakana, let us mention for
instance:
(9)
ashi + kuse

ashi-kuse°
*ashi-guse°

‘foot’ + ‘habit’

‘(particular) way
of walking’

vs.
kuchi° + kuse

kuchi-guse°
*kuchi-kuse°

‘mouth’ + ‘habit’

‘favourite phrase’

yuki + tama

yuki-dama° *yukitama°

‘snow’ + ‘ball’

‘snow ball’

vs.
mizu° + tama

mizu-tama°
*mizu-dama°

‘water’ + ‘ball’

‘water ball (water
drop)’

u mi + tori°

umi-dori *umitori

‘sea’ + ‘bird’

‘sea bird’

vs.

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The phonology of consonant voicing

niwa° + tori°

niwa-tori°
*niwa-dori°

‘garden’ + ‘bird’

‘rooster’

(p. 114 )

Moreover, many examples illustrate the fact that the two modes of
compounding, with and without rendaku, can exist in parallel for the same
compound, without any difference in meaning or even in usage between
the two, as in waru-kuchi / waru-guchi ‘calumny’, kenkyuu-sho° / kenkyuujo° ‘research centre’, nori-tsuke° / nori-zuke° ‘pasting’, kami-kakushi /
kami-gakushi ‘disappearance (of child) (lit. ‘hidden by the gods’)’, kaki-tome
° / kaki-dome° ‘registered mail’.
Many scholars explicitly or implicitly follow the view that rendaku appearance
is the default, elsewhere condition when two lexemes enter compounding,
if some specific blocking factors such as the ones to be presented below
in section 4.2.2 are not involved. Rendaku can thus be viewed as the
materialization of a dependency link which exists between two lexemes on
the occurrence of compounding.
Whether rendaku is still productive is a matter of controversy. Ohno
(2000) has conducted an experiment which demonstrates the usage-based
conditioning of rendaku application. He argues that native speakers refer
to a semantically and/or phonetically parallel existing compound in order
to determine whether a novel compound must undergo rendaku or not. If
there is no existing parallel rendaku form, the item will not undergo rendaku
in the novel compound. For this author, speakers simply memorize whether
rendaku occurs for individual compounds, and so synchronically rendaku
would just be the lexical residue of a rule which was once productive and
automatic. However, the data presented by Fukuda and Fukuda (1999), cited
in Kubozono (2005), tend to demonstrate that rendaku is still productive,
which suggests that more research is still needed on this question.5
Rendaku has sometimes been regarded as a fossil of the determination
particle no or of some other particle containing either a nasal (such as ni,
which marks the agent, the recipient, the locative, the attributive, among
others), or a voiced obstruent (such as de, locative marker). This would
explain why, as we shall see in section 4.2.2, rendaku does not appear
in coordinative (dvandva) compounds, in Object + Verb compounds, or
in mimetics, where there is no syntactic or semantic reason to assume
the underlying presence of a particle like no,ni, or de. This is the analysis
Page 16 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

proposed by Lyman (cited by Yamaguchi Yoshinori, 1988b), Vance (1982),
and Hirano (1974, cited by Takayama M., 1992). Thus for example yamagawa° ‘mountain river’ is a determinative compound which would derive
from yama no kawa ‘mountain’ Det. ‘river’, whereas yama-kawa ‘mountains
(and) rivers’, a coordinative compound, is the simple juxtaposition, (p. 115 )
on the morphological and semantic levels, of yama and kawa, hence the
absence of rendaku.
Incidentally, it is interesting to observe that rendaku sometimes alternates
with voiceless consonant gemination (Takayama T., 1995), as in migi-gawa° /
migi-kkawa° ‘right side’, de-ba / de-ppa ‘protruding teeth’, hitori-go / hitorikko ‘only child’, kore-kiri / kore-kkiri / kore-giri° ‘once (and) for all, that’s it’,
suki-ppara° / suki-bara° ‘empty stomach’. So in addition to rendaku, at least
two other common compounding markers exist in Japanese: gemination of
the initial consonant of the second member, and, as we shall see in Chapter
7, accentuation.
In spite of its largely random nature, some factors favourable to the
application of rendaku can be identified, as shown in the next section.

4.2.1 Rendaku Triggering Factors
The factors which condition the appearance of rendaku are of various
kinds. First, there exist factors of a lexical nature. Rendaku can be regarded
as a compounding marker, but it is also a manifestation of the degree
of lexicalization of a given compound. All things being equal, the more
lexicalized and frequent, the more a compound will be likely to contain a
rendaku. The occurrence of rendaku also varies according to the lexical
class, reflecting the degree of integration of a compound in the lexicon of
Japanese. Whereas rendaku is extremely rare in loans of Western origin,
and only occasional in Sino-Japanese words, it is very frequent in Yamato
words. Lexemes of this latter stratum constitute the very privileged target
for the application of rendaku when they occur as the final component of
a compound. According to Rosen (2003), rendaku occurs in about 75%
of Yamato Noun–Noun compounds that present the right phonological
conditions to trigger it. However, and very interestingly, his survey makes
it clear that cases of rendaku blocking actually cluster around particular
lexical items rather than being randomly dispersed. This means that most
nouns undergo rendaku in a regular manner, whereas a small number of
nouns exhibit idiosyncratic behaviour with respect to rendaku: they either
block it in a seemingly unpredictable and unconsistent manner in a number
Page 17 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

of compounds, or consistently block it under all conditions. Therefore there
exists a clear unbalance as to the number of rendaku-triggering nouns
and rendaku-blocking nouns, to the benefit of the former. We will return to
Rosen’s study in the next pages.
Takayama T. (2005) claims that Sino-Japanese words that undergo
rendaku are informal or colloquial expressions which can be categorized as
‘vulgarized Sino-Japanese’. They are lexemes of high frequency, which refer
to concrete and familiar referents, like shashin° ‘photograph, kaisha° ‘a firm’,
satou ‘sugar’.
(p. 116 ) (10) Rendaku in Sino-Japanese words
ao + shashin° /
syasiN/

ao-jashin /zyasiN/

‘blue’ +
‘photograph’

‘blueprint’

kabushiki +
kaisha°

kabushiki-gaisha

‘share, stock’ +
‘firm’

‘a stock
company’

ku ro + satou

kuro-zatou

‘black’ + ‘sugar’

‘brown sugar’

The few cases of rendaku occurring in Western loans are found only in words
which are no longer perceived as foreign, and have totally assimilated to
the Yamato class. This is the case of kappa° ‘overcoat, raincoat’ and karuta
‘playing card’, two very early loans from Portuguese (see Takayama T., 2005
for additional examples). Many speakers analyse these words as Yamato
words, hence the application of rendaku when they occur as the second
constituent of a compound as in ama-gappa ‘raincoat’ and iroha-garuta
‘iroha card (a game with the Japanese kana)’.
The phonetic environment constitutes one of the other determining factors
for the application of rendaku. Rendaku occurs much more readily when the
first element of the compound ends with the mora nasal /N/. This type of
rendaku is traditionally referred to as shindaku (## literally ‘new voicing’) in
Sino-Japanese words.
(11) Rendaku after /N/
ho n + tana°

Page 18 of 40

ho n-dana

The phonology of consonant voicing

‘book’ + ‘shelf’

‘bookshelf’

ha n + hiraki

han-biraki° /
han-biraki

‘half’ + ‘to open’

‘half-open’

shi n + suru°

shin-zuru

‘trust’ + ‘to do’

‘to trust’

Sino-Japanese words usually described as containing a rendaku often
belong to this category. However, the examples cited here can be analysed
differently. In hon-dana,han-biraki° / han-biraki, and shin-zuru (in which
the initial morphemes are Sino-Japanese and the final ones Yamato) the
voicing occurring after the mora nasal might not pertain, strictly speaking,
to a rendaku since this type of voicing can appear elsewhere than at the
boundary between two autonomous morphemes. We might be dealing here
with post-nasal voicing (see section 4.3), which, unlike rendaku, has no
morphological function.
It also appears that, other things being equal, the length of the
compound or of one of its constituents might also determine the application
of rendaku. Rosen (2003) and Irwin (2009) claim that long compounds
prevent the blocking of rendaku under most conditions. Rosen (2003) shows
that a set of words, which he labels as ‘rendaku-resisters’, can undergo
voicing in a number of short–short noun compounds but always voice in long
compounds (see Table 4.1 in the next section). In other words, rendakuresisters never block rendaku when they occur in long compounds, but
may voice when preceded by a short noun. (A compound is considered
as long when its first component exceeds two moras.) So there exists a
prosodic size threshold which, when exceeded by a compound, disables the
blocking of rendaku by rendaku resisters. Compare for example the following
examples with kusa ‘grass’, a noun which, according to Rosen (2003), always
undergoes rendaku when appearing after a long first member (12a), but
sometimes resists it when the first member is short (12b).
(12) Rendaku and prosodic length (C2 is not a rendakublocking noun)
a. C1 = long → rendaku is systematic
(p. 117 )

•
•
•
Page 19 of 40

hotaru-gusa ‘firefly grass’
enokoro-gusa ‘foxtail grass’
hitsuji-gusa ‘sheep grass’
The phonology of consonant voicing

b. C1 = short → rendaku is non-systematic
•
•

mizu-kusa° ‘water grass’
no-gusa ‘wild grasses’

Ohno (2000) also reports an interesting experiment concerning the voicing
of the morpheme hon ‘book’ in relation to the length of the first component.
Hon undergoes rendaku only when the first member of the compound has
three or more moras, as in bunko-bon ‘pocket book’, manga-bon° ‘manga
book’, karugaru-bon ‘light book’ (the last item is a novel compound made
up for the experiment). These examples can be compared to e-hon ‘picture
book’ or aka-hon° ‘cheap (pulp) fiction’ in which no rendaku occurs. All of this
shows that the size is definitely relevant for rendaku application.
However, long compounds containing more than two constituents do not
undergo rendaku in a systematic way. This is because rendaku also depends
on the morpho-syntactic structure of the compound. According to Otsu
(1980), Rendaku happens only when a potential rendaku segment is on a
right branch at the lowest level of a constituent tree. So one finds minimal
pairs like the following (accent omitted):
(p. 118 ) (13) Right-branch condition (Otsu, 1980)
a. nuri + hashi +
hako

# nuri-hashi-bako

(nuri((hashi)
(bako)))

(the second
element does not
undergo rendaku)

‘lacquered’ +
‘chopstick’ +
‘box’

‘chopstick
box which is
lacquered’

b. nuri + hashi + hako # nuri-bashi-bako
(((nuri)
(bashi))(bako)

Page 20 of 40

(both the
second
and third
elements
undergo
rendaku)

The phonology of consonant voicing

‘lacquered’ +
‘chopstick’ +
‘box’

‘box for
lacquered
chopsticks’

Observe the meaning difference between the two compounds in (13). The
scope of nuri ‘lacquered’ is different in the two examples.
Semantic factors are also relevant. Rendaku appears systematically in
reduplicated forms with a plural or iterative value as depicted in (14).
(14)
hito° + hito°

hito-bito

‘person’ +
‘person’

‘people’

kuni° + kuni°

kuni- g uni

‘country’ +
‘country’

‘various
countries’

ka esu + kaesu

kaesu-gaesu

‘to repeat’ + ‘to
repeat’

‘repeatedly’

Note however that in reduplications with distributive value, variation
occurs: rendaku may or may not apply: sore-zore (sore-zore) ‘each’ with
rendaku,hitori-hitori ‘each person’, without rendaku (the form with rendaku
hitori-bitori is also attested).
Finally, the grammatical class of words also plays a key role. Vance (2005)
shows that 80% of the compounds involving adjectives, be they of the
structure Adj + Verb = V (naga-biku ‘be prolonged’), Adj + Verb = Noun
(waka-gaeri ‘rejuvenation’), Adj + Adj = Adj (usu-gurai° / usu-gurai ‘dim’) or
Verb + Adj = Adj (utagai-bukai ‘suspicious’) undergo rendaku, a percentage
comparable to that found by Rosen (2003) for Yamato Noun + Noun = Noun
compounds (p. 119 ) (see above). Contrastively, as we will see below, Verb +
Verb = Verb compounds do not normally exhibit rendaku.
These few remarks are unfortunately far from providing a correct account
of all cases of occurrence of rendaku. As Yamaguchi Yoshinori (1988b)

Page 21 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

observes, it is easier to enumerate the conditions of rendaku blocking than to
determine the rules which govern its application, as shown in section 4.2.2.

4.2.2 Rendaku-blocking Factors
The conditions of rendaku blocking depend on various phonological,
semantic, syntactic, and lexical parameters. As we have seen, the lexical
origin of the morphemes has considerable influence on the chances for
rendaku to apply. It occurs less often in Sino-Japanese words than in Yamato
words, and never in recent Western loans (the exceptions only concern older
loans, see above). Reduplicated mimetic words also never undergo rendaku:
kira-kira ‘glitteringly’, pera-pera° ‘eloquently’ (*kira-gira,*pera-bera°6).
Neither do numeral compounds made up of a numeral and a specifier like
huta-hako ‘two boxes’ (*huta-bako) or go-hiki ‘five animals’ (*go-biki), but
for a few exceptions such as hitotsu-boshi ‘one star’, and some compounds
starting with san° ‘three’ because of the presence of /N/ (such cases resort to
post-nasal voicing, see below).
A general principle blocks the application of rendaku. This principle is that of
dissimilation. Rendaku does not occur when its appearance would be likely
to involve the co-occurrence of two identical segments or of phonologically
resembling segments within the same domain. The most widely known
aspect of this phenomenon is without question the so-called Lyman’s
law. Lyman’s law stipulates that rendaku never occurs when the second
component of the compound already contains a voiced obstruent. It is
important to note that rendaku is not blocked when the second component
contains a sonorant (a nasal or the liquid r). Consider the following examples:
(15)
ka
mi +
tana°

kami-dana
°

‘god’
+
‘shelf’

‘a
domestic
altar’

*kamitana°

but
kami
+
kaze°

Page 22 of 40

kamikaze

*kami-gaze

The phonology of consonant voicing

‘god’
+
‘wind’

‘divine
wind’

toki +
toki

toki-doki /
toki-doki
°

‘moment’
+
‘moment’

‘sometimes’

*tokitoki /
*tokitoki°

but
tabi +
tabi

tabitabi°

‘time’
+
‘time’

‘often’

mizu
°+
kuruma
°

mizu-guruma

‘water’
+
‘wheel’

‘water
wheel’

*tabi-dabi
°

*mizu-kuruma

but
mizu
°+
kagami

mizu-kagami

‘water’
+
‘mirror’

‘reflection
in
water’

*mizu-gagami

(p. 120 )

The non-application of rendaku in kamikaze,tabi-tabi°, and mizu-kagami
can actually be regarded as pertaining to the already discussed general law
of Yamato roots, which forbids the co-occurrence of two voiced obstruents
within the same morpheme (see section 4.1.1).

Page 23 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

Observe that the presence of a voiced obstruent in the first component,
for example in mizu°, is irrelevant with regard to Lyman’s law. However,
some exceptions to this principle have been reported, especially in personal
names ending with the morpheme ta # ‘rice field’ (Kubozono, 2003 based on
Sugitô, 1965). Rendaku of ta fails to apply when it is immediately preceded
in the first component by a voiced obstruent or by /y/. We thus have Kubota,Naga-ta°,Mizu-ta, etc. but Yama-da°,Kan-da°,Yasu-da°, etc. (all are
personal names).
The non-application of rendaku in cases where the second component
already contains a voiced obstruent is often described as an absolute
principle, but Vance (1987) mentions a few exceptions. The least disputable
examples are compounds containing the noun hashigo° ‘ladder’, for example
nawa + hashigo° # nawa-bashigo ‘rope ladder’, in which the rendaku of h
occurs, in spite of the presence of g in hashigo°. But interestingly enough,
the two voiced obstruents in -bashigo are not contiguous, and moreover,
hashigo° is a lexeme longer than two moras, and, as already mentioned,
prosodic length has been shown to be a definite rendaku-triggering factor.
Other manifestations of the dissimilation principle, which Lyman’s law can
be viewed as a strong example of, are a little less obvious but nevertheless
rather special. They appear in examples such as those presented in (16),
taken from Satô H. (1989). Here, the absence of rendaku seems to be
motivated by a dissimilatory principle, in order to avoid repetition of the
same phonological element, which can be either a mora or a segment.
(16)
a. Compounds containing the morpheme hi ‘fire’
tobi
°
+
hi

tobihi°

‘jump’
+
‘fire’

‘leaping
flames’

*tobi-bi
°

Compare
with
kitsune
°
+
hi
Page 24 of 40

kitsune-bi

*kitsunehi

The phonology of consonant voicing

‘fox’
+
‘fire’

‘a
fox
(elf)
fire’

nokori
+
hi

nokori-bi

‘remainder’
+
‘fire’

‘embers’

morai
°
+
hi

morai-bi
°
(morai-bi,
morai-bi)

‘receiving’
+
‘fire’

‘fire
caught
from
a
neighbouring
house’

*nokorihi

*moraihi

(p. 121 )

b. Compounds containing the morpheme tsukeru ‘to put’
kizu
°
+
tsukeru

kizutsukeru

‘a
wound’
+
‘to
put’

‘to
hurt’

*kizu-zukeru

Compare
with
a
to
+
tsukeru

Page 25 of 40

ato-zukeru

*atotsukeru

The phonology of consonant voicing

‘a
trace’
+
‘to
put’

‘to
leave
a
trace’

na
°
+
tsukeru

na-zukeru

‘name’
+
‘to
put’

‘to
name’

i
chi
+
tsukeru

ichi-zukeru

‘position’
+
‘to
put’

‘to
locate’

*natsukeru

*ichitsukeru

This series of examples shows that compounds of the shape X + hi and X +
tsukeru undergo rendaku regularly, except tobi-hi° and kizu-tsukeru, the two
forms which already contain the moras bi and zu in their first component.
This seems to be a robust tendency, and I could find only one counter
example, tabi-bito° ‘traveller’ (tabi + hito°) with respect to this rule in the
list of about 800 rendaku-containing compounds provided by Itô and Mester
(2003, appendix). However, since voiced obstruents are statistically much
less frequent in the overall Japanese lexicon, as the statistics shown at the
end of Chapter 3 indicate, additional research based on a thorough statistical
analysis is called for in order to confirm the reality of this phenomenon.
Satô H. (1989, quoting Kindaichi 1976) also mentions the lexemes hime
‘princess’ and himo° ‘string’, which never undergo rendaku. This could also
be interpreted as an effect of the dissimilation principle, since the voicing of
h would produce the components *bime, *bimo, with two labial consonants.
However, a number of other lexemes such as tsuchi ‘soil’, shio ‘tide’, kemuri
° ‘smoke’, taka° ‘hawk’, are known to resist rendaku even though voicing
Page 26 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

of their initial segment would not cause the repetition of similar segments
or features.7 Such words actually belong to the class of nouns that Rosen
(2003) labels as ‘rendaku-immune’. Rosen examines exceptions to rendaku
voicing that are independent of Lyman’s law and which are generally ignored
or treated as random and (p. 122 ) unsystematic by the relevant literature.
He argues that although rendaku appears completely unpredictable seen
from the perspective of individual nouns, it exhibits a strong degree of
patterning on a global scale. On the basis of a thorough corpus examination
of Noun + Noun compounds, he identifies three types of nouns with respect
to rendaku blocking:
(a) ‘Rendaku-immune nouns’, which never voice under any
circumstances (see also Martin, 1987, Vance, 1987), such as kita°
‘north’, hasi° ‘edge’, shita ‘below’, kasu ‘dregs’, hima° ‘leisure’,
kemuri° ‘smoke’, kase ‘shackles’, himo° ‘string’, katachi° ‘shape’,
tsuchi ‘earth’, hime ‘princess’, kamachi° ‘framework’, hama
‘beach’, tsuya° ‘gloss’.
(b) ‘Rendaku resisters’ which robustly resist voicing but only in
short–short compounds (short–short compounds are compounds in
which neither member exceeds two moras).
(c) The elsewhere case of all other nouns, which undergo rendaku
voicing in most compounds.
The difference between rendaku-immune nouns and rendaku resisters thus
lies in the fact that rendaku-immune nouns never undergo voicing, even in
long compounds, whereas rendaku resisters always voice in long compounds,
even though they do not always do so in short ones (see the examples with
kusa ‘grass’ cited in (12)).
Rosen’s study shows that cases of rendaku blocking among rendaku resisters
actually cluster around particular lexical items rather than being randomly
dispersed. That is, about half of the cases of rendaku blocking in short–short
compounds occur among just eight nouns, which are: kusa ‘grass’, hara
‘field’, kuse ‘habit’, kawa ‘skin’, saki° ‘tip’, ki ‘tree’, ko° ‘child’, te ‘hand’.8
These findings are summarized in table 4.1. We will return to Rosen’s study,
which consitutes an important recent contribution to rendaku, in section
4.2.4 below.
It is sometimes said that Verb + Verb compounds are another type of
compound in which rendaku is supposed to occur less readily. Okumura
(1980) gives the pairs seme-toru ‘to take by assault’ (accent unknown) with
no rendaku, and seme-dori ‘being forced to add extra stones to remove a
Page 27 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

captured group from the board (a term of the go jargon)’, its nominal form,
which exhibits rendaku. However, according to Vance (2005), neither the
verbal nor the nominal variant undergoes rendaku in about 90% of the
compounds belonging to this type. To (p. 123 )
Table 4.1 Summary of blocking patterns among Yamato noun–noun
compounds (Table 5 in Rosen 2003)
Classification
of second
conjunct

Total n°
of short

N° of cases of
Total n° of long N° of cases of
voicing in short compounds
voicing in long

compounds

Rendakuimmune (never
undergoes
rendaku
voicing)

0 (0%)

Rendakuresistant
(usually blocks
voicing in short
compounds but
never in long
compounds)

119

36 (30%)

13 (100%)

0 (0%)

580

522 (90%)

196

196 (100%)

Unknown
type (never
undergoes
rendaku but
occurs in few
compounds;
likely either
rendakuresistant or
rendakuimmune)
Non-resistant
(usually voices
in compounds)

give just one example, mi-toosu° / mi-toosu ‘foresee’ and mi-toosi°
‘prospect’, both occur with no rendaku.9

Page 28 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

Another robust constraint of a morpho-syntactic nature is at work. Rendaku
tends to occur more easily when the initial component (a noun) is an
instrument, or place complement, than when it is the object complement
of the final component. Compare for instance the following pairs (Okumura,
1980):
(17)
e+
kaki

e-kaki

‘picture’
+
‘writing’

‘a
painter
(=
picture
drawing)’

(Object)

hude
°+
kaki

hude-gaki
°

(Instrument)

‘brush’
+
‘writing’

‘writing
with a
brush’

ya ne
+ huki
°

yanehuki
(yanehuki°)

‘roof’
+
‘covering’

‘roof
covering’

vs.

(Object)

vs.
wa ra
+ huki
°

wara-buki
°

‘straw’
+
‘covering’

‘thatching
with
straw’

(Instrument)

(p. 124 )

Page 29 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

Here, it is tempting to resort to the etymological hypothesis already
mentioned in 4.2, which analyses rendaku as the remnant of an enclitic
particle containing a voice feature, such as de (Instumental) or ni (Locative).
This factor seems to be still productive in Japanese. For instance, in the novel
Neko no kyaku (2001:90–91),10 by the well-known poet Hiraide Takashi, the
narrator makes a linguistically interesting comment regarding the meaning
difference between two possible readings of the compound written as ##
# (which occurs as the title of a lithograph in the novel and combines ##
inazuma° ‘lightning’ and # tori ‘catching’). Should it be inazuma-tori, without
rendaku, or inazuma-dori, with rendaku ? He comments that inazuma-tori
should be interpreted as inazuma wo toru, ‘to catch lightning’ (inazuma
= Object), whereas inazuma-dori would mean ‘to catch (something) like
lightning, or with a movement resembling that of lightning’ (inazuma de
toru,inazuma = Manner).
The semantico-syntactic relationship between the two morphemes of the
compound is relevant in another way. Rendaku generally appears when
the first element syntactically depends on the second. On the other hand,
when no hierarchy exists between the two components, as is typically
the case in dvandva compounds (coordinative compounds), as well as in
reduplicated mimetics, rendaku never occurs. Compare the already cited
pairs of compounds yama-kawa ‘mountains (and) rivers’, and yama-gawa
° ‘river of the mountain’, or tsuyu-shimo ‘dew (and) frost’ and tsuyu-jimo°
‘frost formed by the dew’.11

4.2.3 Correlations Between rendaku And Accent
There exist strong and curious correlations between voicing and accent.
For instance, as just mentioned, it is noteworthy that dvandva compounds
neither undergo rendaku nor receive an accent following the rules of
compound accentuation, as we shall see in Chapter 7. Long compounds,
containing more than two constituents and which possess two accent
kernels do not undergo rendaku either (Itô and Mester, 2003). For Kubozono
(2005), the correct generalization is that ‘phonological unification is blocked
between two constituents A and B, if B does not c-command A’, phonological
unification being materialized by rendaku and/or attribution of a compound
accent pattern.
Rosen (2003) also observes a parallel between the predictability of
accent patterns and the predictability of rendaku appearance with
Page 30 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

respect to prosodic (p. 125 ) length in compound words. As he states,
‘when a compound has at least one constituent that exceeds two moras,
both its pitch accent and the voicing of the rendaku-targeted obstruent
are predictable from the input forms’. So there is a strong correlation
between prosodic size and irregularity regarding accentuation and rendaku
application.
In some cases, one observes that the appearance of rendaku might correlate
with an atonic accent pattern because compounds which fail to undergo
rendaku are often atonic. The series of compounds with tori° ‘bird’ offers
interesting examples: ko-tori° ‘little bird’, mizu-tori° ‘waterfowl’, niwa-tori
° ‘domestic fowl’, yaki-tori° ‘grilled chicken’ with no rendaku are all atonic,
whereas chi-dori ‘plover’, miyako-dori ‘oyster bird’, yama-dori ‘mountain
bird’, watari-dori ‘migrating bird’, all undergo rendaku and are also tonic
(this series of examples comes from Takeuchi, 1999:49).
Another interesting comparison can be seen in the following pairs of
examples, where rendaku-undergoing compounds also happen to be atonic:
(18)
•
hito-te ## ‘one hand’ vs. hito-de° ## ‘another’s hand (lit.
human hand)’
•
(hito- ‘one’ + te ‘hand’ vs. hito° ‘person’ + te ‘hand’)
•
hito-koe ## ‘one voice’ vs. hito-goe° ## ‘human voice’
•
(hito- ‘one’ + koe ‘voice’ vs. hito° ‘person’ + koe ‘voice’)
These correspondences between accent and rendaku are symptomatic of
the particular status of voicing in Japanese. In many respects, voicing can be
compared to a supra-segmental feature such as tone or accent, a point to
which we return in the last section of this chapter.

4.2.4 Some theoretical Proposals Concerning rendaku
For Komatsu (1981), Yamaguchi Yoshinori (1988b), and many other linguists,
the main function of rendaku is that of a compounding marker. Since
virtually no root of the Yamato lexicon starts with a voiced obstruent,
the presence of voicing on the normally voiceless initial consonant of the
second component indicates that this consonant is not initial and, thereby,
that the word is no longer independent. A formal interpretation of this is
provided by Itô and Mester (1986) who posit that rendaku consists of a
morphological operation involving the insertion of a [+voice] autosegment
at compound juncture. This autosegment is associated to an unsyllabified
Page 31 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

segmental position. Itô and Mester (2003:83) reformulate this by saying that
rendaku is a feature-sized morpheme, expressed as ℛ, and consisting of the
specification [+voiced]. ℛ acts as a prefix to the second member in word
compounds, forming a constituent with it.
Rosen (2003) proposes that the capacity for a given noun to undergo
rendaku is encoded in its underlying representation. Recall, as explained
before, that Rosen (p. 126 ) distinguishes three types of nouns: rendakuimmune nouns, rendaku resisters, and rendaku undergoers. He proposes
that the three types be formally specified as follows: rendaku-immune
nouns such as kita° ‘north’ have a [−voice] feature that is linked to the root
node of the initial obstruent, rendaku resisters such as kusa ‘grass’ have a
floating [−voice] feature, and non resisters such as kuchi° ‘mouth’ have an
initial obstruent that is underspecified for voicing, as follows (the capital K
represents a velar stop minus its voicing feature).
(19)

Following Itô and Mester (1986), Rosen assumes that rendaku voicing
occurs because of a junctural morpheme whose underlying form is a floating
[+voice] feature. The basic idea is that in non-resisting nouns, which have
no relevant underlying voicing feature, the [+voice] feature of the junctural
morpheme links to the initial obstruent of the second conjunct in the
output. The linked [−voice] feature of rendaku-immune nouns persists in
all compounds, whereas the floating [−voice] feature of rendaku resisters
persists only in short–short compounds, for a reason which has to do with
the length of the compound. As pointed out above (section 4.2.2), a crucial
aspect of Rosen’s study and analysis rests on the empirical observation that
rendaku-resisting nouns block rendaku only in short–short compounds. So,
in addition to the specification of the [voice] feature which distinguishes
rendaku-immune nouns and rendaku resisters, Rosen claims that one has to
further take into account the prosodic difference between the two types of
compounds, and integrate this into the analysis through a constraint-based
grammar.
Taking for granted that the canonical Japanese feet are bimoraic (see
Chapter 6), Rosen follows Kubozono (1999a) in considering that every foot
is entirely contained within the same morpheme, so that two adjacent
monomoraic feet will not form a single bimoraic foot: each foot will be parsed
as a separate degenerate foot. Adopting the commonly accepted analysis
Page 32 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

that a prosodic word must maximally consist of two feet in Japanese, it
follows that long compounds consist of a separate prosodic word for each
constituent but that short compounds do not. This is supposedly what
explains that rendaku blocking occurs only in short compounds. For Rosen,
‘the relevant generalisation is that rendaku voicing is freely permitted
to occur in a syllable that is at the left edge of a prosodic word’. In short
compounds, the initial obstruent of the second conjunct is not at the left
edge of a prosodic word, whereas it is in long compounds. Rosen assumes
that the marked [+voice] feature is permitted more freely in the prosodically
strong position that occurs at the left edge of the second conjunct of a long
(p. 127 ) compound, i.e. the beginning of a different prosodic word, following
the assumption of Positional Markedness as developed by Zoll (1998), Smith
(2002), etc. In short, the beginning of the second conjunct coincides with
the beginning of a new prosodic word in long compounds but it does not in
short–short compounds. In Rosen’s approach, the lexical prespecification
of a [−voice] feature thus interacts with prosodic length to cause blocking
of rendaku voicing specifically in short–short compounds but not in long
compounds.
Rosen also provides a challenging OT analysis of how different constraints
interact in order to select the right candidates (with or without rendaku).
Since his treatment is extremely technical, and cannot easily be
summarized, interested readers are invited to refer directly to the paper
itself.
To give a flavour of an OT analysis of rendaku, we will offer here a summary
of Itô and Mester (2003). Contrary to Rosen’s, it does not rely on a difference
in specification between nouns, and thus may appear to be ‘mechanically’
simpler. The overall process of rendaku appearance is accounted for by the
action of four main constraints.
(20) Constraints involved in rendaku (Itô and Mester, 2003:96)

Page 33 of 40

No-D2m

No two voiced
obstruents per
morpheme
domain

Realize-M

Every morpheme
in the input
has a nonnull
phonological
exponent in the

The phonology of consonant voicing

output (Kurisu,
2001)
Ident

No change
in feature
specification

No-D

No voiced
obstruents

These four constraints are ordered according to the following hierarchy:
(21) Constraint hierarchy in rendaku (Itô and Mester, 2003)
•
No-D2m ## Realize-M ## Ident ## No-D
Let us see how the analysis works for naga-sode° /naga + ℛ + sode/ ‘longsleeve’, in (22) which does not undergo rendaku because of the application
of Lyman’s law, and natsu-zora° /natu + ℛ + sora/ ‘summer sky’, in (23)
which does (ℛ stands for the rendaku morpheme).
(22) naga-sode
/
naga
+
ℛ
+
sode/

NoD2

naga
zode

RealizeM

Ident

NoD

***

☞
naga
sode

(p. 128 )

(23) natsu-zora
/
natu
+
ℛ
+
sora/

Page 34 of 40

NoD2

RealizeM

Ident

NoD

The phonology of consonant voicing

☞
natsu
zora
natsu
sora

The presentation above is only intended to provide an overview of how the
analysis by Itô and Mester (2003) works. A number of additional constraints
(which can be considered as secondary as far as the core phenomenon of
rendaku is concerned), as well as considerations of a more general relevance
with respect to theoretical research in Optimality Theory, are also involved.
In their account, compounds that do not undergo rendaku are treated as
mere exceptions, and the relevance of prosodic length to the likeliness of
rendaku occurring is not considered.

4.2.5 Concluding Remarks on rendaku
Rendaku is sometimes presented as a unitary phenomenon, but it is not. As
we have seen throughout the preceding pages, rendaku is a process located
at the intersection of several fields of grammar—phonology (both segmental
and prosodic), morphology, syntax, semantics, and so on—where various
forces come into conflict. The difficulty one has in trying to get a full picture
of rendaku precisely comes from the fact that rendaku application or nonapplication depends on factors of many kinds, which concern almost all
dimensions of linguistic analysis, and hence exceptions can always be found.
What we need now are more corpus investigations with a wider coverage,
on the model of those conducted by Rosen (2003), Irwin (2009), or Vance
(2005), but which would target lexemes belonging to all word categories
(nouns, verbs, adjectives), of both Yamato and Sino-Japanese origin. Ideally,
such a database would also contain prosodic information (accent location
as well as length), as well as, needless to say, semantic, morphological, and
syntactic parameters.
Psycholinguistic studies are also likely to provide new insights into rendaku,
particularly concerning the productivity of rendaku in the modern language,
not forgetting the manner in which it is acquired by Japanese children.

Page 35 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

4.3 Post-nasal Voicing
Post-nasal voicing refers to the phenomenon whereby a voiceless consonant
is replaced by its voiced counterpart after the mora nasal /N/ in Yamato
and (p. 129 ) Sino-Japanese words. Voicing of the nasal /N/ spreads to the
following consonant. Typical examples are kan ‘sick’ + sha ‘person’ #
kanja° ‘a patient’, or the well-known cases of the verbal suffixes -te and ta, which become -de and -da after a verbal base ending with /N/: ton-de
° ‘to fly and…’, ton-da° ‘flew’ from tobu° ‘to fly’.12 In all the examples just
cited, none of the morphemes can occur in isolation. Note that mora nasals
do not always cause voicing of a following voiceless consonant, especially
in reduplicated mimetics (kankan° / *kangan° ‘be in rage’). Post-nasal
voicing is often said to apply productively in Yamato words, in an erratic
manner in Sino-Japanese words, and never in Western words, but not a
few exceptions can be found in the Yamato stratum. For instance, we have
chanto° ‘properly’, yutanpo ‘hot water bottle’, tanpopo ‘dandelion’, chinko
‘small person’ or ‘penis’ (child language), Junko (personal name), chinpira°
‘young hooligan’, which are all native (Yamato) words, except Junko whose
first element is Sino-Japanese. Voicing can thus be seen as contrastive in the
post-nasal position even in Yamato words, as Rice (1997, 2005) claims, even
if minimal pairs are hard to find.
Post-nasal voicing must not be confused with rendaku, even though the two
processes involve alternation between a voiced and a voiceless obstruent.
The difference lies in the fact that post-nasal voicing plays no morphological
role, unlike rendaku, and that it can affect non-independent morphemes.
So, whereas rendaku can be viewed as a morphological marker, post-nasal
voicing cannot.
It is true however that there are cases where it is not easy to decide whether
the alternation between a voiced and a voiceless consonant is due to
rendaku or to post-nasal voicing. The two phenomena overlap when voicing
occurs at morpheme juncture in rendaku possible contexts when the first
component ends with /N/ as in hon ‘book’ + tana° ‘shelf’ # hon-dana
‘bookshelf’.
‘Weak’ instances of post-nasal voicing also occur morpheme-internally, when
no alternation is involved, for instance in kangaeru (*kankaeru) ‘to think’
which is a simplex verb of Yamato origin. However, examples of this sort are
rare.

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The phonology of consonant voicing

Itô and Mester (1995a) and Itô, Mester, and Padgett (1995) posit the action
of a *NT constraint in Yamato words to account for post-nasal voicing. *NT
prohibits the occurrence of a voiceless obstruent after the mora nasal, and
voicing after a nasal mora thus becomes a redundant feature (for a view
challenging the analysis by Itô, Mester, and Padgett, 1995, see Rice, 1997).
They claim that *NT is only operative in Yamato words, such as kangaeru
‘to think’, tonde° ‘fly and…’, akanbou° ‘baby’ but not in Sino-Japanese or
Western words, but, as we have seen, counterexamples are commonly
found. So it seems more reasonable to assume, following Ota (2004) who
addresses the question of the learnability of (p. 130 ) the lexical strata in
Japanese through the case study of post-nasal voicing,13 that the distribution
of post-nasal voicing is arbitrary in Japanese from a synchronic point of view.
Rice (1997, 2005) argues that two types of voicing features exist
phonologically in Japanese. The first type, laryngeal voicing, is involved
in rendaku, the second type, sonorant voicing, is involved in post-nasal
voicing. According to her, one of the empirical differences between the two
phenomena would be that post-nasal voicing is not blocked by Lyman’s
law morpheme-initially. However, to my knowledge, the example cited by
Rice, hun-jibaru (hun- + shibaru), is the only one that can be put forward to
support this assumption. It is rather surprising that no other example can be
found, for instance in the paradigm involving the morpheme hon ‘book’ or
‘main’ as a first element. Words such as *hon-zuji cannot be found (only honsuji° ‘main thread’ exists), even though most compounds starting with the
morpheme hon undergo post-nasal voicing, as hon-dana ‘book shelf’, honbako ‘book box’, and so on.

4.4 Voicing In Japanese, A Supra-segmental Feature?
The considerations above lead me to assume that in many respects voicing
in Japanese behaves more like a supra-segmental feature than like an
infra-segmental one (an idea already expressed by Komatsu, 1981, Kamei,
1997, Labrune, 1998a). As we have seen throughout this chapter, voicing
in Japanese displays a great number of characteristics which are typically
associated with supra-segmental features such as accent, stress, or tone. For
instance, voicing can function like a juncture marker in the case of rendaku.
It also fulfils a culminative function since only one voiced obstruent is
authorized within a simple word, as well as a demarcative function, because
voiced obstruents normally do not occur word-initially. The fact that two
voiced obstruents do not normally cohabit within a simple word constitutes a
co-occurrence constraint which is prototypically characteristic of stress, since
Page 37 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

a word cannot contain two primary stresses. Voicing is also highly unstable,
as we have seen in a number of examples in 4.1.3. In addition, there are
cases in which the voicing shifts to the preceding mora, in the manner of a
stress or accent, as in kami-gakura, from kami-kagura, an example which
appears in the Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (1604–1608, reprinted 1976,
cited by Morita, 1977 and Yamaguchi Yoshinori, 1988b).
In the current Japanese writing system, the transcription of voicing
on obstruents is made by way of diacritics (the so-called dakuten), much
like that of a prosodic feature, thus reflecting its autosegmental nature.
Recall also that voicing, like accent, has been ignored for centuries in the
Japanese script (in the same way as stress is not denoted in the orthography
of languages such as English or Russian). The dakuten, the ‘voicing dots’,
have been in systematic use since the turn of the twentieth century only.
Finally, it must be emphasized that for a long time accent and voicing have
shared the same orthographical symbol (Labrune, 1998a), since dakuten
were originally used to denote the presence of an accent on a given mora.
(p. 131 )

Notes:
(1.) Example found on the web in May 2009 in the Japan Times online,
‘Canny Japanese playing it by the numbers’, by Mark Schreiber, 13 June
2002.
(2.) The same goes for h,p, and b, whose difference is ignored in the ordering
of dictionary headwords. We will find hari ‘needle’, bari ‘Bali’, pari ‘Paris’,
before hariai ‘rivalry’.
(3.) On the h → b transformation, see section 3.7. Note also that the voiced
counterpart of the mora tsu is zu in the romanized transcription of Modern
Tôkyô Japanese which has been adopted in this book (see section 3.3).
(4.) However, the words katakana and hiragana also differ accentually.
Katakana is always tonic, with penultimate or antepenultimate accent
(katakana,katakana), while hiragana is tonic with final or penultimate
accent, or atonic (hiragana,hiragana or hiragana°).
(5.) See also below the example taken from a story by Hiraide Takashi, which
illustrates the fact that native speakers are sensitive to meaning differences
expressed by rendaku even in compounds that they have never heard
before.

Page 38 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

(6.) The exceptions which may come to mind are in fact non-ideophonic in
origin, like kori-gori, kori-gori° ‘learning at one’s cost’, from koriru ‘to learn
by experience’, taka-daka ‘very high’, from takai ‘high’. Such words also
differ from true mimetics by the accent pattern.
(7.) It would be interesting to check whether there is a correlation between
the accent pattern of these words and the fact that they resist rendaku,
given the fact that none of the examples cited here is accented on the initial.
(8.) A number of other nouns never voice in short–short compounds, for
instance kata ‘shoulder’ or shimo ‘frost’, but since each of them occurs only
in at most three compounds, all of them short–short, it is difficult to tell if
they are behaving as rendaku-immune nouns or rendaku-resister nouns.
(9.) Some rare exceptions exist. Vance cites the verb kaeri-zaku ‘bloom
again’ (accent unknown), from kaeru ‘to return’ and saku° ‘to bloom’.
(10.) Hiraide Takashi, 2001, Neko no kyaku (The Guest Cat). Reference is to
the paperback edition by Kawade Shobo Shinsha in 2009.
(11.) Noteworthy enough, dvandva compounds do not follow the general
compound accent rule either (see section 7.3.4), so it might be expected
that identical semantic constraints account for the resistance to compound
accent and to rendaku, as observed by Takeuchi (1999) based on Kubozono
(1987).
(12.) The past auxiliaries -te and -ta are also voiced after the moraic front
vowel i in the flexion of -gu ending verbs: toide ‘sharpening and…’, toida
‘sharpened’, from togu ‘to sharpen’.
(13.) This article offers a good summary of the phenomenon and an
interesting discussion of the approaches which have been adopted in OT to
handle such cases of non-uniform phonology within a language.

Page 39 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

Page 40 of 40

The phonology of consonant voicing

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Special segments
Laurence Labrune

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0005

Abstract and Keywords
The term “special segments” refers to the three moraic segments of
Japanese, which constitute a rather unique feature of the language and have
been granted special status in traditional Japanese analyses, namely the
mora nasal /N/, the first part of an obstruent geminate /Q/ and the second
part of a long vowel /R/. The chapter provides a description of their phonetic
realisation, their historical development, and their general phonological
properties in modern Japanese.
Keywords: moraic segments, mora nasal, gemination, obstruent geminates, long vowels,
phonetic realisation, phonological properties

Japanese scholars generally associate under the label ‘special
phonemes’ (tokushu onso ####), ‘special rhythmic units’ (tokushu haku #
##), or ‘mora phonemes’ (môra onso #####), three phonological elements
which exhibit special phonological characteristics, the most significant one
lying in the fact that they are moraic. These units will be referred to as
‘special segments’ or ‘moraic segments’ hereafter. Special segments are:
•
– the mora nasal (hatsuon ##, haneru oto ####), noted /N/ in
phonological transcriptions, as in yanda° /yaNda/ [janda] ‘stopped’,
sanpo° /saNpo/ [sampo] ‘a walk’, hon /hoN/ [#hoN] ‘book’.
•
– the mora obstruent / first part of a geminate (sokuon ##,
tsumaru oto ####), noted /Q/ in phonological transcriptions: kitte
° /kiQte/ ‘stamp’, kossori /koQsori/ ‘secretly’, hakken° /haQkeN/
‘discovery’.
Page 1 of 14

Special segments

•

– the second part of a long vowel (chôon ##, hiku oto ###),
noted /R/ in phonological transcriptions: hou /hoR/ ‘direction’, aa° /
aR/ ‘like that’, kuuki /kuRki/ ‘air’.

A number of Japanese structuralist phonologists only recognize /N/ and /Q/
as ‘special moras’, and exclude /R/ from the set.1 Others (for example Jôo,
1977) sometimes consider that a fourth element should be added to the
list: the moraic palatal vowel i, transcribed as /J/ phonologically. /J/ appears
for instance in kai /kaJ/ ‘shell’, oyoida /oyoJda/ ‘swam’. This element is
also the one which occurs after the vowel /e/ when it is lengthened, as in
sensei /senseJ/ ‘professor’. I assume that there is no need to distinguish /J/
from the moraic vowel /i/, since there is no minimal pair such as /kai/ and /
kaJ/. Accordingly the above-mentioned examples will be transcribed as kai
/kai/, oyoida /oyoida/, and sensei /seNsei/ or /seNseR/ in this book (see also
section 2.7.1, as well as Chapter 6, on this issue).
In this work, I shall follow the Japanese approach (for instance
Hamada, 1949) in considering that /N/, /Q/, and /R/ are segments different in
nature from vowels and consonants.
(p. 133 )

Special segments are worth one prosodic unit (mora, haku) in the same way
as CV sequences. The trimoraic forms sanpo° /saNpo/ ‘a walk’, kitte° /kiQte/
‘stamp’ and kuuki /kuRki/ ‘air’, which each contain one special segment,
are thus perceived as having the same prosodic length (three moras) as the
word sakura° ‘cherry tree’.
The phonological status of /N/, /Q/, and /R/ constitutes without doubt one
of the most intricate issues of Japanese phonology. In particular, it has to
be acknowledged that it is the very existence of these elements which has
led some scholars to posit a distinction between light and heavy syllables
in certain recent approaches, or between normal, independent rhythmic
units (jiritsu haku ###) and special rhythmic units (tokushu haku ###) in
traditional approaches. Since the issue of the mora and syllable in Japanese
phonology will be discussed in detail in the next chapter, in close connection
with the status of special segments, the present chapter will keep to a
general presentation of /N/, /Q/, and /R/’s phenomenology, without entering
too deeply into the problem of their phonological nature and structure.
After having presented each of the three special segments from the point
of view of their phonetic and phonological characteristics (sections 5.1
and 5.2, and 5.3), we will have a look at their origin (section 5.4.), before

Page 2 of 14

Special segments

considering their common properties (section 5.5). We shall finally provide
some statistical data concerning their frequency (section 5.6).

5.1 /N/ (The Mora Nasal)
/N/, the mora nasal, is a generic nasal contoid, with no definite place of
articulation. By default, in slow speech and before a pause, /N/ is a uvular
realized with no dorsal occlusion and transcribed as [N] (1a). Before oral or
nasal labial stops /p/, /b/, /m/, it is realized as [m] (1b), before the alveolars /
t/, /d/, /n/, as [n] (1c), and before the velars /k/ and /g/, as [ŋ] (1d). Before the
fricatives /h/, /s/, and /z/, be they palatalized or not, phoneticians disagree
about its place of articulation: /N/ is either realized as the nasalized version
of the preceding vowel (Saitô, 1997, 2003), as a fricative nasal, or even a
nasalized high vowel [̃ɯ] or [ĩ] (Imada, 1981; Hashimoto Sh., 1950) (1e).
Before the semi-consonants /w/ and /y/ and before vowels, the special
segment /N/ is phonetically a nasal vowel whose quality is said to be that of
the preceding vowel (1f). According to Akamatsu (1997:58ff.) it is actually
impossible to determine the exact quality of /N/ before vowels, semiconsonants, and fricatives. In addition, before the liquid /r/, things are quite
(p. 134 ) fuzzy. It would seem that /N/ is uttered as some kind of [̃ɯ], as the
nasalized version of the preceding vowel, or as a nasal which would be at the
same time alveolar and uvular (1g). Moreover, the presence of /N/ generally
involves nasalization of the preceding vowel (not noted in the examples
below). To conclude, the descriptions of phoneticians diverge considerably as
to the exact articulatory nature of /N/.
(1) Phonetic realization of /N/
a. Before a pause
ho n
[ˡhoᶰ]

b. Before [p], [b], [m]

/hoN/

‘book’

/kiNpatu/

‘blond’

/biNboR/

‘poor’

/geNmai/

‘whole rice’

kinpats͡u°
[kimpa͡ʦɯ]
bi nbou
[ˡbimboː]
ge nmai
[ˡgemmai]

c. Before [t], [d], [n]
Page 3 of 14

Special segments

honten°
[honteN]

/hoNteN/

‘main shop’

/toNda/

‘flew’

/saNneN/

‘three years’

/kaNkei/, /
kaNkeR/

‘relation’

/kaNgae/, /
kaNᒺae/

‘thought
(noun)’

/saNhuziNka/

‘gynaecology’

/seNsei/

‘professor’

/kaNzi/

‘Chinese
character’

tonda°
[tonda]
sannen°
[sanneN]

d. Before [k], [g], [ŋ]
kankei°
[kaŋkeː]
kangae
[kaŋˡɡae],
[kaŋˡŋae]

e. Before /h/, /s/, /z/
sanhujinka°
[sãɯϕɯʑiŋka],
[saãϕɯʑiŋka]
sensei
[seẽˡseː],
[sẽɯˡseː],
[sẽzˡseː]
kanji°
[kaãʑi],
[kãɯʑi],
[kãʑʑi]
(p. 135 )

f. Before /w/, /y/, and before a vowel
kanwa°
[kaãɰa]

/kaNwa/

‘SinoJapanese’

/seNyoR/

‘exclusive
use’

sen’you°
[seẽjoː]

Page 4 of 14

Special segments

on’in°
[oĩiᶰ], [oĩʔiᶰ]

/oNiN/

‘phonology’

/naNoR/

‘Southern
Europe’

/eNryo/

‘reserve,
discretion’

nan’ou°
[naãoː],
[naãʔoː]

g. Before /r/

enryo°
[ˡẽɯɾjo],
[ˡeẽɾjo],
[ˡe̪nɾjo]

Another notable fact about /N/ is that it can never be linked to an onset
position before a vowel. It can never be resyllabified either. Thus the word
on’in° /oNiN/ ‘phonology’ is realized as [oĩ.iN] or [oĩ.⥁iN] but never as *[o.niᶰ],
*[on.niᶰ] or *[o.ᶰiᶰ].2 This impossibility of resyllabifying /N/ and its significance
for the phonological analysis of the moraic segments will be discussed again
in the next chapter (section 6.2.3).
Finally, it is noteworthy to observe that the graphemes # and # for the nasal
mora /N/ in the Japanese kana syllabaries are the only letters whose origin is
totally unknown, contrary to all other kana symbols.

5.2 /Q/ (gemination)
/Q/ represents a generic moraic oral obstruent with no specific place of
articulation. It occurs only before another consonant, except in a few special
cases, in particular that of interjections, in which /Q/ can be word-final.
However, its function in that case is expressive and non-distinctive.
The phonetic realization of /Q/ depends on that of the following consonant. /
Q/ inherits the totality of its articulatory features from the following
obstruent. It is realized as unreleased when it corresponds to a stop, so we
have [p⌝] before /p/, [b⌝] before /b/, [t⌝] before /t/, and so forth. Note that /Q/
is always noted by means of the small kana tsu (#, #) before an obstruent in
the Japanese writing system, whatever its effective phonetic realization.
Consonants likely to undergo gemination, that is, likely to be
preceded by /Q/ in Yamato (including mimetics) and in Sino-Japanese are
normally limited to the voiceless obstruents /p, t, k, s/ and their palatalized
(p. 136 )

Page 5 of 14

Special segments

counterparts (2a). The voiced geminates (bb, dd, zz, gg) appear only in very
recent loanwords, or under particular conditions (see Chapter 4). When they
exist, they tend to undergo devoicing (2b) especially if the word already
contains another voiced obstruent (Kawahara, 2006), as is the case in the
examples provided below. The geminate versions of /r/ and /h/ are almost
non-existent, except in some marginal examples such as recent borrowings
or mimetic words (2c); (on geminate /h/, see also section 3.7, as well as
footnote 3, Chapter 3). The glides /w/ and /y/ are never geminated. Finally,
recall that in Yamato (including mimetics) and Sino-Japanese words the
geminate counterpart of the fricative /h/ is normally [pp] (see section 3.7).
Nasal geminates do exist, but they are interpreted as /N/ + nasal consonant
rather than as /Q/ + nasal consonant. The kana spelling accordingly is minna
‘all’ ### /miNna/ rather than *### /miQna/.
(2) Realizations of /Q/
a. Before a voiceless obstruent
kappa°

[kap⌝pa]

/
kaQpa/

‘kappa
(river
imp)’

mo tto

[ˡmot⌝to]

/moQto/

‘more’

kissaten
°

[kissateN]

/
kiQsateN/

‘coffee
shop’

hassha
°

[haɕɕa]

/
haQsya/

‘departure’

matcha
°

[mat⌝t͡ɕa]

/
maQtya/

‘green
matcha
tea’

sekken
°

[sek⌝keN]

/
seQkeN/

‘soap’

b. Before a voiced obstruent
ba ggu

[ˡbaɡ⌝ɡɯ]

/baQgu/

{bag}

gu zzu

[ˡɡɯzzɯ]

/guQzu/

{goods}

[ˡʑɯhhaɾi]

/zyuQhari/

‘ten
stitches’

c. Before /h/ and /r/ (marginal cases)
ju
hhari

Page 6 of 14

Special segments

ba hha

[ˡbahha],
[ˡbaχχa]

/baQha/

{Bach}

uhhuhhu(to)

[ɯϕϕɯϕˡϕɯ]

/
uhhuhhu/

(onomatopoeia
for
laugh)

/
baQrabara/

‘scatteringly’

barra bara° [baɾɾabaɾa],
[ballabala]

Before a pause, /Q/ is realized as a glottal stop [⥁]. It almost exclusively
appears at the end of interjections (are’° [aɾe⥁] /areQ/, an expression of
surprise), at the end of onomatopoeia and ideophones (bata’ [bata⥁] /bataQ/
‘bang’), and at the end of adjectives referring to sensations or feelings used
in an interjective manner, in replacement of the -i ending (for instance atsu’
[a#t͡sɯ⥁] ‘it’s hot!’, from atsui ‘hot’).
Recall finally the CV / Q alternation which occurs in Sino-Japanese
morphemes such as gaku / gaQ ‘study’, teki / teQ ‘enemy’ or in Yamato
words such as dokka for doko ka which has already been discussed in
section 2.5 in relation to vowel deletion. /Q/ can also occur as a juncture
mark at morpheme boundary, for instance migi° ‘right’ + kawa ‘side’ → migikkawa° ‘right side’.
(p. 137 )

5.3 /R/ (vowel Length)
/R/ is a vocoid segment which can be phonologically defined as a generic
vocalic position with no articulatory specifications of its own. Like /N/ and /Q/,
it is moraic. /R/ thus corresponds to the lengthening of the preceding vowel,
from which it inherits all its quality specifications. (See also 2.7 for additional
examples and discussion.)
(3) Realizations of /R/

Page 7 of 14

okaasan

[oˡkaːsan]

/
okaRsaN/

‘mother’

oniisan

[oˡniːsan]

/
oniRsaN/

‘older
brother’

ku
uki

[ˡkɯːki]

/kuRki/

‘air’

oneesan

[oˡneːsan]

/
oneRsaN/

‘older
sister’

Special segments

koukou
°

[koːkoː]

/
koRkoR/

‘high
school’

5.4 The Origin of Special Segments
It is generally assumed that special segments first emerged in Japanese
between the ninth and eleventh centuries under the influence of Chinese
(Hamada, 1952; Komatsu, 1981), a language in which there existed heavy
syllables ending in a consonant or a glide, and from which Japanese made
massive borrowing at the time. Some of the sound changes which resulted
in the development of the so-called special segments are known as onbin #
# ‘sound change’ in Japanese linguistics (see, among others, Hamada, 1949,
1951, Kishida, 1984, Frellesvig, 1995). Today, special segments are found
in all lexical strata and not only in Sino-Japanese words. They are the result
of one of the three following processes: reduction of a CV sequence (4) (see
also section 2.7.2), expressive strengthening (5), and adaptation of foreign
sounds (6):
(4) Special segments resulting from the lenition of a CV
sequence3
shinita

#
shinda
°

/
siNda/

‘died’

(Yamato)

torita

#
totta

/toQta/

‘took’

(Yamato)

kamibe

#
koube

/koRbe/

‘Kôbe’

(Yamato)

kehu

#
kyou

/kyoR/

‘today’

(Yamato)

gakuki

#
gakki
°

/
gaQki/

‘musical
instrument’

(SinoJapanese)

(p. 138 )

In contemporary colloquial Japanese, /N/ and /Q/ are sometimes the result of
the lenition of a nV or rV sequence, for instance aruite iru no # aruite inno
‘are you walking’ or sou° suru° to # sou° sutto ‘doing this’.
(5) Special segments marking expressive reinforcement (by
addition of a rhythmic position)

Page 8 of 14

Special segments

kogari

#
kongari

/
koNgari/

‘well
well
roasted’

(mimetic)

onaji
°

#
onnaji
°

/
oNnazi/

‘quite
identical’

(Yamato)

totemo
°

#
tottemo
°

/
toQtemo/

‘veeeery’

(Yamato)

zutto
°

#
zuutto
°

/
zuRQto/

‘contiiiiinuously’
(mimetic)

(6) Special segments resulting from the adaptation of foreign
sounds
Old
*tong
Chinese

jp.

to
u

/toR/

‘East’

Old
*sam
Chinese

jp.

san°

/
saN/

‘three’

Old
*niet
Chinese

jp.

(go
nichi,nit-/
reading)
niti/, /
niQ/

English pet

jp.

pe
tto

/peQto/

‘pet’

French Bordeaux#

jp.

bo
rudou

/borudoR/

‘Bordeaux’

‘sun’

In Sino-Japanese words, /Q/ is the reflex of one of the three Old Chinese
syllable-final implosives p,t, and k (known as ##, rusheng in Chinese, nisshô
in Japanese, lit. ‘entering tone’).

5.5 Properties of Special Segments
Special segments share a number of properties, that distinguish them from
‘regular’ consonants and vowels. First, they lack phonological autonomy.
For instance, they can never appear in isolation or at the beginning of a
word.4 Second, they are moraic (see Chapter 6 for examples and discussion).
Thirdly, they are, in theory, unaccentable. This principle, which we shall call
Page 9 of 14

Special segments

the NADM principle (Non-Accentuation of Deficient Moras), will be discussed
in more detail in sections 6.2.4, and 6.3.2, and 7.1.4. and Let us merely
observe that in cases where the accent should fall on a special segment,
it shifts to the preceding mora. (p. 139 ) Thus, according to the traditional
account in Japanese phonology in compound words of the type N + eki ‘N
station’, or N + kai ‘club of N’, the accent normally falls on the last mora
of the first component, except if it ends in /N/, /Q/, or /R/, in which case the
accent moves to the penultimate mora, as shown in (7):
(7)
na
goya
+
eki

nagoyaeki

‘Nagoya
station’

na
goya
+
kai

nagoyakai

‘Nagoya
club’

but
toukyou
°
+
eki

toukyoueki

*toukyoueki

‘Tôkyô
station’

ro
ndon
+
eki

rondoneki

*rondoneki

‘London
station’

toukyou
°
+
kai

toukyoukai

*toukyoukai

‘Tôkyô
club’

ro
ndon
+
kai

rondonkai

*rondonkai

‘London
club’

The same phenomenon occurs in verbs to which the -ta (perfect) auxiliary
has been added. The suffixation of -ta normally causes the accent to strike
the antepenultimate mora in tonic verbs. However, if the antepenultimate
Page 10 of 14

Special segments

consists of a special segment, the accent moves one mora leftward, striking
the pre-antepenultimate mora:
(8)
/
tabe/
+/
ta/

ta
beta

/tabeta/

‘ate’

/
atume/
+/
ta/

atsumeta

/
atumeta/

‘gathered’

/
roNzi/
+/
ta/

ro
njita

/roNzita /
*ronjita

‘argued’

/
moRsi/
+/
ta/

mo
ushita

/moRsita/
*moushita

‘said
(humbly)’

but

Let us consider another instance of this phenomenon. In foreign loans, the
default accent normally falls on the antepenultimate mora: opera /opera/
{opera}, sandoitchi /saNdoiQti/ {sandwich}, maikurohon /maJkurohoN/
{microphone}, sanhuranshisuko /saNhuraNsisuko/ {San Francisco}.
However, if the antepenultimate mora is /N/, /Q/, or /R/ (and sometimes /
i/), the accent shifts to the pre-antepenultimate mora: disukasshon /
disukaQsyoN/ *disukasshon {discussion}, repoutaa /repoRtaR/ *repoutaa
{reporter} (see Chapter 6 for additional examples and discussion of this
process).
Exceptions to this principle are rare, but they do exist. They pose a challenge
to syllable-based analyses of Japanese, as we shall see in the next chapter.
These exceptions occur in case several special segments follow one another:
for instance, in the words obaasankko /obaRsaNQko/ ‘child cherished by his/
her grandmother’ or cheen-ten /tyeRNteN/ ‘chain store’, in which there is a
succession of /N/ + /Q/, and /R/ + /N/, the special segments /N/ and /R/ are
high-pitched, that is, accented. This characteristic will be analysed in the
next chapter.
Page 11 of 14

Special segments

Vance (1987:81) also reports a personal communication from
Hamano Shoko stating that some words may be pronounced with an accent
on a special segment in some marginal cases when an unaccented word is
quoted emphatically (see the next chapter, section 6.2.4 for examples and
discussion).
(p. 140 )

Moreover, it is interesting to observe, as Jôo (1977) does (among others),
that the special segments frequently alternate with each other and with i, in
a somewhat loose manner, as the following examples illustrate:
(9)
shouben
/
syoRbeN/

~
shonben
/
syoNbeN/

‘urine’

omotta
/
omoQta/

~
omouta
/
omoRta/
(dialectal)

‘thought
(verb)’

bouzu
/boRzu/

~
bonzu
/boNzu/

‘bonze’

toiya°
/toiya/

~
ton’ya
°/
toNya/

‘wholesale
dealer’

ecchi
/eQti/

~
eechi
/eRti/
~eichi
/eiti/

‘h
(name
of the
letter)’

kirei
/kirei/

~
kiree
/kireR/

‘pretty’

In ancient Japanese documents, there are frequent confusions in the kana
spelling of /N/, /Q/, /R/ and the mora /i/. One sometimes appears instead of
the other, for instance the word tenki in Modern Japanese, ## ‘weather’
is noted as teike in a text dating from the beginning of Heian, with i /J/
Page 12 of 14

Special segments

replacing n /N/ (Hamada, 1952), or nobotte° ### ‘climbing and…’ is noted
as nobonte in an eleventh-century text, with n /N/ replacing /Q/, the first part
of the geminate (Komatsu, 1981:199). According to Hamada (1949), /N/ and /
Q/ had been written using the same symbol until the Muromachi period. This
could lead us to regard /N/ as a sort of nasalized /Q/.
Kuroda (1967) has proposed an analysis of /Q/ and /N/ in Yamato, mimetics,
and Sino-Japanese within a linear generative framework (Chomsky and Halle,
1968) whereby /Q/ and /N/ are unspecified consonantal segments, the former
being [−vocalic, +consonantal, −voiced, −nasal] and the latter [−vocalic,
+consonantal, −voiced, +nasal]. In mimetics and verbal flexion, Kuroda
implicitly assumes that /Q/ and /N/ are one and the same segment, because
they stand in complementary distribution in these two native subclasses
of the Japanese lexicon. In the next chapter (section 6.3), I will present an
analysis of the internal structure of /Q/ and /N/ along the same lines as that
of Kuroda, but cast in a multilinear representational framework.
The underspecified status of /N/ and /Q/ in Japanese has also led Itô (1988) to
formulate the Coda Condition. Itô assumes that Japanese /N/ and /Q/ occupy
the coda position in heavy syllables. The Coda Condition states that a coda
cannot license place features, which forbids /N/ and /Q/ to possess their
own place (p. 141 ) specifications. Place specifications are acquired through
propagation from the following segment.

5.6 Relative Frequency of Special Segments
According to Imae (1960, cited in Hayashi O., 1982), /N/ and /Q/ respectively
account for 4.7% and 2.3% of all Japanese moras in textual (token)
frequency. This source does not provide any data for /R/.

Notes:
(1) For instance, Hattori Shirô (1960, and other papers) does not need
the unit /R/ because he posits a zero consonant /’/ which enables him to
distinguish satooya° ‘foster parent’ from satouya ‘sugar seller’, which
he transcribes respectively as sato’oya and satooya. In the transcription
adopted in this book, these two forms are transcribed as sato-oya° /satooya/
and satou-ya /satoRya/. The former has two full o’s which follow each
other, the latter has a long o (see section 2.7.3 for a discussion on the
representational difference between the two entities).

Page 13 of 14

Special segments

(2) In Pre-modern Japanese, the process known as renjô (## ‘liaison’)
sometimes occurs in this type of context. Some vestiges of this remain in
the modern language, but they are totally lexicalized, like tennou ‘emperor’
from ten /teN/ ‘heaven’ and ou /oR/ ‘king’, rather than ten’ou as one would
expect. See Vance (1987:164ff.) for a presentation of this phenomenon.
(3) This process is known as onbin (## ‘sound change’) only when it applies
to Yamato words.
(4) The only exception in Standard Modern Japanese is the interjection un
‘uh huh’, realized as [⥁̃ɯː]. One can also mention the marginal, obsolete
realizations [m#me] for ume° ‘plum’, and other words beginning with u +
nasal (see section 3.8).

Page 14 of 14

Special segments

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Prosodic units
Laurence Labrune

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0006

Abstract and Keywords
This chapter is devoted to the prosodic units of Japanese, the mora, the
syllable, the foot, the prosodic word, and the prosodic hierarchy. It reviews
the evidence demonstrating the central role played by the mora in Japanese
phonology. It then proceeds to a re-examination of the status of the syllable,
which has been argued in a number of recent works to be an indispensable
prosodic unit, alongside the mora and the foot, although it has been absent
from the work of most native Japanese phonologists who have always been
content with the mora. Taking as a basis the author’s extensive research
on the subject, this chapter argues that the syllable is not a relevant unit in
the phonology of Japanese, and it shows how all the phenomena which have
been inputed to the action of the syllable can be accounted for with exclusive
reference to the mora and the foot.
Keywords: mora, syllable, foot, prosodic word, prosodic hierarchy

This chapter is devoted to the prosodic units of Japanese, the mora, the
syllable, the foot, the prosodic word, and the other upper units.
Whereas there is no doubt about the relevance of the mora, the foot, and the
prosodic word in Japanese phonology, things are much less clear with regard
to the syllable in the most usual sense of the term, i.e. a prosodic constituent
which can be structurally light (two-slot syllables, like ka) or heavy (threeslot syllables, like kan,kou [koː], or kai). The claim I would like to put forward
in this chapter is that the syllable actually plays no relevant role in Tôkyô
Japanese and that this language is a mora-counting mora language, thus
Page 1 of 45

Prosodic units

rehabilitating the Japanese native linguistic tradition which has long been
satisfied with what corresponds to the mora for the analysis of the various
prosodic phenomena of the language. However, it should not be forgotten
that some dialects of Japanese such as the Aomori or Akita dialects (north of
Honshû) or the Kagoshima dialect (south of Kyûshû) are indisputably syllabic
and held as such by the proponents of a moraic analysis of Tôkyô Japanese,
while others, for instance the Kyôto/Ôsaka dialect or the Izu dialect (south
of Tôkyô) are clearly moraic and held as such even by the advocates of a
syllabic analysis of Tôkyô Japanese. Japanese phonologists generally operate
a distinction between ‘mora dialects’ (haku hôgen ###) and ‘non-mora
dialects’, i.e. syllable-based dialects (hi-haku hôgen ####, see for instance
Hirayama et al., 1993, Satô R., 2002). Actually, it is mainly Tôkyô Japanese
that poses a problem with regard to its classification as a mora or syllable
dialect, being analysed either as only moraic, or as syllabic with moras acting
as subconstituents of syllables.
In section 6.1, we shall review the evidence demonstrating the central role
played by the mora in Japanese phonology. Section 6.2 critically reassesses
the role and relevance of the syllable in the standard language, through
a review of the scholarship and reexamination of the alleged evidence in
favour of the syllabic approach. It will be shown that the relevance of a light/
heavy syllabic distinction is extremely difficult to justify on the basis of the
language’s internal evidence. All the phenomena which have been imputed
to the action of the syllable in Tôkyô Japanese can be accounted for by
exclusive reference to the mora and to the foot. In section 6.3, I present a
model of the basic prosodic unit (prosodeme) of Japanese that does not rely
on the syllable, in keeping with the (p. 143 ) traditional Japanese approach.
Instead, two different types of prosodemes (= moras) are distinguished:
regular CV prosodemes and weak, or deficient, prosodemes, which lack one
of the two components V or C. Section 6.4 is dedicated to the foot. We will
see that Japanese feet obey a structural constraint that stipulates that they
start with a regular mora. Section 6.5 introduces the other upper levels of
the Japanese prosodic hierarchy, and section 6.6 offers a conclusion and
summary.

6.1 The Mora
The positive evidence for the mora as a basic, autonomous prosodic unit in
Japanese is well established. The mora is the unit of rhythm and of prosodic
measurement of the Japanese language. It is the only prosodic unit that
has been recognized by the native linguistic tradition, which calls it haku #
Page 2 of 45

Prosodic units

(Kindaichi Haruhiko, 1972a; Kindaichi and Akinaga 2001), môra ### (Hattori
Shirô, 19601), or sometimes onsetsu ## (Arisaka Hideyo, 1940; see for
example Kindaichi 1972b for a general discussion about these questions).
Each articulated mora occupies one rhythmic unit. It is perceived as
isochronous to other moras (for a review of the phonetic research about the
Japanese mora as an isochronous unit, and other questions, see Warner and
Arai 2001). Japanese moras may have the following structure:
(1) Structure of Japanese moras

Page 3 of 45

/sa/, /
ko/, /
ni/,
etc.

CyV
(with
a
palatalized
consonant)

/
nya/, /
kyu/, /
tyu/
(chu), /
sya/
(sha),
etc.

/a/, /
i/, /
u/, /
e/, /o/

/N/
(the
mora
nasal)

/hoN/
hon
‘book’

/Q/
(first
part
of an
obstruent
geminate)

/moQte /
motte
‘to
hold
and…’

/R/
(second
part
of a

/toR/
tou
‘tower’, /maR/
maa
Prosodic units

long
vowel)

‘euh
well’

The word hontou° ‘true’ is therefore of the same phonological length as
kaminari ‘thunder’, that is, four moras.
The modern standard language has 103 distinctive moras, as shown in
Table 6.1, where plain moras (chokuon ###) stand in opposition to their
palatalized counterpart (yôon ##).
Table 6.1. The 103 distinctive moras of Modern Standard Japanese in
phonological transcription (consonants that have phonologized only recently,
see Chapter 3, are not included)
Plain moras (V or CV)

Palatalized moras (CyV)

–

# ka

# ki

# ku

# ke

# ko

## kya

## kyu

## kyo

# ga

# gi

# gu

# ge

# go

## gya

## gyu

## gyo

# sa

# si

# su

# se

# so

## sya

## syu

## syo

# za

# zi

# zu

# ze

# zo

## zya

## zyu

## zyo

# ta

# ti

# tu

# te

# to

## tya

## tyu

## tyo

# da

# di

# du

# de

# do

## dya

## dyu

## dyo

# na

# ni

# nu

# ne

# no

## nya

## nyu

## nyo

# ha

# hi

# hu

# he

# ho

## hya

## hyu

## hyo

# ba

# bi

# bu

# be

# bo

## bya

## byu

## byo

# pa

# pi

# pu

# pe

# po

## pya

## pyu

## pyo

# ma

# mi

# mu

# me

# mo

## mya

## myu

## myo

# ya

–

# yu

–

# yo

–

# ra

# ri

# ru

# re

# ro

## rya

## ryu

## ryo

# wa

# wi

–

# we

# wo

–

#N
#Q
#R

Page 4 of 45

Prosodic units

The groups in italics correspond to sequences that are no longer distinctive
in the contemporary language but for which there exists a specific kana or
kana combination.
In Japanese traditional phonology, where the mora is considered
to be the only relevant prosodic unit, the following two types of moras are
distinguished:
– Autonomous (or regular) moras (jiritsu haku ###), which have
the structure CV, CyV, or V, except for the mora # i made up of the
onsetless vowel /i/ when it occurs word-internally, for instance in
daigaku° ‘university’.
– Special moras (tokushu haku ###) corresponding to the mora
nasal /N/, to the first part of an obstruent geminate /Q/, to the
second part of a long vowel /R/, in other words, the elements
identified as the special segments (see Chapter 5). The onsetless /
i/ # which occurs word-internally (denoted /J/ in some phonological
transcriptions) also belongs to this list.
(p. 144 )

The mora is the metric unit of Japanese verse in poetry and song. Any mora,
be it autonomous or special, stands as one beat. In order to illustrate this
point, let us (p. 145 ) consider the following haiku by the poet Yosa Buson. A
haiku is composed of three verses. The first verse contains five moras, the
second one seven, the last one five.
Ikken no

(five moras)

chamise no yanagi

(seven moras)

oinikeri

(five moras)

‘The willow tree
By the lone tea house
It has grown old’2

The first2 verse, ikken no, occupies five rhythmic beats, or slots: i.k.ke.n.no
and not three, as would prima facie suppose an English or a Chinese ear.
Similarly, in oinikeri,o.i.ni.ke.ri, the vowel i occupies one beat.
The same applies in songs. Each mora, including /R/, /N/, or /Q/, generally
corresponds to a rhythmic unit which is sung over one musical beat, even if
exceptions are sometimes found (Tanaka, 2008).

Page 5 of 45

Prosodic units

The mora is also granted a written status in the kana writing system, so that
any mora, including the second part of a long vowel, the mora nasal, or the
first part of a geminate, occupies one virtual square on the sheet. The fourmora words ikken #### ‘one building’ or hontou° #### ‘true’ thus fit in
the same writing space as the words okinawa° #### ‘Okinawa’ or kaminari
° #### ‘thunder’, namely four virtual squares.3 The only exception to this
principle is (p. 146 ) that of palatalized consonants. CyV clusters, although
being only one mora long, occupy two squares.
The mora also functions as the major prosodic unit in a number of language
games, for example the babibu language analysed by Haraguchi (1991),
which consists of inserting a b + V sequence after each mora. The word
sakura° ‘cherry tree’ is thus coded as saba-kubu-raba, the word nippon
° as nibi-tsubu-pobo-nbu.4 These examples clearly illustrate the fact that
sakura and nippon are respectively made up of three and four distinct and
independent units of identical phonological weight. The popular shiritori
game (literally ‘buttock taking’) consists of finding a word starting with the
final mora of the word given by the preceding player (Katada, 1990), as in
the following example: hutsuu° ‘normal’→ uguisu ‘bush warbler’→ surume
° ‘dry squid’→ meirei° ‘order’→ iruka° ‘dolphin’.5 Here again, we note that
the final vowel length of hutsuu°, or the moraic /i/ of meirei° are treated as
single, autonomous units.
The mora also constitutes the phonetic support of pitch accent, in the sense
that two moras belonging to what can be considered a heavy syllable can
be articulated in two different registers. For example, in the trimoraic word
kyouto HLL ‘Kyôto’, the pitch fall occurs after the initial mora kyo, that is,
before the second part of the long vowel. Note that in some cases, even the
second part of what could be interpreted as a long syllable by advocates
of the syllabic analysis can receive an accent in Tôkyô Japanese (examples
are given below, see also section 5.5). Moreover, as Uwano (2003) reports,
there also exist dialects closely linked to the Tôkyô variety in which we find a
contrast in surface melodies between a ‘heavy syllable’ accented on the first
part and a ‘heavy syllable’ accented on the second part, as kai ‘paddle’ and
kai ‘shell’.
Several psycholinguistics studies, in particular those of Otake et al. (1993),
have established that it is the mora, rather than the phoneme or the syllable,
which constitutes the basic unit of processing, production, and perception
in Japanese. Such studies have shown, for example, that Japanese listeners
detect the target unit mo in the stimulus word monka as fast as they do
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Prosodic units

in monaka, which means that monka and monaka begin with the same
prosodic unit and that they should (p. 147 ) consequently be segmented as
mo.n.ka and mo.na.ka, that is, under a mora-based segmentation procedure
rather than as mon.ka and mo.na.ka, under a syllable-based segmentation
procedure. This contrasts radically with the responses made by listeners
whose native language is syllabic, and which are asked to perform the same
type of task (Mehler et al., 1981). Thus the response time of French listeners
is faster for palace than for palmier when the target pa is presented. This
result is interpreted as indicating that the French words palace and palmier
do not start with the same prosodic unit, whereas the Japanese monka and
monaka do.
Finally, in speech errors, special moras (including the mora /i/) show a
frequent tendency to replace each other or to be copied elsewhere in a given
utterance (Kubozono 1989, 1996).
(2) Speech errors
Target

Realization (accents
unknown)

ku
ubo
middowei

#
kubbo
middowei

‘Aircraft
Carrier
Midway’

ju ugo
paasento

#
juugo
pansento

‘fifteen
per
cent’

be
ichuu
kankei
°

#
beichuu
kaikei

‘US –
China
relations’

Note that in the above examples a vocoid element (/i/ or /R/) can be replaced
by a contoid element (/N/ or /Q/), and vice versa. This, according to Kubozono
(1989, 1996), shows that post-nuclear vowels have the same status as postnuclear consonants, a phenomenon that is not generally observed in English
for instance. The explanation for this is that the unit of coding of the two
languages is different: it is the mora in Japanese, the syllable in English.
In other words, Japanese moras, including special segments, behave as
independent constituents with respect to speech errors. Kubozono (1985,
cited in Kubozono 1995c, 1996) also reports that CVV or CVC sequences are
replaced by CVCV sequences more frequently than by CV sequences. This
suggests that what can be analysed as a heavy syllable is phonologically
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Prosodic units

equivalent to a sequence of two short syllables. Post-nuclear elements
such as /N/, /R/, or /Q/ serve as one prosodic unit just as CV sequences do.
Kubozono (1995a, c) also demonstrates that Japanese speakers tend to
segment words on a mora-based pattern rather than on a syllable-based
pattern in blends.

6.2 The Syllable?
6.2.1 Preliminaries
It is only recently that the syllable has been assumed by a number of modern
phonologists to be a fundamental unit that cannot be dispensed with in the
analysis (p. 148 ) of Standard Japanese alongside the mora,6 following James
McCawley, who claims, in his 1968 thesis, that ‘the prosodic unit of Japanese
is the syllable and not the mora’.
McCawley (1968) posits two syllable types in Japanese: short syllables
and long syllables, and claims that Japanese is a ‘mora-counting syllable
language’ (p. 134). McCawley’s position is in the spirit of Trubetzkoy’s
(1939) who considers that there exist two types of languages: mora-counting
languages, which also have syllables, and syllable-counting languages, which
may not have moras. Japanese is supposed to belong to the first type.
With practically no exceptions, McCawley’s generativist and post-generativist
successors trained in the Western linguistic tradition (from linear-SPE-type
phonologists to OT ones) make explicit or implicit reference to the syllable
in their accounts of Japanese phonology, the terms ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ being
generally preferred to those of ‘short’ and ‘long’ to refer to syllable weight
differences. One exception is Higurashi (1983), who adopts a strictly moraicbased analysis of Japanese phonology. For the majority of the studies which
have tackled the question, the issue is not so much that of the existence of
the syllable itself: this point is taken for granted, since the syllable is granted
universal status in modern phonological theory. Rather, it is the existence of
the heavy syllable CVC or CVV, with three constituents, which is at stake.
After reviewing the various models of the Japanese syllable which have
been proposed in the literature, we shall carry out a critical examination
of the main arguments which are supposed to support the existence of
heavy syllables in the language. It will be shown that there exists no direct
indisputable empirical evidence of the phonological reality of the syllable,7
and that the phenomena which have been regarded as such can receive an
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Prosodic units

alternative account, by referring exclusively to other prosodic constituents,
namely the mora and the foot.

6.2.2 Previous Proposals Concerning the Structure of the Japanese
Syllable
As already stated, for McCawley and his successors, Japanese possesses
light syllables, which are of the following structure: (C)V or CyV, and heavy
syllables, (p. 149 ) which are (C)VC or CyVC, or (C)VV or CyVV. Super-heavy
syllables such as sain (CVVN) {sign} or zuut in zuutto (CVRQ) ‘continuously’
must be added to this inventory, but they are far less common.
The details of the exact organization of these various types of Japanese
syllables may vary according to different scholars, but they all share a
common basic structure with three positions.
The moraic framework as developed by Hyman (2003 [1985]) or Hayes
(1989), for instance, considers heavy syllables as having a ternary structure.
They are made up of an onset which has no moraic weight, of a nucleus
which is worth one mora, and of a final element V or C, also worth one
mora, as shown in the representation in (3a) below. It has sometimes been
proposed, to account for the Japanese case, that the onset is attached to
the mora containing the nucleus, as in (3b), and not directly to the syllable
(Kubozono 1989, 1995a, inspired by Hyman 2003 [1985]). Other works
(Terao 1992; Kubozono 1994, 1998b) have gone as far as to dissociate the
mora and the syllable (3c), each being directly and independently associated
with the segments, according to a model in which the mora is no longer a
syllable-dependent constituent. The choice of dissociating the mora from the
syllable is rather unorthodox, and not properly discussed by its proponents.
Clearly, it constitutes an attempt to bypass the extremely thorny problem of
how the mora and the syllable are supposed to interact with each other in
Japanese.
Lastly, Haraguchi (2003) has proposed that the syllable is structured with a
core and a coda, the core itself being divided into an onset and a nucleus, as
in (3d). According to him, and rather surprisingly, this is supposed to be the
unmarked option of syllable structure, while the onset–rhyme model would
be a marked one.
(3)

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Prosodic units

The models of the Japanese syllable presented in (3) are seemingly
very different but they all share a common characteristic: none of them
recognizes the existence of a rhyme constituent (consisting of a nucleus
and a coda), contrary to most current general approaches to syllable
organization. This choice is revealing of a strong particularity of Japanese. It
is justified by massive evidence showing that the (p. 150 ) rhyme does not
exist in Japanese as a subconstituent, as we shall see below8 (see also the
discussion in Vance, 2008:120).
Clearly, whatever the theoretical framework, the discrepancies in the
conceptions and representation of the Japanese syllable significantly differ
from those of most current models of phonology. The fact that a number of
leading phonologists have come to adopt a rather unorthodox view of the
Japanese syllable is, by itself, revealing of the existence of a major problem
with regard to the prosodic structure of Japanese.

6.2.3 Absence of Positive Evidence for the Syllable Or for A Heavy/light
Syllabic Distinction
This section presents different strands of evidence which point to the nonrelevance of the syllable itself, or of the syllabic constituents (rhyme or coda)
which would support the opposition between light and heavy syllables.
– Lack of psycholinguistic evidence
First, one has to acknowledge the fact that not a single one of the many
psycholinguistic studies that have been conducted in the last decades
has been able to establish the cognitive reality of the syllable in Japanese,
whereas many works have established the central role of the mora and the
foot both at the perceptual and cognitive levels (see the papers in Otake and
Cutler, 1996, and subsequent research by the authors therein).
– Absence of phonetic clues for the existence of a rhyme-like
constituent
Considerable evidence points to the non-existence of a rhyme constituent
in Japanese would-be syllables. Segments which can be interpreted as
belonging to the rhyme of a heavy syllable do not behave as expected
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Prosodic units

of rhymes or of codas, on the basis of what can be observed in other
languages.
First, the vowels which occur in presumably closed syllables of the shape
CVC are not phonetically shorter than those that occur in presumably open
CV syllables (Homma 1981). Quite the opposite: vowels can even be longer
in allegedly closed syllables. Han (1994) and Idemaru (2005) have shown
that in (p. 151 ) Japanese a vowel preceding a geminate consonant in /
CVQCV/ is longer than a vowel preceding a singleton in /CVCV/.
Kubozono (1999a:34) states that, ‘in Japanese, vowel duration is
independent of the difference in syllable structure […]. These exceptional
temporal patterns shown by Japanese can be properly accounted for if the
mora is posited as a unit of temporal organization in the language’ (see also
Sagisaka, 2009 and the works cited therein). This situation contrasts radically
with what is observed in languages with closed syllables, like English for
instance, in which phenomena of temporal compensation exist between the
nucleus and the coda (Maddieson, 1985), and in which vowels are shorter
before geminate consonants than before single ones. This provides evidence
against the existence of a rhyme component in the Japanese syllable
symmetric to the onset, and authorizes us to consider that CVC sequences
must be divided as CV/C just as CVCV is divided as CV/CV (see also Kubozono
1995c, already cited above). The fact that the first vowel is longer in /CVQCV/
(three moras) than in /CVCV/ (two moras) can be explained as an effect of
temporal compensation within the bimoraic foot.
In addition, Campbell and Sagisaka (1991), cited by Kubozono (1995c),
show that in Japanese it is between the onset and the nucleus that effects of
temporal compensation occur. The duration of a nuclear vowel is inversely
proportional to the intrinsic duration of the consonant preceding it. This
causes the same onset consonant to be shorter before /a/ than before /i/
and /u/, the two shortest vowels in Japanese.
Even within analytical frameworks which do not recognize the rhyme, such
as those mentioned above, one would expect phonetic assimilations or
temporal compensation to occur at least as frequently between segments
in position 1 and 2 as between segments in position 2 and 3 within a single
putative ‘syllable’. However, this does not happen in Japanese, suggesting
that a unit such as the heavy syllable is not relevant phonologically.
One also observes that in Japanese, the link between C and V is phonetically
tighter than the link between V and C or V1 and V2 in a would-be heavy
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Prosodic units

syllable. Many restrictions hold between an onset consonant and the
following vowel, but there are no such restrictions between the vowel and
the following would-be tautosyllabic consonant (Kubozono, 2006a). To take
just one example among many, /t/ becomes [͡ts] before /u/, and [͡tɕ] before /
i/ (see section 3.3). If heavy syllables exist, one would expect that phonetic
assimilations similar to those occurring between two distinct syllabic
components (the onset and the nucleus) would be even more frequent
within a unique syllabic component, i.e. a branching nucleus in the case of a
V1V2 sequence, or a rhyme in the case of VC. However, this is not the case.
According to Kubozono (2006a), this shows that the coda consonants are
phonologically independent of the V preceding them.
The only obvious case of a would-be coda to nucleus featural
assimilation could be that of the mora nasal /N/. Recall that vowels placed
before /N/ can be phonetically nasalized in Japanese; for instance hon ‘book’
tends to be realized as [¹hõN].9 However, feature assimilation involving /
N/ extends beyond the strict domain of the putative syllable, since /N/ also
undergoes place assimilation from the following consonant, as in sanpo° /
saNpo°/ ‘a walk’ realized as [sãmpo], so this phenomenon cannot be taken
as evidence of the relevance of a prosodic domain such as the syllable (and
not even as relevance of the foot).10
– Absence of onset optimization
(p. 152 )

Another convincing argument against the existence of heavy syllables at the
phonological level can be found in the behaviour of the mora nasal /N/. In
Japanese, a VNV sequence is never syllabified as V.NV (two moras) but as
V.N.V (three moras). This is in contradiction with what is generally assumed
in phonology, as stated by Golston and van der Hulst (1999):
It is a widely observed fact that a sequence of a closed syllable
followed by a syllable that starts with a vowel is empirically
unattested. The traditional view that assumes that linearly
organized strings form the input for syllabification explains this
by saying that a string VCV is universally syllabified as V.CV.
This is due to the constraints that Prince and Smolensky (1993)
call Onset and NoCoda.
However, counterexamples of this principle can be commonly found in
Japanese. Consider the following contrasts:
(4)
a.

Page 12 of 45

an’i

µµµ

/aNi/

[ˡaᶰ.i]

‘ease’

Prosodic units

ani

µµ

/ani/

[ˡani]

‘older
brother’

anni

µµµ

/aNni/

[ˡanni]

‘implicitly’

Here, (4)a corresponds exactly to the type which is supposed to be
‘empirically unattested’ if analysed through the syllabic mirror.
The moraic /i/ behaves similarly to the mora nasal with respect to onset nonoptimization. In the word baiorin° /baioriN/ ‘violin’, the palatal does not group
with the vowel o which follows (*ba.yo.ri.n) in the standard variety of the
(p. 153 ) language. It keeps its moraic status: ba.i.o.ri.n. This word is thus
realized in five moras, not in four.
This constitutes evidence that /N/ and /i/ are not syllable margins (codas) but
prosodic units in their own right.
– Non-coincidence of foot and syllable boundaries
Another series of arguments against the syllable was raised by Poser
(1990). As Poser observes in the conclusion of his 1990 paper, the ‘fact
that the Japanese foot consists of morae rather than syllables points to
the independence of the mora as a phonological constituent. It also poses
a problem for advocates of the position that morae are subconstituents
of syllables, since the boundaries of feet, composed of morae, need not
coincide with syllable boundaries’. Kubozono (1995a) also hints at the
possibility of eliminating the syllable to the benefit of the foot in Japanese at
the very end of his book.
Examples of the mismatch between foot and syllable are easy to find. For
instance, the truncated form of rimouto kontorouru {remote control}, rimokon° would be rimou-kon (rimô-kon in Hepburn romanization) if foot and
syllable boundaries coincided. This mismatch is rather annoying because
it calls into question the ‘strict layer hypothesis’ (Nespor and Vogel, 1986),
according to which each prosodic constituent is included in totality in the
immediately higher-ranked constituent.
Could it be that, if foot boundaries and syllable boundaries do not coincide,
it is because syllables do not exist, and thus presumed syllable boundaries
are therefore of no relevance? As we shall see below, in the model proposed
here, moras are directly linked to feet, with no syllable layer in between, so
that coinciding boundaries are only mora and foot boundaries.
– Speech errors
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Prosodic units

The examination of speech errors finally provides extremely interesting
clues. According to Kubozono (1989, 1995c, 2006a), what corresponds to a
‘heavy syllable’ tends to be replaced by a succession of two ‘light syllables’
or by a ‘heavy syllable’ more often than by a ‘light syllable’ in slips of the
tongue, for example in Kyouno Kikujirou (proper name) # Kikuno Kikujirou
and juugo paasento ‘fifteen per cent’ # juugo pansento. This shows that
the unit syllable does not have cognitive reality, since one would otherwise
expect a heavy syllable to alternate with a light syllable more often than with
two light syllables. On the contrary, an analysis of this phenomenon based
on the mora or the foot provides a better understanding of the data: a mora
is replaced by a mora, a foot is replaced by a foot. For further evidence, see
Terao (1992, 2002) who shows that the fundamental unit on which speech
errors operate is, in Japanese, the mora rather than the syllable.
(p. 154 )

Syllable

6.2.4 A Reexamination of the Alleged Evidence In Favour of the

Let us now review some of the internal evidence which is generally
presented in favour of the recognition of a light (i.e. monomoraic) vs. heavy
(bimoraic) syllable opposition in Japanese. The phenomena that will be put
under scrutiny are the following: initial lowering, unaccentedness of /N/, /
Q/, /R/, /i/, accentuation of foreign toponyms, accentuation of the enclitic
particle no, accentuation patterns of compound personal names whose
second member is -tarou (see also Labrune, 2012, for additional arguments
and discussion). As we shall see, in each case an alternative, syllable-free
approach to the data, which is either as convincing as or more convincing
than the syllable-based approach is possible, or the linguistic data are
ambiguous or incomplete.
– Initial dissimilation (initial lowering)
Initial dissimilation, or initial lowering, is a phenomenon which is generally
accounted for through reference to the syllable (see for instance Haraguchi,
1999). As we shall see in the next chapter, there exists in Japanese a
principle stipulating that any word which does not bear an initial accent
lexically begins with a Low–High pitch sequence. However, this principle
applies only optionally in words beginning with a CV + special mora
sequence, in other words, with a putative heavy syllable. Rather, such words
can start with a High–High pattern (Hattori, 1954). Compare for instance:
(5)
kokusai°

Page 14 of 45

LHHH

‘international’

Prosodic units

kousai°

LHHH
or
HHHH

‘exchange’

At first sight, the correct description of this phenomenon forces one to refer
to heavy syllables: initial dissimilation supposedly does not apply when the
word starts with a heavy syllable. However, this is nothing more than an ad
hoc statement. Compare the two following formulations:
(a) Initial dissimilation does not occur when the word starts with a
heavy syllable.
(b) Initial dissimilation does not occur when the second mora of the
word is a deficient mora.
The statement in (a) does not have more explanatory power than the one in
(b), nor is it simpler.
Moreover, even if one follows the syllabic analysis of Japanese, the
formulation of the process at hand is not fully adequate, and can therefore
not be held as definite evidence for the action of the syllable, because it
appears that only a subset of putative heavy syllables, namely those ending
in /R/ and /N/, are concerned by this phenomenon. When they end in /Q/
or /i/ (the two other arguably possible syllabic (p. 155 ) codas of Japanese),
the phenomenology is different. Unaccented words beginning with CVi
behave like words beginning with CVCV, for instance koikuchi° ‘strongly
flavored’ is uttered LHHH while unaccented words beginning with CVQ are
pronounced with a sequence of two low tones, for instance gakkou° LLHH
‘school’ (Haraguchi, 1977, Tanaka, 2008). So the issue is actually a little
more complicated and controversial than it appears to be at first sight. The
intuitive analysis I propose of this phenomenon is the following.
Although the rise in pitch which occurs on the second mora of a word is not
an accent in the phonological sense of the term, it does actually constitute
a prosodic phenomenon with relative relevance, in particular because of its
demarcative function, a status which is actually comparable to that of accent
on the functional level. One can thus regard initial dissimilation as a mirror
image of accent, some sort of accent echo, in other words a secondary
accent. Initial dissimilation is characterized by a pitch rise between two
moras, while accent consists of a pitch fall between two moras. And, just
as accent does not normally occur after a special mora, initial dissimilation
does not normally occur before a special mora. In both cases, the near
impossibility of pitch change occurs because of the inherent structural
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Prosodic units

weakness of special moras, which prevents them from being the locus of
pitch change (from high to low or from low to high). The adopted strategy
is identical in both cases: the pitch change (fall in the case of accent, rise in
the case of initial dissimilation) is moved one position leftward. In the case of
initial dissimilation, there is no leftmost mora available to receive a low pitch,
so the initial mora is realized with a high pitch. There is therefore no need to
refer to the syllable in order to account for initial dissimilation.
– Unaccentedness of /N/, /Q/, /R/, and moraic /i/ (/J/)
The phenomenon most frequently invoked in favour of a ternary conception
of the Japanese syllable comes from accentual phonology. It involves the
prosodic status of the special moras /N/, /Q/, /R/ and that of the moraic
vowel /i/, in other words of the elements which, in some other languages,
are likely to constitute the second part of a heavy syllable. These elements
have been presented in detail in the preceding chapter. Recall that, first of
all, they cannot in principle bear accent and have the property of causing a
left shift of the accent when they occupy a prosodic position likely to receive
accent (section 5.5), a mechanism that I propose naming NADM principle
(Non-Accentuation of Deficient Moras) and which will be further developed
in 6.3.2 as well as in Chapter 7. For the moment, let us consider the case
of loanwords of Western origin in which a default accent is assigned to the
antepenultimate mora, as presented in section 5.5. The traditional approach
(Kindaichi and Akinaga, 2001) states the following rule: the accent falls
on the antepenultimate mora; if the antepenultimate mora consists of a
special mora (/N/, /Q/, /R/, or moraic /i/), the accent moves to the preceding
mora, striking the pre- (p. 156 ) antepenultimate. Compare for instance
a.na.ku.ro.ni.zu.mu µµµµµµµ {anachronism} and di.su.ka.s.sho.n µµµµµµ
rather than *di.su.ka.s.sho.n µµµµµµ {discussion} (dots are used to denote
mora boundaries). Note that this traditional approach, which is widely
followed by Japanese scholars of the philological mainstream, does not refer
to the syllable to account for such accentual patterns.
McCawley (1968) proposes a different analysis: for him, the examples above
support the claim that the syllable rather than the mora is the prosodic unit
of Japanese, because in a heavy syllable only the first mora can be accented.
Following his approach, disukasshon has four syllables: di-su-kas-shon
(hyphens denote syllable boundaries). The default accent rule of Japanese,
which applies to foreign loans, is accordingly reformulated as follows: accent
is placed on the syllable containing the third from last mora. Japanese would
thus be categorized as a ‘mora-counting syllable language’ whose prosodic
unit is supposed to be the syllable and not the mora, even though McCawley
Page 16 of 45

Prosodic units

also recognizes that the mora plays a major role in Japanese as a ‘unit of
phonological distance’.
At this point, let us first observe that, as Uwano (2003:74) remarks, the mora
approach is just as explanatory as the syllabic one.
The first objection to McCawley’s analysis is that if the syllable is indeed the
prosodic unit in Japanese, how can we explain that, in an accented heavy
syllable, the third component (the coda according to the syllabic approach)
is never of the same melodic height as the onset and nucleus? In words
such as kyouto ‘Kyôto’ or nihon ‘Japan’, the fall in pitch that marks the
location of the accent occurs before a special mora (before the second part
of the long vowel in kyo↓uto and before the mora nasal in niho↓n). The
categorization of Japanese as a syllable-accenting language thus appears
inappropriate, since only a subpart of the syllable is likely to carry the pitch.
It is therefore not empirically true to state that the syllable is accented,
because only the first part of it bears a high pitch. This situation is radically
different from what occurs in syllabic languages like English where it is
the whole syllable which bears the phonetic manifestation of accent. As
remarked by Hyman (2003[1985]:96), in pitch accent languages it is the
unit corresponding to the mora that receives the accent, but in the standard
formulation of the syllable; this generalization cannot be captured. So the
most straightforward and simple analysis is to assume that Japanese counts
moras and accentuates moras, since pitches coincide with moras, but that a
certain category of moras cannot receive the accent.
Moreover, McCawley’s conception of the mechanisms of Japanese accent
appears even more inadequate in cases where several special moras follow
each other. It sometimes happens that /N/, /Q/, /R/, or /i/ receive the accent.
In words like obaasankko /obaRsaNQko/ ‘child cherished by his grandmother’
or cheenten /tyeRNteN/ ‘chain store’, the accent does not fall on what would
constitute, in McCawley’s model, the accentual peak of the syllable but on
the first special mora after the nucleus, here /N/ and /R/ respectively.
Higurashi (1983) reports another case in which the presumed
second part of a heavy syllable is accented. When the pre-accenting
recessive enclitic particle shika ‘only’ is combined with an unaccented noun,
the final mora of the noun receives an accent, including /N/, /R/, or the
moraic /i/. Let us look at the following examples:
(6) Accentual pattern of atonic nouns + shika (from Higurashi
1983:35)
(p. 157 )

Page 17 of 45

Prosodic units

miyako° + shika

miyako-shika /
miyako sika/

‘only the capital’
kouen° + shika

kouen-shika /
koReN sika/
*kouen-shika

‘only the park’
tekkyou° + shika

tekkyou-shika /
teQkyoR sika/
*tekkyou-shika

‘only the iron
bridge’

Not only is it not the entire syllable that receives the accent but it is not even
what constitutes the heart of the syllable, i.e. its nucleus, that does. Such
cases are rather marginal, but it is obvious that they cannot be accounted
for within McCawley’s approach, thus crucially weakening the overall syllabic
analysis of Japanese. Vance (1987:81, quoting a p.c. by Hamano Shoko)
also mentions interesting cases in emphatic speech where an atonic word
ending in /N/ can receive the accent on /N/ before the quotative particle
to. So for instance in kouban to itta ‘I said police box’, kouban ‘police box’
normally atonic (kouban°) is pronounced kouban with an accent on the final /
N/. Hamano (1998:32) also says that in some ‘dramatic uses’ of mimetic
words, a special mora can be accented as in paanto or pinpin-to.
Finally, one has to take into account the fact that some dialects of Japanese
belonging to the same dialect subfamily as Tôkyô Japanese, and very closely
related to it, allow special moras to receive an accent in a very general
fashion. Thus, in the Izu dialect,11 there exists a possible contrast between
tou # HL ‘political party’ and tou (too) # LH ‘ten’, or between kai # ‘a
paddle’ and kai # ‘shell’ (Uwano, 2003). As Uwano correctly observes, this
type of contrast would be totally impossible in a syllable-based language like
English.
– Accentuation of foreign toponyms
Other pieces of evidence supposed to prove the relevance of the heavy
syllable have been presented since McCawley. Prima facie, one of the
most convincing examples is provided by Kubozono (1996). Examining
the assignment of accent in foreign toponyms (a class representative of
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Prosodic units

accent assignment processes in loanwords in general), Kubozono observes
that although the default accentuation (p. 158 ) rule stated above applies
quite generally in accented loans, whatever formulation of the rule one
adopts—be it à la Kindaichi and Akinaga or à la McCawley—it nevertheless
encounters a number of exceptions. Such exceptions are accented on the
fourth or fifth mora from the end, as in monburan /moNburaN/ ‘Mont Blanc’,
amazon /amazoN/ ‘the Amazon’, pirenee /pireneR/ ‘the Pyrenees’, rather
than *monburan, *amazon, *pirenee as predicted both by Kindaichi and
Akinaga and McCawley’s analyses. Taking such examples into consideration,
Kubozono posits the following accentuation rule: the accent falls on the
penultimate syllable if it is heavy, on the antepenultimate otherwise.
However, we shall see in the following chapter (section 7.2.5) how the
present approach to the structure of the foot and mora provides a simpler
account of these crucial examples, without referring to heavy and light
syllable types.
– Accentual behaviour of no
Another example worthy of interest is examined by Miyake (1943), Martin
(1952), Vance (1987, 2008), Kubozono (1999a), Haraguchi (1999), Uwano
(2003), among others. It involves the determination particle no, whose
accentual behaviour is rather peculiar. When no occurs after a noun which
bears a final accent, that noun sometimes undergoes de-accentuation.
Consider the following examples.
(7)
a.

Page 19 of 45

yama
+
no

yamano
°

‘of
the
mountain’

otoko
+
no

otokono°

‘of
the
man’

nihon
+
no

nihonno°

‘of
Japan’

kinou
+
no

kinouno°

‘of
yesterday’

kokoro
+
no

kokorono

‘of
the
heart’
Prosodic units

me
+
no

me
no

‘of
the
eye’

do
u
+
no

do
uno

‘of
bronze’

te
n
+
no

te
nno

‘of
the
sky’

ka
i
+
no

ka
ino

‘of
the
shell’

According to Kubozono, an adequate description of these examples can be
made through explicit reference to the syllable, and should be formulated
as follows: words longer than one syllable such as yama,otoko in (a), nihon
and kinou in (b), accented on the final syllable become unaccented when
followed by the no particle, while monosyllabic words (whose only syllable is
either heavy or light and bears an accent) like me, dou, ten or kai maintain
the original accent. This phenomenon might at first sight appear to be quite
convincing as a justification for the relevance of heavy syllables. However, on
the one hand, many apparent exceptions can be found (see Vance, 1987:82,
2008:156–157 for lists and additional references). For instance, takusan
‘much’ is not de-accented before no: takusan + no yields takusan-no and
not *takusan-no°. On the other hand, some (p. 159 ) speakers do not realize
(7b) as predicted by Kubozono. This is probably why, according to Vance
(1987) and Uwano (2003) accent deletion before no should not be taken
as reliable evidence for syllable structure. Moreover, it seems that words
such as nihon or kinou that undergo de-accentuation before no are actually
lexical exceptions (Takayama Tomoaki, p.c. 2009) belonging to a close and
numerically limited set, while the takusan type, which does not yield deaccentuation, is more likely to be the general, default type.
Clearly, the issue is controversial and does not reach consensus. The data
would need further investigation to determine which pattern is regular: the
one involving deaccentuation or the one involving no deaccentuation.

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Prosodic units

An alternative approach to these data consists of positing that the words
belonging to types (7b) and (7e), which end in a special mora and bear a
surface accent on the penultimate mora, actually have an underlying accent
on the final mora, as follows: /nihoN/, /kinoR/, /doR/, /teN/, /kai/ (see also
sections 7.2.3 and 7.2.5). This analysis is also proposed by Uwano (2003:75).
The underlyingly final accent is shifted one mora leftward by virtue of the
NADM principle stipulating that special moras cannot bear an accent at the
phonetic level, except in a few special cases such as the examples with
shika above, as well as the obaasankko example previously mentioned. This
analysis accounts very easily for exceptions like takusan, because takusan
is accented on the mora sa at the underlying level, as well as at the surface
level, contrary to the words in (7b) and (7e), which actually carry a final
accent at the underlying level. This is why they behave exactly like yama
and otoko in (7a) rather than like kokoro in (7c). In dou, ten, or kai, it is the
initial mora of the word which, on the surface, receives the accent. In this
case, de-accentuation does not occur, and the accent is maintained on the
initial mora, a phenomenon which has to do with the fact that the beginning
of a word constitutes a privileged position, where contrasts are more often
preserved and neutralizations avoided (Beckman J., 1999).
– Personal compound names whose second member is -tarou
Let us now examine the following examples, also cited by Kubozono (1999a)
as another piece of evidence for the syllable. Consider the following personal
names (all from Kubozono 1999a: 46, romanization adapted; when no accent
information is provided, it means that the word does not have its proper
accent pattern because it never occurs in isolation):
(8) Accentuation of personal names ending in -tarou
a.
ki + tarou

kitarou°

ne° + tarou

netarou°

kin + tarou

kintarou°

kyuu + tarou

kyuutarou°

momo° +
tarou

momotarou

(p. 160 )

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Prosodic units

kane° +
tarou

kanetarou

chikara +
tarou

chikaratarou

karee° +
tarou

kareetarou

urutoraman
+ tarou

urutoramantarou

According to Kubozono (1999a), the accent behaviour of the compounds
with -tarou is predictable on the basis of the syllable structure of the
first member. When the first member is monosyllabic, the compound
is unaccented. Otherwise, it is accented. Note that -tarou exhibits two
different accent patterns when combined with a bimoraic first member: a
monosyllabic N1 (8b) yields an unaccented compound just like a monomoraic
N1 (8a), whereas forms with a bisyllabic N1 receive the accent on the first
member (8c) but only if it is also bimoraic.
However, the data in (8) can receive an alternative account. First, as
Kubozono (1999a) mentions, personal compound names with -jirou behave in
a different way, in so far as they do not trigger the same accent behaviour.
The first member kin is accented, and thus behaves like kane rather than like
ko when combined with -jirou. We find Kinjirou (not Kinjirou°) and Kanejirou
vs. Kojirou°. This shows that the conditioning of the accent rule is lexical
rather than strictly phonological, since not all suffixes activate the rule
which is supposed to refer to the syllable: -tarou does, but -jirou does not.
Second, examination of the examples in (8) shows that trimoraic bisyllabic
first members behave like trimoraic trisyllabic ones (8d). The syllabic
approach fails to capture the fact that momotarou and kareetarou, whose
first members are both bisyllabic, do not receive the same accentuation. This
suggests that it is not the number of syllables that is crucial but something
else. One can achieve a correct descriptive account of these data by
referring simply to the foot and to its constituents, i.e. moras. The rule can
accordingly be reformulated as follows: when the first member is equivalent
to a monomoraic foot or to a bimoraic foot ending in a special mora, the
compound is atonic (8a, b). When it is equal to a bimoraic foot ending in a
regular mora, the accent is placed on the final mora of N1 (8c). Finally, when
the first member contains more than one foot made up of two regular moras,
the accent is placed on the initial mora of -tarou.
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Prosodic units

To conclude, unlike the mora, the relevance of the syllable appears highly
questionable. First, the models of the Japanese syllable which have been
proposed in the literature reflect the existence of a problem concerning
the articulation between the mora and the syllable with regard to the foot.
Second, the lack of traditional evidence in favour of the syllable or of its
constituents is particularly blatant. Finally, the linguistic data which have
been claimed to attest the relevance of the syllable are either not sufficiently
documented, or they are ambiguous and can receive an alternative, syllablefree account.
In the next section, I shall propose a new model of the basic
Japanese prosodic unit that does not rely on the syllable.
(p. 161 )

6.3 for A Strictly Binary Model of the Basic Prosodic Unit In
Japanese
The facts discussed so far show the inadequacy of a three-position syllabic
model (onset–nucleus–coda) in the phonology of Japanese. This calls for
another analysis of the basic prosodic unit of Japanese, that I will temporarily
call a prosodeme, following Trubetzkoy’s term.
The ideas that are developed here are inspired by Larry Hyman’s theory
of phonological weight (2003 [1985]), which argues that the universal
phonological anchor tier consists of weight units, or beats, that correspond
to moras, and that the syllable is not a universal constituent but a languageparticular construct built out of the weight units.
On the basis of the evidence reviewed so far, I claim that the basic prosodic
unit of Japanese is maximally binary, i.e. with two positions: position 1,
the onset (ideally represented by C) and position 2, the nucleus (ideally
represented by V), as shown below.12
(9) Structure of the basic prosodeme

The dots represent linear positions corresponding to the skeleton as
conceived in multilinear phonology, that is, some sort of temporal projection
of each segmental unit within a prosodeme, which allows the encoding
and representation of quantity. Accordingly, geminate consonants and
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Prosodic units

long vowels are considered to be one single segmental unit (actually a
set of distinctive features) associated with two skeletal positions, whereas
affricates or some types of diphthongs correspond to two segments (i.e. two
sets of distinctive features) linked to one position.
In the model argued for here, there is no need for a more complex structure
such as the heavy syllable, that is, for a three-position prosodic unit. All the
elements which can be considered to belong to the third position within a
syllable in competing approaches are to be analysed as so many distinct
prosodemes.
Further, and most importantly, some prosodemes are to be
considered as structurally incomplete, in the sense that they contain an
empty position, either the onset or the nucleus. These units will be called
‘deficient’, ‘weak’, or ‘degenerate’. Japanese is thus characterized by the fact
that it contains two types of prosodemes: regular and deficient.
(p. 162 )

Deficient prosodemes may belong to the following four types:
– Prosodemes containing only one nuclear vowel.
– Prosodemes containing /N/, /Q/, /R/ (the so-called ‘special moras’
of the Japanese linguistic tradition).
– Prosodemes containing a devoiced vowel.
– Prosodemes containing an epenthetic vowel.
Note that the units recognized as deficient prosodemes here do not
correspond exactly to the special moras of Japanese traditional phonology
(see Chapter 5 as well as section 6.1 above), since they also comprise
onsetless vowels other than /i/, moras containing a devoiced vowel, as well
as those containing an epenthetic vowel.
Let us now examine the structure and representation of the deficient
prosodemes.
(10) Deficient prosodeme made up of a vowel (with empty
onset)

The representation in (10) is that of onsetless prosodemes whose nucleus is
filled by a vocoid, for instance e in kangaeru ‘to think’, or i in kai ‘shell’.

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Prosodic units

The three so-called special moras /N/, /Q/, and /R/ are deficient moras which,
I assume, have the representations in (11):
(11) Prosodemes made up of a special mora

/R/ consists of a [−consonantal] segmental specification, while /
Q/ is [+consonantal].13 /N/ is also [+consonantal] but note that it contains
an additional segmental specification in comparison to /Q/, the nasality
feature. In fact, except for the [±consonantal] feature specification, which
simply encodes their vocoid or contoid nature, /R/ and /Q/ have no segmental
specification at the underlying level. Note also that the /R/ features are linked
to the second position, but the /N/ and /Q/ features to the first one.
(p. 163 )

Let us now examine two other types of deficient moras: prosodemes
containing a devoiced vowel (already discussed in section 2.6) and
prosodemes containing an epenthetic vowel:
(12) Prosodemes made up of a devoiced vowel

In the case of devoiced vowels, a V segment present in the underlying form
is phonetically deleted on the surface, but the structural position initially
associated with the nucleus (V) is not. The nucleus is thus left empty, but it
nonetheless remains as a position at the phonological level14 (possibly with
a [−consonantal] feature), thus yielding a deficient unit. The proposal to
include the moras with a devoiced vowel in the set of the ‘special moras’ was
also made by Akinaga (1968), but her proposal has not been followed up in
subsequent studies.
(13) Prosodemes containing an epenthetic vowel

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Prosodic units

The exact phonological status of epenthetic vowels in phonological
representations and derivations constitutes a major problem for phonological
theory, which still awaits a proper solution. Nevertheless, whatever the
theoretical framework, an epenthetic vowel comes down to an empty
position at the most underlying level which receives (p. 164 ) default
phonetic realization at a later stage. In that sense, epenthetic vowels can be
considered to be the opposite of devoiced vowels, as seen in (12), because
devoiced vowels correspond to a position initially filled which loses its
phonetic content.
Onsetless prosodemes, those containing epenthetic and devoiced vowels,
as well as special moras thus display strong representational similarity in
the approach proposed here: they all contain an empty position at some
level of the representation. This is very desirable, because these four types
of moras share a common empirical characteristic which has not received
sufficient attention in previous studies: they are not readily accentable. We
have already mentioned the fact that /N/, /Q/, and /R/ are not, under normal
conditions, able to receive an accent, but it is also a well-established fact
in the phonology of Japanese that onsetless vowels, epenthetic vowels, and
devoiced vowels share the same property, although not as systematically
as /N/, /Q/, and /R/ (a point to which we will come back below). The following
examples illustrate this fact:
(14)
a. Accent shift caused by the presence of a devoiced vowel
(see also section 2.6) in conservative Tôkyô Japanese
expected
form

realized
form

hukaku
[ˡFɯkakɯ]

hukaku
[F̥ɯˡkakɯ]

‘deeply’

kisha
[ˡkiɕa]

kisha
[k̥iˡɕa]

‘train’

keizairyoku

‘economical
power’

kangaeru

‘to
think’

anaunsu

{announce}

b. Accent shift caused by the presence of an onsetless vowel
expected form realized form

Page 26 of 45

Prosodic units

c. Accent shift caused by the presence of an epenthetic
vowel in a CV mora expected form realized form
amusuterudamu#

amusuterudamu‘Amsterdam’

andesukai

‘Andes
Club’

That moras containing an15epenthetic vowel do not behave in the same way
as moras containing an underlying vowel, but rather like special moras, is
further demonstrated by the fact that four-mora loanwords that end in a
sequence of two CV moras are mostly unaccented (90%) if their final vowel is
underlying, (p. 165 ) whereas the ratio goes down to 30% if the final vowel is
epenthetic (Kubozono, 2006b), a percentage which is close to that displayed
by words ending in a supposedly heavy syllable, that is, words ending in a
special mora. So not only are epenthetic vowels difficult to accentuate, their
presence also causes word accent computation to differ significantly when
they occur word-finally.
Note that the occasional ability of onsetless moras to repel the accent
constitutes a serious problem for phonology because it is commonly
admitted that onsets do not contribute to prosodic weight. However, the
data under examination contradict this assumption if analysed through
the syllabic mirror.16 In the present approach, this can be accounted for
by the fact that structurally, onsetless moras are phonological objects that
contain a position with no segmental specification, in the same way as moras
containing an epenthetic or a devoiced vowel. At the phonetic level, this
corresponds to a lack of acoustic prominence, not suitable for receiving
an accent. The syllabic framework does not allow us to capture onsetless,
devoiced, and epenthetic vowels and would-be third-position syllable
constituents (i.e. codas) as entities belonging to the same category, whereas
the model developed here does, because all four elements are conceived
as containing an empty slot, which explains their relative weakness or
transparency.
Actually, the relevance of the onset for prosodic weight is already attested
in the Man’yôshû, a compilation of poems dating back to the eighth century.
The meter of Japanese poetry is fixed, and it is based on the number of
moras per verse. The verses of tanka, the most representive genre of
Japanese classical poetry, are composed respectively of 5–7–5–7–7 moras.
Quite interestingly, this meter is not always respected. This notably happens
when the verse contains an onsetless vowel, as the following two examples
taken from the Man’yôshû illustrate:
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Prosodic units

(15)

– 8 moras instead
of 7:
imada
sakazukeru

‘does not bloom
yet’ (poem 2123)

– 9 moras instead
of 7
tori age mahe ni
oki

‘taking (it) and
putting (it) in
the front’ (poem
4129)

Such hypermetric poetic licences are called jiamari (###). It is important to
note that the onsetless vowel can occur at the beginning of the verse, as in
the first example, thus excluding the hypothesis of syneresis.
I claim that this phenomenon can be accounted for along the same lines of
analysis as the one I adopt for modern Tôkyô Japanese, that is, syllables did
not exist in eighth-century Japanese, and the basic prosodic unit consisted
of a two-slot element equivalent to a mora. When one of the two slots is
empty, the unit is (p. 166 ) considered to be deficient, and presents a type of
phonological behaviour which is not that of full units. In the verses above, it
is clear that deficient moras may not always count as one rhythmic unit as
full moras do.
In the above representations, empty positions generally represent the
vestige of segmental material which has been disassociated, either from a
diachronic or a synchronic perspective. From the diachronic point of view, as
already mentioned in the previous chapter, special moras /N/, /Q/, and /R/ are
known to result from consonant or vowel loss in Yamato Japanese, a process
which has left an empty structural position in the underlying representation.
Interestingly, internal onsetless vowels in simplex words are also the result
of a similar process. Archaic Japanese did not accept onsetless vowels
morpheme-internally, so that all the modern occurrences of internal V1V2
sequences are due to the loss of a consonant in native words. For instance,
modern koe ‘voice’ comes from kowe, au ‘to meet’ from afu # *apu.

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Prosodic units

6.3.1 Japanese As A Syllable-less Language
The reader will have noticed that the model of the Japanese prosodeme
proposed here corresponds exactly to the mora, which leads us to consider
that the mora is the core prosodeme of Japanese. I assume that moras are
structured as in (16).
(16) Structure of Japanese moras

Recall that in the case of special moras, one of the two positions, C or V, is
left empty at some level of the analysis.
Taking into account the phenomena reviewed thus far, three other lines of
analysis of the prosodic structure of Japanese ought to be considered. It is
important to examine them in order to justify the claim made here. These
options appear in (17a–c), while (17d) represents the analysis which we
adopt here (the dots representing segment position are omitted).
(17)

The first representation (17a) consists of positing that moras and
(light) syllables, although isomorphic, coexist in Japanese, and that they are
organized hierarchically. This option is undoubtedly the most cautious one. In
this representation, however, there is a redundancy between the mora and
the syllable, so that the principle of Occam’s razor leads us to adopt one of
the three remaining possibilities, (17b), (17c), or (17d).
(p. 167 )

The second option, (17b), appears to be the least challenging one for the
model which actually dominates in current phonological theory. However, the
facts examined throughout this chapter did not provide any evidence that
there would be any advantage in distinguishing an onset directly attached to

Page 29 of 45

Prosodic units

the syllable, whereas the nucleus would be associated with a mora. On the
contrary: we have seen that there exists in Japanese a remarkable cohesion
between the element C and the element V of a prosodeme. Such a close
cohesion is not reported for truly ‘syllabic’ languages. In addition to the facts
already presented, one can also mention data taken from stuttering speech
which can be taken as evidence that (17b) is not the right representation.
According to Ujihira and Kubozono (1994) and Kubozono (2006a), the portion
repeated by Japanese stutterers at the beginning of words starting with a
consonant is a CV unit in 88.6% of the cases (for instance, na-na-na/nde
‘why’). Only in 1.2% of the cases is it a C unit. This, as Kubozono observes,
differs from English, for instance, where initial segmentation generally occurs
before the vowel (n-n-n-n/ever). If one assumes that it is not the syllable
and its constituents which are the units of prosodic encoding but rather a
prosodeme corresponding to the mora, these data can be accounted for
quite naturally. Also, recall that, as stated earlier, the temporal adjustment
between C and V is much more important in Japanese than it appears to
be in syllabic languages. We can interpret this fact as a consequence of
the strictly binary and symetric structure of the Japanese prosodeme, and
of the strong solidarity and equality of status which exists between its two
components. Since (17b) hardly reflects this cohesion and equality between
a C and a V belonging to the same prosodeme, it won’t be adopted here.
The elimination of (17a) and (17b) leaves us with two possibilities: (17c)
and (17d). (17c) considers the syllable as the only necessary constituent,
but limited to a maximally binary structure, more or less in the fashion of
Lowenstamm (1996) or Scheer (2004) who defend the idea that all syllables,
in all languages, consist fundamentally of a CV structure. If we adopted this
position, the references to the mora could be simply replaced by references
to the syllable. This choice would have the advantage of not questioning
the very largely followed postulate according to which all languages have
syllables, and which views the mora as an optional constituent. However,
it seems desirable to maintain a conceptual distinction between the mora
and the light syllable, in other words, to ensure that these two terms are not
understood as different denominations of the same entity. This is why we
shall adopt the hypothesis in (17d). The justification for this stand is that
(p. 168 ) Tôkyô Japanese prosodemes have a number of specific properties
which, as explored in the preceding pages, make it phonologically different
from syllable-based languages.

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Prosodic units

6.3.2 The Non-Accentuation of Deficient Moras Principle (NADM)
We have seen that on the structural and functional levels, two types of
moras have to be distinguished: full moras which have a CV structure, and
weak or deficient moras in which one of the two positions is empty. The main
empirical difference between full and deficient moras is that deficient moras
are not able to work as proper accent kernels under normal and general
conditions. From now on, this inability of deficient moras to bear the accent
will be referred to as the NADM principle or constraint:
(18)
•
Non-Accentuation of Deficient Moras (NADM)
•
Deficient moras must not be accented
Examples of the NADM principle application have been presented on many
occasions throughout this book, for instance in 5.5 and 6.2.4, and will be
seen again in sections 7.1.4, 7.2.3, and 7.3.2.
This principle is nothing but a reformulation of the well-known OT constraint
PeakProminence (Prince and Smolensky, 1993:39) which stipulates that more
prominent elements make better prosodic peaks within a foot.
Let us take for instance a sequence such as /hoN/ hon ‘book’, which, in a
syllabic approach, would be interpreted as a heavy syllable. In our model,
this is simply a foot made up of a regular mora, /ho/, followed by a deficient
mora, /N/. Further, we shall assume, as argued in section 6.2.4(see also
sections 7.2.3 and 7.3.2) that /hoN/ is underlyingly accented on the final
mora /N/, and that the accent moves to /ho/ at the surface level: [ˡhoN].
This process can be accounted for in an extremely simple manner by the
interaction of the following three constraints: NADM, Max(Accent) and
FaithIO(Accent).
NADM dominates Max(Accent), the constraint which imposes that an accent
present in the input has a correspondent in the output, and Max(Accent)
dominates FaithIO(Accent) which demands that an accent present in the
input be preserved in the same location in the output. The ranking between
the three constraints accounts for the accentual shift to the initial mora of
the morpheme, as shown in (19)
(19) Interaction of Max(Accent), NADM and FaithIO(Accent)
a. Hierarchy: NADM ## Max(Accent) ## FaithIO(Accent)
(p. 169 ) b. Tableau

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Prosodic units

/
hoN/

NADM

Max(Accent)

☞a.
hon
b.
hon
c.
hon
°

FaithIO(Accent)
*

*!
*!

In (19b), the candidate in b., which infringes the dominant constraint NADM,
is the worst one. Of the two remaining possibilities, a. with initial accent, and
c., without accent, a. is selected as the optimal output because, contrary to
c., it preserves the accent present in the input, although in a location which
is not the original one. Note that the constraint Max(Accent) does not govern
positional faithfulness but the preservation in the output of an element
present in the input, contrary to FaithIO(Accent) (see also section 7.3.2).
Dialects such as the Izu dialect which allow special moras to be accented
at the surface level can be assumed to have a different hierarchy, ranking
NADM below FaithIO(Accent).
However, some deficient moras may, under certain conditions, carry the
accent even in Tôkyô Japanese. Variation is frequently observed, especially
in cases of onsetless and epenthetic vowels, which are sometimes accented.
The mora nasal /N/ can also receive the accent in certain cases, as in
obaasankko ‘child cherished by his/her grandmother’, as well as /R/ (see also
the examples in (6) above), whereas /Q/, for instance, never can.
Reliable and phonetically controlled data which would inform us about the
factors which condition this variation, especially concerning the accentuation
of onsetless and epenthetic vowels, is still needed. In a constraint-based
approach, we would be led to posit that there exists a constraint placed
higher in the hierarchy than NADM, and that this higher constraint forces an
accent to be put on a deficient mora. I leave the issue of the exact nature of
this constraint for future investigation. Nonetheless, the fact that all deficient
moras do not always behave exactly in the same manner is indisputable and
will lead us to the proposal that Japanese moras are arranged along a scale,
as will be shown now.

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Prosodic units

6.3.3 Hierarchy of Japanese Prosodemes (moras)
Because the opposition between full and deficient moras is not dichotomous,
the conception of the Japanese prosodeme developed above needs some
further refinements. It seems reasonable to assume that Japanese moras
have to be classified along a scalar hierarchy according to their acoustic
prominence. This is because, as just stated, the NADM principle is neither
absolute nor free of variation. The general scale of Japanese moras according
to their relative capacity to receive the accent is as follows (here ●’s denote
empty positions):
(p. 170 ) CV ## ●V ## C●
I propose that these three major mora types be further subclassified as
follows:17

●i, CVepenthetic, and CVdevoiced seem to occupy the same position in the
hierarchy, in between ●u and /R/, hence the use of the brace.
The relative capacity of a mora to receive the accent is conditioned by its
intrinsic phonetic prominence and acoustic energy, as well as by the number
of filled structural positions it contains. Any consonant followed by a high
vowel (for instance mi,ku), the mora nasal, the first part of a geminate,
as well as voiceless consonants when followed by a devocalized nucleus
vowel, on the one hand, are quite unsurprisingly characterized by their
relative lack of prominence. On the other hand, onsetless vowels can also
be considered as relatively weak, in any case weaker than CV moras. This
may be more unexpected at first sight, but, following Burzio (1994:158) one
can assume that onsets contribute to acoustic energy, so onsetless units are
prosodically weaker. As for moras containing an epenthetic vowel, I assume
that their lack of prominence is phonological (or representational) rather
than phonetic, even if the exact nature of their phonological representation
is an issue which must be further investigated. Moreover, among onsetless
moras, it is also clear that ●a and ●o are not ‘as weak’ as ●i, ●u or even
●e.
In addition to its phonological structure, the intrinsic sonority of the mora
thus unquestionably conditions its capacity to receive the accent.18 However,
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Prosodic units

I argue that the relationship between accent, sonority, and structure is not
direct. Rather, it is mediated by reference to the foot, as we shall see now.

6.4 The Foot
The canonical Japanese foot (hutto ### or kyaku #) is bimoraic. It can have
the following structures:
(p. 171 ) (20) Japanese feet = (µµ)
(C)VCV

kata ‘shape’, iru°
‘to exist’

(C)VV

hae° ‘fly’, ou [ˡoː]
‘king’

(C)VC

hon ‘book’,
kit(to)° ‘certainly’

Prevocalic consonants can be palatalized (i.e. Cy). In (C)VC, the final C equals
the mora nasal (/N/) or the first part of a geminate (/Q/). In (C)VV, the second
V can be equivalent to /R/.
However, monomoraic feet (sometimes called degenerate feet) are not
uncommon in Japanese. Kubozono (1999a) argues that every foot must
be entirely contained within the same morpheme, so that two adjacent
monomoraic feet will not form a single bimoraic foot in polymorphemic
lexemes: F(µ) + F(µ) = F(µ)F(µ) rather than F(µµ). Each foot is supposedly
parsed as a separate degenerate foot. Similarly, trimoraic feet (or heavy
feet) can also be found. For instance, Tanaka (2008:203) argues, on the
basis of an empirical study of foreign words accentuation, that trimoraic feet
must be posited in certain cases where a sequence of two regular moras is
followed by /Q/. He proposes the following respective footing for the words
tomato {tomato}, biniiru {vinyl}, and sonetto {sonnet}: (toma)to, bi(nii)ru,
but (soneQ)to.19
Although recognition of the foot in Japanese phonology is rather recent,
dating back to Poser’s seminal 1990 work, the evidence for its relevance is
massive and uncontroversial. Poser (1990) provides a number of foot-based
phenomena which demonstrate the significant role of the bimoraic—rather
than disyllabic—foot in Japanese morpho-phonology through data taken from
geisha / bargirl client names, kinship terms, rustic girls’ names, ren’yôkei
reduplication, mimetic bases, the secret language of jazzmen, and compound
accentuation.
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Prosodic units

From Poser’s list, let us present the well-known case of hypocoristic
formation. We will then introduce two other foot-based phenomena:
women’s secret language (nyôbô kotoba) derivatives, and compound loans
truncations.
Hypocoristics are made by adding the suffix -chan to a bimoraic foot
containing segmental material obtained from the base (the complete
name). When the name is longer than five moras, two-foot-long hypocoristic
derivatives can also be found. The important point to note is that one-,
three-, or five- mora-long patterns are prohibited. This provides robust
evidence that it is at the foot level that hypocoristic derivation operates.
(21) Hypocoristic formation
Full
name

hypocoristics

mi
dori

mi ichan,
mitchan,
midochan

*michan

ta rou

ta rochan,
taachan

*tachan

kazuhiko

ka zuchan

*kachan
*kazuhichan

kenzaburou
°

ke nchan,
kenzabuchan

*kechan,
*kenzachan
*kenzaburochan

(p. 172 )

Derivatives used in the feminine language and originating from nyôbô kotoba
(####), an ancient secret language used by court ladies, are also based
on the foot. Nyôbô kotoba forms are obtained by truncation of the base to
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Prosodic units

foot-size, and addition of the polite prefix o-, as shown in (22). Note that the
truncated base can be equivalent to two light syllables, or a heavy syllable,
in a syllable-based approach. But it can never consist of two heavy syllables,
thus demonstrating once again that Japanese feet are made up of moras
rather than syllables.
(22) Nyôbô kotoba
base

derived form (o- + µµ)

satsuma
imo°

o-satsu

‘sweet
potato’

juubako
°

o-juu

‘stackable
box’

dengaku
°

o-den

‘oden
(Japanese
hotchpotch)’

neshouben

o-nesho

‘bed
wetting’

The foot is also used as the basic unit in compound abbreviated loanwords
(Labrune 2007), which are normally built by extracting one bimoraic foot
(generally the initial one) out of each component of the original form,
yielding a two-foot-long derivative.
(23) Compound abbreviated loanwords

Page 36 of 45

base

truncated
form

dejitaru
kamera

dejikame
°

{digital
camera}

rimouto
kontorouru

rimokon
°

{remote
control}

enjin
sutoppu

ensuto
°

{engine
stop}

‘motor
stalling’

patorouru
kaa

pato-kaa

{patrol
car}

‘police
patrol
car’

Prosodic units

The foot is also the prosodic domain within which certain accent shifts
occur. Whenever several vowels in the environment of a devoiced vowel
are likely to receive accent as a consequence of a NADM accent shift, the
basic principle seems to be that the accent will remain within the same foot
(Tanaka, 2001). Another study by Tanaka (1998, 2008) highlights the fact
that in certain cases, evaluation of the relative sonority of the vowels in order
to determine accent placement occurs within the head foot. Accent then falls
on the most sonorous vowel in the foot (see section 7.3.1 (35) for examples
about the correlation between vowel sonority and accent placement).
Finally, in their experimental study of Japanese speech rhythm, Ayusawa
et al. (1998) have also found that a high proportion of the units of rhythm
consist of two moras, that is, one foot.
I assume that Japanese feet obey a well-formedness constraint,
which enforces that they start with a mora of relative prominence, preferably
a full CV mora, i.e. the canonical prosodeme of the language. So the inability
of deficient moras to be tonic does not come directly from their weak
sonority, nor from their structural incompleteness, but from their position
within feet. Let us review again the structure of the canonical Japanese
foot. Recall that it can have the following shapes: (C)VCV, (C)VV, or (C)VC.
Since the level of the syllable is considered as not relevant in the prosodic
hierarchy of Japanese, feet are directly made up of moras, as in (24).
(24) Structure of Japanese feet
(p. 173 )

In the prosodic model of Japanese proposed here, the role usually devoted
to the heavy syllable is entirely taken up by the foot. Supposedly heavy
syllables of the shape CVC or CVV are simply reinterpreted as feet containing
a deficient mora in the second position, i.e. CVC● or CV●V.
Another important characteristic of Tôkyô Japanese feet is that they are
trochaic, that is, initially headed (Shinohara, 2000; Labrune, 2002; Ota,
2003).
I further propose that a well-formedness constraint determines the shape of
the Japanese foot:20
(25) Foot well-formedness constraint
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Prosodic units

*F[m

A foot must start
with a full mora

In other words, feet must be properly headed by a full mora, and their
head is aligned to the left (trochees). A full mora is a mora whose structure
corresponds to one of those standing at the left end of the hierarchy in
6.3.3.21
All this means that deficient moras are not, except in very special
or secondary cases, in a position to stand as foot heads and to receive the
accent. This is obviously so in the case of /N/, /Q/, and /R/, even if exceptions
can be found (the already oft-cited obaasankko). It is less obviously so in
cases of onsetless vowels. The *F[m constraint predicts that feet that start
with a vowel cannot be accented on the initial mora. Yet, such feet do exist
in Japanese, which contradict this prediction. However, it seems that such
feet are in the majority word-initial, as in ito ‘thread’, amazon ‘the Amazon’,
for instance. Remember that onsetless vowels have an intermediary status
in the deficientness gradation, and it seems that when they occur wordinitially, they are more able to stand as accent nucleus than in the wordinternal position. Interestingly, a statistical survey carried out on a corpus
made up of 211 toponyms of Western origin,22 a class of words in which the
accent is normally attributed according to the general, default principles
that govern Japanese accentuation, establishes that vowel-initial words are
less frequently accented on the initial mora than consonant-initial words, in
a statistically significant manner: 52% of #V- words are initially accented,
as against 70% of #CV- words, all other things being equal. This shows that
a constraint preventing feet from starting with a deficient mora does exist,
even if this constraint is not top-ranked in the hierarchy, which explains that
onsetless initial vowels—which, as stated in section 6.3.3, stand in between
truly full moras and truly deficient ones—can still be found, especially at
the beginning of words, a position which commonly allows exceptional
phonological configurations to occur.
(p. 174 )

While a number of issues certainly remain, which require additional empirical
and theoretical investigation, I believe that the above general framework
of analysis of the Japanese mora and foot is correct and that it provides a
satisfactory account of the phonology of Japanese. The role played by *F[m in
the phonology of Japanese will be further exemplified through the case study
of the accentuation of foreign toponyms in the following chapter (section
7.2.5).

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Prosodic units

6.5 The Prosodic Word And the Upper Levels of the Prosodic
Hierarchy
The foot is dominated by the prosodic word (go # or inritsugo ###),
which is the domain of accentual rules (see Chapter 7) and of a number
of phonotactic and morpho-phonological rules or constraints such as h
lenition (section 3.7), non co-occurrence of voiced obstruents (section 4.1.1),
rendaku (section 4.2). In Japanese, the prosodic word corresponds to a lexical
word with its ‘satellites’, i.e. the (p. 175 ) enclitic particles which may follow
it. In some cases, it also contains a prefix such as o- or go- (both honorific
markers).
There is no consensus as to the number and nature of the prosodic units
above the prosodic word in the literature. The most widespread view, which
we will follow in this book, posits two major categories between the prosodic
word and the utterance: the minor phonological phrase and the major
phonological phrase (McCawley, 1968; Selkirk and Tateishi, 1988; Kubozono,
1993b) also known respectively as accentual phrase and intermediate
phrase (Pierrehumbert and Beckman, 1988) or the accentual phrase and
the intonation phrase (Venditti et al., 2009). If, as this book claims, Japanese
does not have phonological syllables, there is no need to recognize the
existence of a syllabic level in its prosodic hierarchy. Instead, the mora
constitutes a prosodic constituent in its own right directly linked to the foot,
which has the full capacity to license segments. Accordingly, the prosodic
hierarchy of Japanese may be represented as follows.
(26) Japanese prosodic hierarchy

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Prosodic units

However, some scholars posit only one corresponding category, the
phonological phrase, which covers the two subtypes of phonological phrases
(Labrune, 2006; Itô and Mester, 2008).
The minor phonological phrase (akusento-ku ######) generally contains
two prosodic words representing an [Adj + Noun + Particle] phrase, such as
oishii gohan ga ‘delicious rice + Subject particle’, or [Noun no Noun] ‘Noun
of Noun’, in a phrase like Atsuko no gohan ‘Atsuko’s rice’. It has at most one
pitch accent (one HL pitch change, see Chapter 7). The major phonological
phrase (chô akusento-ku #######) may contain two minor phrases, for
instance Atsuko no oishii gohan ga ‘Atsuko’s delicious rice + Subject’. It is
the domain (p. 176 ) of the application of catathesis, or downstep (Poser,
1984; Pierrehumbert and Beckman, 1988).
The utterance (bunsetsu ##) is the domain of declination and of final
raising or lowering, which may, for instance, differentiate questions from
statements. Exemplifications of how intonation operates at the levels of the
minor and major phonological phrases will be provided in the next chapter
(sections 5.1 and 7.1.5, and 7.4), after the accentual system has been
introduced.

6.6 Summary And Concluding Remarks
The mass of facts examined throughout this chapter shows that the mora,
a rhythmic and temporal unit of segment grouping, and the foot, a domain
of mora grouping and organization, are sufficient for the understanding and
analysis of Japanese phonology at the lowest levels of prosodic organization.
Two types of moras have been distinguished: regular moras, which are
ideally made up of a consonant + a full vowel, and deficient moras, which
lack one of the two full C or V elements in their prototypical shape. However,
the difference between full and deficient moras is gradual, some moras being
‘more’ deficient than others, which accounts for the fact that some deficient
moras sometimes behave like regular ones, whereas others, most typically /
Q/ for instance, are always treated as deficient.
The main advantage of the approach retained here is that it enables us to
capture under the same phonological category a set of objects (namely
onsetless vowels, epenthetic vowels, voiceless vowels, the mora nasal, the
first part of a geminate, and the second part of a long vowel) which share a
number of characteristics in Japanese phonology, but that a syllabic analysis
fails to capture as similar entities. In the present approach, all normally
syllable-linked phenomena, and, in particular, references to the heavy
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Prosodic units

syllable, are replaced by references to the foot and/or mora. We shall see
in the next chapter how this approach can help provide a better account of
some classical issues of Japanese phonology, through the formal analysis
of loanword accentuation and compound word accentuation, two problems
which have been claimed by the proponents of the syllabic analysis to prove
the relevance and necessity of the syllable.
The proposal that Tôkyô Japanese makes no use of syllables contrasts
sharply with the dominant current in mainstream phonology, which assumes
that the syllable is not an optional unit in human languages but a universal
constituent whose existence cannot be called into question.23 However, it
should be (p. 177 ) emphasized that this is in accordance with the traditional
analysis of the Japanese kokugogaku school of thought, which recognizes
only what corresponds to the mora for the analysis of Japanese, with a
distinction between autonomous and special moras.

Notes:
(1.) In addition to the mora (haku), Hattori (1960) also refers to the syllable
(onsetsu) in one of his papers, but this appears in a footnote, and is made in
a rather polemical tone in response to a comment by Kindaichi Haruhiko, a
linguist with whom Hattori often stood in opposition.
(2.) Translation: Ueda Makoto, 1998, The Path of Flowering Thorn: The Life
and Poetry of Yosa Buson, Stanford: Stanford University Press. I thank my
friend and colleague Michel Vieillard-Baron for finding this English translation
of Yosa Buson’s haiku for me.
(3.) It is legitimate to question the relationship between the writing system
and the phonological system in Japanese, and to consider the extent to which
the two systems influence each other. Thus one might wonder for example if
it is because they are written by means of autonomous and specific graphic
units that the mora nasal, or the first part of a geminate, are treated as one
unit in the phonological system, or is it the other way round: is it because
each corresponds to an autonomous phonological unit, the mora, that
they possess a specific and autonomous graphic sign? In other words, is it
phonology which conditions writing, or writing which conditions phonology?
My position is that it is the phonological structure of the Japanese language
which has determined the kana graphic system and its viability. The kana
system is derived from Chinese characters. Had it evolved in accordance
with the logic and spirit of the Chinese graphic system, it would have
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Prosodic units

produced a true syllabary in Japanese, i.e. a system which uses one graphic
sign (and not two as is currently the case) to transcribe a heavy syllable
such as kan,sou, or kai. In Chinese, where morphemes are monosyllabic,
any syllable, be it heavy or light, occupies one graphic virtual box. This is
not how things work in Japanese, however: each kana sign transcribes one
mora in one graphic virtual box, not one syllable. This evolution was by
no means induced by the Chinese graphic system, so one can reasonably
assume that if Japanese has followed ‘the path of the mora’, it is because of
its phonological structure, not the reverse.
This does not mean that the graphic system could not, in return, contribute
to consolidating and to establishing more firmly the phonological
representation of Japanese as a mora language, in the same manner as the
use of the alphabet, based on the phoneme, unquestionably contributes
to the development of a phonemic conscience in literate speakers (Morais,
1994).
(4.) The rendering of the first part of the geminate p by tsu #can be
explained by the kana spelling ####, since the letter that denotes the
sound tsu is also used for the transcription of gemination.
(5.) Kubozono (1993a) studies the case of a child aged 4 years and 9 months
who knows how to play shiritori, but ignores the special moras which occur
word-finally. Instead, she utters a word beginning with the penultimate mora.
For instance, she produces cha-iro after rika-chan,takoyaki after bataa, or
kemushi after tokei. Obviously, special moras pose a problem for very young
children. It is noteworthy that the child studied by Kubozono does not use the
final (special) mora of the words which are submitted to her but the last full
mora, totally ignoring the special mora. Had she uttered chanpon after rikachan, taa-chan after bataa, or keiretsu after tokei we would have had strong
evidence that this child language is syllable-based, but it is not the case.
(6.) Actually, the first Western linguist to operate a distinction between
long and short syllables in Kyôto Japanese, on the model of Latin, is the
Portuguese missionary Rodriguez, in his Arte da lingoa de Iapam published in
1604–1608.
(7.) Of course, the fact that there does not exist any proof of the existence of
an object is not enough to constitute the absolute certainty that this object
does not exist. As Hyman (2003 [1985]) points out, ‘it is of course logically
impossible to prove that a language does not have syllables, since it may be
the case that it has them but does not show obvious evidence of it’.
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Prosodic units

(8.) The branching rhyme approach which posits that a heavy syllable
consists of an onset and a rhyme, itself divided into a nucleus and coda,
has sometimes been adopted, for instance by Yoshida S. (1990, 1991),
whose work is cast within the framework of government phonology. Although
Yoshida argues that heavy syllables must be analysed as dissyllabic
sequences with two nuclei (in his model, kuukou° /kuRkoR/ ‘airport’ or
konpon° /koNpoN/ ‘base’ consist of four syllables), he does not give up the
idea that certain Japanese syllables have branching rhymes: according
to him, this would be true of sequences where two special moras (special
segments) follow each other, as in hontte /hoNQte/ ‘book + Citative’. In
hontte, the first part of the geminate is considered to be associated with the
rhyme of the syllable whose nucleus is /N/.
(9.) I thank a participant to the Berlin Conference ‘32. Jahrestagung Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft’, Humboldt University in Berlin (February
2010) for bringing this point to my attention.
(10.) Moreover, in the speech of certain Tôkyô conservative speakers, I
have heard nasalized vowels before a voiced obstruent, for instance in kazu
‘number’ uttered as [¹kã͡dzɯ], showing that vowel nasalization does not
occur within the domain of the syllable, since it is not even questionable that
the affricate [͡dz] may belong to the same syllable as the preceding /a/ in
kazu. However, to my knowledge, this phenomenon has never been fully
reported nor instrumentally verified for Tôkyô Japanese, so I only mention it
in passing.
(11.) The Izu dialect belongs to the Tôkyô type family of dialects. Izu is
located 100 km southwest of Tôkyô.
(12.) For the sake of convenience, I use the terms ‘onset’ and ‘nucleus’
to refer to, respectively, the first and second position constituents of the
prosodeme.
(13.) The feature [consonant] is defined here following Chomsky and Halle
(1968). It indicates a sound which is produced with a radical obstruction in
the mid-sagittal area of the vocal tract.
(14.) See Hyman (2003 [1985]) and Kager (1997) for arguments in favour of
the theoretical existence of such vowels in languages.
(15.) Accent shifts caused by the presence of an onsetless vowel are rather
inconsistent. Accent variation occurs with certain words but not with others,
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Prosodic units

for instance ‘to think’ can be realized as kangaeru or kangaeru, and so does
kotaeru / kotaeru ‘answer’ and totonoeru / totonoeru ‘to arrange’, but other
verbs containing the same ae sequence do not seem to accept variation.
So haeru ‘to grow’ (*haeru) is accented on the penultimate mora with no
possibility of accent shift, while kaeru ‘to return’ is only accented on the
antepenultimate (*kaeru), in violation of the verb accent rule which requires
tonic verbs to be accented on the penultimate mora.
(16.) A small number of languages, including English, in which the structure
of the onset is argued to be prosodically relevant have been reported (see
Kelly, 2004, Davis, 1988, Everett, and Everett, 1984). See also Topintzi
(2010) for an extensive study.
(17.) Tanaka (2008) also proposes that the special moras should be arranged
along a hierarchy: /J/ # /R/ # /N/ # /Q/ because they do not have a uniform
action with respect to accent location in certain categories of words. In
particular, his study shows that /Q/ does not behave like the other three
special moras.
(18.) The relationship between sonority and accent in Japanese has been
brought to light by Tanaka (1998, 2008) and Yokotani (1997). It is also
attested for other languages (Hayes 1995; Kenstowicz 1994b).
(19.) Notice that sonetto is not accented on the antepenultimate mora ne,
as would be expected if Q behaved exactly like the other special moras of
Japanese, but on the pre-antepenultimate mora so.
(20.) I would like to thank Marc Plénat for first suggesting to me the
existence of a constraint such as *F[m, and for providing many valuable
comments on the issue of moras and feet interaction. The *F[m constraint in
(25) is actually a cover constraint for a set of three different constraints (see
Labrune, 2012).
(21.) As stated in section 6.3.3, the border between full and deficient moras
is somewhat uncertain. It falls somewhere in between Cu and ●e, depending
on a variety of factors which remain to be discovered.
(22.) This list comes from one of the appendices of NHK (1998).
(23.) But note that a small number of scholars have questioned the
universality of the syllable, for instance Kohler (1966), Hyman (2003 [1985]),
and Auer (1994). Hyman (2003 [1985]) claims that the syllable is not a
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Prosodic units

universal constituent but a language-particular construct built out of weight
units (which correspond to moras). According to him, some languages
simply do not construct syllables. See Labrune (2012), for a more developed
discussion.

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Prosodic units

The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Accent
Laurence Labrune

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0007

Abstract and Keywords
Tôkyô Japanese has been described as a pitch accent system which contains
tonic and atonic words,and has been extensively described and analysed
both in and outside Japan. After presenting the basic mechanism of present
day Tôkyô Japanese accentuation and offering a summary of two theoretical
treatments of it, the chapter enters into the details of each word type
accentuation: simplex vs. compound, native vs. Sino-Japanese vs. Western,
nouns vs. verbs and -i adjectives, numeral compounds, and so on. A new
formal account within the framework optimality theory of the accentuation
of Western loans and of that of compound nouns is offered. After exploring
the dialectal and sociological variation of accent, the chapter concludes with
a discussion on the status of the Japanese word-prosodic system from a
typological point of view, since a number of features of this system could be
interpreted as tonal rather than accentual.
Keywords: accent, pitch accent system, simplex words, compound words, Sino-Japanese
words, Western words, numeral compunds, optimality theory, tonic words, atonic words

Because of its complexity and rich phenomenology, as well as the typological
variety exhibited across dialects, the issue of the Japanese accent (akusento
#####) poses a challenge to linguistic description and analysis.
We will begin this chapter with a presentation of the general principles of
the Tôkyô Japanese accent (section 7.1), before examining in turn (sections
7.2,7.3, and 7.4), the question of simplex words accentuation, compound
words accentuation, and that of the phonological phrase. In section 7.5,
Page 1 of 115

Accent

we will broaden our perspective in order to get a glimpse at individual
and dialectal variation. Section 7.6 will allow us to reflect on the nature of
the Japanese accent from a typological point of view. It will be followed,
in section 7.7, by a review of the various accent studies which have been
carried out in Japan and in the West from the Edo period until the present
time.
The study of the Tôkyô Japanese accentual system occupies a particular
position within theoretical phonology because this original prosodic system
provides an interesting and challenging ground for the testing of prosodic
models which have often been elaborated for ‘stress’ languages like English
or ‘tone’ languages like Chinese, i.e. prosodic systems seemingly quite
different from that of Japanese. Such testing is thus all the more invaluable
to judge the validity of theoretical principles because the Japanese accent
system is without question among the best-documented in the world.
Moreover, and this is, in my view, a crucial point, rare enough in the field of
linguistics outside non-Indo-European languages to be worth mentioning, the
descriptions of Japanese that are available are, in their majority, by linguists
working on their own native tongue within a variety of frameworks, including
a largely indigenous approach.
It might have been necessary to begin a chapter devoted to the Japanese
accent system by a reflection on what an accent language is, and on how
it should be defined in contrast with stress and tone languages. However,
for clarity of exposition, this discussion is postponed until section 7.6, after
the presentation of the details of the so-called Japanese ‘accent’ have been
introduced, but some readers might prefer to read section 7.6 first.
(p. 179 )

7.1 General Principles of Tôkyô Japanese Accentuation

7.1.1 Basic Mechanisms
The accent of Tôkyô Japanese consists of a distinctive lexical pitch accent
(sometimes called musical accent). It is marked phonetically by the change
from a high-pitched mora (noted H henceforth) to a low-pitched mora (L).
The last mora of the word carrying the H tone before the drop towards L is
regarded as the accented mora of the word, its prosodic peak, or accent
kernel (akusento-kaku ######).
The lexicon is divided into tonic words (accented type, kihuku-shiki ##
#) and atonic words (unaccented type, heiban-shiki ###). A tonic word
Page 2 of 115

Accent

contains an HL sequence (in other words, a pitch drop), an atonic word
does not. In this book, accented moras appear in bold characters while
unaccented words are followed1 by the symbol °. In Standard Japanese, there
exists in theory for any given word, n + 1 accent possibilities, n being equal
to the number of full moras of the word. Thus, for a three-mora word having
a CVCVCV structure, the following four prosodic patterns are all possible at
the lexical level:
(1) Accent possibilities for three-mora words
CVCVCV

na
mida

‘tear’

CVCVCV

kokoro

‘heart’

CVCVCV

kagami

‘mirror’

CVCVCV
°
(atonic)

sakura°

‘cherry
tree’

In Japanese terminology, the namida type, with initial accent, is known as
atamadaka-gata ‘high head pattern’ (###), the kokoro type, with internal
accent, is a nakadaka-gata ‘high middle pattern’ (###), and kagami, with
final accent, is termed odaka-gata ‘high tail pattern’ (###). The last word,
sakura°, is a heiban-gata ‘flat pattern’ (###).
The surface prosodic pattern of a word is then governed by the two following
principles:
– *HLH, or Adjacency Principle: two high pitches (H) on the surface can
cohabit in a word only if they are adjacent. That is, several H’s cannot be
separated by one or more L’s. There is thus only one high plateau in a word.
Here accent fulfils a culminative function.
– *#HH and *#LL, or Initial Dissimilation Principle (also known
as initial lowering): the first and second moras in a word always have
different heights. A word thus starts obligatorily, either by HL if the first
mora of the word carries the accent, or by LH in all other cases. The only
exception seems to be if the second mora of the word consists of a special
segment (see section 6.2.4), in which case the word may start with HH
rather than with LH.2 The presence of the LH melody on the first two moras
is dissimilatory in nature and always predictable. The accent here fulfils
a demarcative function (see Warner, et al., 2010, an experimental study
which shows confirmation of this traditional formulation of initial dissimilation
(p. 180 )

Page 3 of 115

Accent

as a demarcative cue). As we will see below in this subsection, as well as
in section 7.5, it is actually at the level of the phonological phrase rather
than at the level of the word that initial dissimilation occurs but it makes no
difference here since we are talking of single lexemes.
From the application of the two above-mentioned principles, all the moras
which occur before the accented mora carry a high pitch at the phonetic
level in words other than those bearing an initial accent, except the first
mora, which is low.
Consequently, surface prosodic patterns such as (2a and b) are impossible
within a prosodic word in Standard Japanese because they violate the two
principles stated above.
(2) Impossible surface prosodic patterns
a. Violations of *HLH:
2. *HLH *LHLH *HHLH etc
b. Violations of *#HH and *#LL:
4. *LL *HH *HHH *LLL
5. *HHL *LLH *HHHL *LLLH etc
The actually occurring surface patterns are given in (3). The lexical word and
the following particle, which constitute a prosodic word, are separated by a
hyphen. We shall limit ourselves here to examples from one to five moras
(actual examples are provided in Table 7.2 below):
(p. 181 ) (3) Possible prosodic patterns
a. Tonic words (containing an HL sequence)
HL

HLL

HLLL

HLLLL

HLLLLL

LHL

LHHL

LHHHL

LHHHHL

LHLL

LHLLL

LHLLLL

LHHLL

LHHLLL

b. Atonic words (containing no HL sequence)
LH

Page 4 of 115

LHH

LHHH

LHHHLL
LHHHH

LHHHHH
Accent

An atonic word, as in (3b), is a word which does not contain any shift from H
to L. Following the principles stated above, the prosodic pattern of an atonic
word will start inevitably with a LH melody (under the principle of initial
dissimilation), followed by as many H’s as the word contains moras, with no
significant downfall towards L.
The accent of Japanese bears all the properties of a distinctive accent, and
indeed, it is. However, the importance of the distinctive function should
not be exaggerated, since only 14% of the total number of minimal pairs
in the language are distinguished by a difference in the accent pattern
according to Sibata and Sibata (1990), quoted by Kubozono (2001a). The
principal function of the Japanese accent thus consists of organizing the
linguistic units within the utterance linearly, and, by means of intonation, of
structuring morpho-syntactic and semantic information. The location of the
accented mora is indeed that from which the whole intonation structure will
be built.
Although the accent of Standard Japanese is by and large lexical, there
exist, in certain areas of the lexicon, some rather regular principles which
determine the accent pattern of words. There are notably two such areas:
the accent of loanwords of Western origin and that of compound nouns.
These will be examined in sections 7.2.4 and 7.3.1–4 respectively. As we
shall see, in both cases, one observes a tendency towards the emergence of
a default accent on the antepenultimate mora.
The presentation which has been made in the preceding pages represents
the most consensual and widespread description of the accent of Tôkyô
Japanese. But other views exist. For instance, Kubozono (2006b, 2008)
proposes a different approach to the accent pattern system of nouns in
Tôkyô Japanese by positing that Tôkyô Japanese is not a multiple-pattern
system but a two-system pattern. For him, the major opposition is between
the accented and the unaccented types (this is in agreement with the
standard analysis). But, within the accented type, Kubozono proposes
that there exists a default accent pattern which is assigned by rule (the
antepenultimate rule), and a number of lexical exceptions which must be
(p. 182 ) memorized. This class of lexical exceptions is made of nouns which
bear an accent on a mora other than the antepenultimate.

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Accent

7.1.2 Atonic Words (and their Difference From Final Accented Words)
Unaccented words and final-accented words are generally described
as having the same phonetic realization when uttered in isolation. The
difference between the two is supposed to be perceivable only when the
word in question is followed by an accentually neutral element, for instance
an enclitic particle such as ga (Subject) or wo (Object), whose presence after
the final mora will allow the realization of the HL downshift, which is the only
truly reliable clue of the presence of a final accent.
In order to illustrate this point, let us consider the examples hana
‘flower’ (accented) and hana° ‘nose’ (unaccented) in Figures 7.1 and 7.2. In
both cases,

Figure 7.1. Accent curve (F0) of hana-ga ‘flower’ (0.30s)

Figure 7.2. Accent curve (F0) of hana-ga° ‘nose’ (0.27s.)
the final mora na is realized with a high pitch by speakers of Tôkyô
Japanese when the words occur in isolation (that is, with no following
particle). The phonetic realization of both hana ‘flower’ and hana° ‘nose’ is
thus supposed to be identical at the perception level (but see the remark
below). It is only when hana and hana° are followed by an enclitic particle,
for example ga, that the prosodic difference between the two can be fully
(p. 183 )

Page 6 of 115

Accent

materialized. In hana-ga ‘flower’, a significant fall of register occurs on the
mora ga, after the final na. In hana-ga° ‘nose’, there is no significant prosodic
fall after the final mora na, as can be seen in the instrumental analyses
presented in the two figures. (The two words were uttered by a male speaker
of Standard Japanese.)
However, and very interestingly, there actually exists a slight difference in
the accentual curve of hana and hana° before the particle ga: the frequency
of na in hana ‘flower’ is higher than that of hana° ‘nose’. In reality, this
difference also occurs when the words are uttered in isolation. This type of
data is in contradiction with the assumption by Haraguchi, presented further
in 7.1.5, according to which a final-accented word and an unaccented word
are supposed to receive exactly the same autosegmental representation at
the surface level because, if it were the case, no phonetic difference would
be carried out. As we shall see below, the model developed by Pierrehumbert
and Beckman (1988), on the other hand, correctly predicts that such a
difference between hana and hana° may be realized.
The issue of whether final-accented words and unaccented words are
different both at the phonetic level and at the phonological one or at either
one of these two levels is actually a controversial one. The mainstream
opinion has it that the two types of words are not phonetically different, but
many scholars have argued that they are (Sakuma, 1929; Uwano, 1977;
Pierrehumbert and Beckman, 1988; Warner, 1997; see the latter for a
comparison of the competing theories and a review of the literature on the
subject). Experimental results are inconsistent because they generally show
that a difference is made by some speakers but not by other speakers, which
suggests that there indeed exists a difference at the latent level between
final-accented and unaccented words, in accordance with Pierrehumbert
and Beckman’s theory. Moreover, it has been demonstrated (Sugitô,
1982; Vance, 1995) that the phonetic difference, when it actually exists is
not perceptible by most speakers, and that one should thus regard it as
linguistically irrelevant at the perception level.
The experimental study by Warner (1997) further establishes that
unaccented noun phrases have a lower f0 curve than accented noun
phrases.
The existence of an atonic word class actually constitutes the most puzzling
fact of the Japanese word prosodic system. It is also a challenge for the (p.
184 ) categorization of Japanese as an accent language, an issue to which we
shall turn to in section 7.6.
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Accent

Statistical data drawn from various sources (see, among them, Table
7.1) show that the atonic pattern is the most frequent one. According to
Hayashi O. (1982), about half of all words (regardless of their category or
length) are unaccented. Of course, the proportion varies according to the
lexical strata, the prosodic structure, and the morphological structure of
lexemes, but the correlation between word length and accent pattern is quite
evident in Japanese. For instance, the data in Table 7.1 show that 65.7%
of quadrimoraic nominal words of Yamato and Sino-Japanese are atonic as
against 52.6% of trimoraic words. This contrasts with nouns up to two moras
in length, which favour the initial accented pattern (Uwano, 2003:81). Even
Western loanwords, which are less frequently atonic than words belonging to
other strata, show a higher percentage of the atonic pattern for four-moralong words than for shorter or longer words (Kubozono, 2006b).
There also exists a clear tendency to convert tonic nouns into atonic ones
in contemporary Tôkyô Japanese. For example, densha° ‘train’, kareshi°
‘boyfriend’, and houki° ‘broom’ are realized more and more as atonic words
instead of densha, kareshi, and houki, which represent the conservative
realization. The atonic pattern thus seems to have become the most
productive one.
Moreover, high-frequency words, as well as words whose referent conveys
a feeling of proximity, familiarity, or attachment to the speaker are the
quickest to undergo de-accentuation, in particular among younger speakers.
For instance, someone who is very fond of guitar playing will tend to
pronounce the word gitaa° ‘guitar’ as unaccented, instead of gitaa, the
more conventional form of the word. It is well known that in languages
most frequent words regularly undergo phonetic reduction, either in the
form of abbreviation (apocope, etc.), articulatory simplification, or prosodic
simplification, like the example of de-accentuation in Japanese.
De-accentuation of a tonic word can thus function as a mark of social
identity. In order to mark his/her belonging to a given group, to show that
he/she is well integrated in the field denoted by the word, a speaker may
de-accentuate a word, in a similar way to what one observes in the use of
clipped forms in certain social groups in English or French.
Yet, the sociolinguistic dimension does not suffice to account for the
phenomenon of de-accentuation in all its aspects. This is because, as already
stated, all things being equal, three- and four-mora-long words show a higher
percentage of the atonic pattern than shorter or longer words, whatever their
frequency or familiarity connotation.
Page 8 of 115

Accent

One might wonder whether the generalization of the atonic pattern in
present-day Japanese is to be regarded as some sort of fashionable,
temporary phenomenon, or whether it is the manifestation of a major
general evolution of the (p. 185 ) language towards prosodic simplification,
whose final step would be the loss of the phonological accent, as it is the
case in certain modern dialects in the Tôhoku or Kyûshû area (see section
7.5). The question remains open.
A possible (but only partial) explanation of this preference for the
unaccented pattern could be that the accentual levelling of three- and fourmora words is practically never likely to involve a loss of lexical opposition.
Indeed, pairs of words longer than three moras which are homophonous
except for the accent pattern are extremely rare, especially in the Yamato
and Western strata. In addition, three- and four-mora-long accented nouns
undergo de-accentuation more often than longer nouns. This is probably
because words longer than four moras are likely to be compounds in
Japanese, and as we will see later in this chapter (section 7.3), the presence
of an accent as well as its location play an essential morphological role in
compounds, since accent location is frequently determined in relation to the
internal boundary. This probably accounts for the fact that longer compound
words are less likely to lose their accent than simplex words.
Yet, the reason for this special link between atonicity and quadrimoraicity
is very puzzling and poorly understood. It might be necessary to invoke
frequency effects and analogical factors, as I did in Labrune (2006:180).
Because the atonic pattern is statistically most frequent with fourmora words in the Japanese lexicon, it tends to become more and more
productive, leading this pattern to apply to recent loans, inter alia. But
Tanaka (2008:216) presents what is, I think, the best explanation for the
generalization of the atonic accent pattern in four- mora-long words. He
observes that since the primary function of the accent in Japanese is the
culminative function, that is, to mark the presence of a word in a sequence,
de-accentuation can be interpreted as a loss of this function. This, at first
sight, appears to be totally contradictory with the role and nature of the
accent in Japanese. However, since four-mora is the most frequent word
length for Japanese lexemes, that is, the unmarked, most expected, and
default word length, word identification and demarcation is not so dependent
on accent for quadrimoraic words. Quadrimoraicity constituting the first
cue for word recognition and identification, the presence of an accent
becomes redundant for four-mora-long words and can be suppressed with
no functional loss. The same type of reasoning can be applied to threePage 9 of 115

Accent

mora-long words, which constitute the second most frequent word length in
Japanese. The fact that familiar and frequently used words undergo accent
loss in a similar manner reinforces this interpretation, since familiar and
frequent words are also more readily recognized than less familiar ones. This
line of explanation is particularly appealing, especially in consideration of the
fact that de-accentuation does not affect the initial dissimilation principle,
which assumes the demarcative function by signalling the beginning of a
word or phrase. It can thus be argued that, if de-accentuation is possible in
Japanese, it is thanks to the initial dissimilation mechanism. Should the trend
(p. 186 ) towards de-accentuation affect the entire lexicon of Tôkyô Japanese,
the language would turn into a fixed accent (non-distinctive) system with
initial accent, initial dissimilation now assuming the role of an accent.

7.1.3 Frequency of the Accent Patterns
Examination of the frequency of the various accent patterns within the
Japanese lexicon is instructive, and provides a new type of data likely to
shed new and complementary light on the observations of a more traditional
nature. Table 7.1 provides some statistical information concerning nominal
words of Yamato or Sino-Japanese origin, according to Sibata (1994). Figures
0, −1, −2 and so forth indicate the position of the accented mora starting
from the end of the word. 0 thus marks atonic words, −1, finally accented
words, −2, penultimate accented words, and so forth.
The global results show that the atonic words (type 0) are most numerous:
they represent almost half of the total, with 47.3% (see the comments in
the previous section). Then we have the antepenultimate pattern (type -3),
which amounts to 26.1%. However, these results should not be taken in too
general a fashion since there are sometimes important differences if the
lexical strata, the phonological structure, and the morphological structure
are taken into account. So, for instance, Kubozono (2006b) has found that,
whereas 71% of Yamato nouns are unaccented, only 7% of loanwords and
51% of kango are.
Closer examination of the data in Table 7.1 highlights the existence of other
curious correlations between the accentual pattern and the length of the
lexemes.
One notes that one-mora words are divided roughly evenly between the
atonic and tonic patterns, with a slight preference for the latter (57.6%).

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Accent

For bimoraic words, it is the penultimate pattern (in other words, the initial
accent pattern) that is most widespread. It accounts for 56.3% of the words,
well ahead of the unaccented pattern (23.1%). In three- and four-mora
words, the atonic pattern is by far the most frequent, while in words longer
than five moras, on the other hand, the penultimate and antepenultimate
tonic patterns are most widespread.
It is clear thus that there exists a tendency to atonicity for three- and fourmora words. Because of their massive presence in the lexicon—almost 61%
of the words of the corpus—tri- and quadrimoraic lexemes are responsible for
the supremacy of the atonic pattern in the overall figures. Besides, the atonic
pattern is also spreading among certain speakers, as mentioned in section
7.1.2.
One also realizes that the frequency of the initial accent falls
brutally in words longer than four moras. Therefore, the term ‘initial
accent’ (atamadaka-gata) which is of general use among Japanese linguists
does not seem suitable. It is preferable to talk about final accent for onemora words, of penultimate accent for two-mora words, and antepenultimate
accent for three-mora words. Indeed, the accent in Japanese is undoubtedly
attributed from the end of the word, except in some notable exceptions
belonging to the class of the numeral and dvandva compounds, as we will
see later in this chapter.
(p. 187 )

Table 7.1. Location of accent in nominal Yamato and Sino-Japanese words
(according to Sibata, 1994), in relation to length of lexemes
Accent0
Length

−1

1µ

2µ

−2

−3

−4

−5

−6

−7

−8

−9

TOTAL%

99 0.2

42.4%57.6%

100%

446

1927

396

1085

3.6
3µ

23.1%20.6%56.3%

100%

5789 857

10997

868

3483

20.8

Page 11 of 115

Accent

4µ

52.6%7.8% 7.9% 31.7%

100%

13932999

21209

2000 2832 1446

40.1
5µ

65.7%4.7% 9.4% 13.4%6.8%

100%

2898 375

9589

633

4547 1061 75

18.1
30.2%3.9% 6.6% 47.4%11.1%0.8%
6µ

1571 108

329

1822 2406 26

100%
99

6361
12.0

24.7%1.7% 5.2% 28.6%37.8%0.4% 1.6%
7µ

134

955

397

100%
106

1721
3.3

7.8% 0.7% 5.6% 55.5%23.1%0.5% 0.7% 6.2%
8µ

139

111

444

100%
21

749
1.4

18.6%0.8% 2.1% 14.8%59.3%0.1% 1.2% 0.3% 2.8%
9µ

100%
1

163
0.3

30.7%6.7% 4.3% 25.2%31.1%0.6%
⋝10µ 11

0.6% 0.6% 100%

84
0.2

13.1%1.2% 2.4% 26.2%57.1%
TOTAL250122822 5037 138135850 111

100%
120

108

52896100%

47.3%5.3% 9.5% 26.1%11.1%0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.04%0.001%
100%

A rather surprising result emerges with long words. One observes
a clear difference between five- and seven-mora-long lexemes, which are
mainly accented on the antepenultimate mora, and six-, eight-, and tenmora-long ones, in which pre-antepenultimate accent is the most common.
(p. 188 )

Page 12 of 115

Accent

Nine-mora words are divided into about three almost equal accent types:
atonic, with a tonic penult, and with a tonic antepenultimate. I do not have
any satisfactory explanation concerning these clear differences regarding
the dissimilarities of the dominant patterns in long words. However, the fact
that words with an odd number of moras (5, 7) differ from those with an
even number of moras (6, 8) allows us to suppose that the difference could
be explained by the action of constraints pertaining to foot formation and
alignment. Roughly speaking, it could mean that there exists a tendency to
favour an even number of moras before the accent, but further investigation
is needed on that question.
In order to correctly interpret those figures, one should also take into
account the fact that nearly all the Japanese words longer than four moras
are compounds (with the exception of Western loanwords), and that
compounds undergo accent rules that are different from those of simplex
words.

7.1.4 Accent Shift By Virtue of the NADM Principle
A number of phonological factors may cause a shift of the lexical accent
at the surface level. The main source for accent shift is the presence of
one of the deficient moras /R/, /Q/, and /N/ which causes the application
of the NADM principle presented in sections 5.5. and 6.3.2. Recall that /
R/, /Q/, and /N/ cannot receive the accent in Tôkyô Japanese. If an accent
nucleus is to be put on one of these units by application of one of the general
accent assignment rules, it is automatically moved to an adjacent full
mora, generally the left one. In the same way, the other deficient moras
containing a voiceless vowel (see section 2.6) are also de-accented in
conservative Tôkyô speech, while those consisting of a single vowel or an
epenthetic vowel only sometimes are (4b, c). (For a theoretical treatment of
this phenomenon, see Chapter 6.)
In the following examples, expected patterns marked as * do not occur.
Those which are not starred are attested alongside the ‘alternative patterns’.
(4) Accent shift due to the NADM principle
a. Obligatory accent shift due to the presence of a special
segment
Expected
pattern

Page 13 of 115

Actual
pattern

Accent

*nihonkai

nihonkai

‘sea
of
Japan’

*chichuukai

chichuukai

‘the
Mediterranean
Sea’

(p. 189 )

b. Accent shift due to the presence of a voiceless vowel
(frequent, but not obligatory)
Expected
pattern

Alternative
pattern

hukaku
[ˡΦɯkakɯ]

hukaku
[ Φ̥ɯˡkakɯ]

‘deeply’

kisha
[ˡkiɕa]

kisha
[k̥i
ˡɕa]

‘train’

aidokusha
[aidoˡkɯɕa]

aidokusha
[aiˡdok̥ɯɕa]

‘regular
reader’

c. Accent shift due to the presence of a single vowel
(obligatory or optional shift, depending on vowel quality (?);
variation is frequently observed)
Expected
pattern

Actual or
alternative
pattern

*keizairyoku

keizairyoku

‘economic
power’

*kaetta

ka
etta

‘returned’

*donaugawa

donaugawa

‘the
Danube’

kangaeru

‘to
think’

anaunsu

{announce}

As we shall see in the following pages, extra-phonological factors of
semantic, lexical, syntactic, etymological, or morphological nature interact
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Accent

with purely phonological mechanisms in order to determine accent location,
to say nothing of sociolinguistic variation, in particular dialectal, which will be
discussed in section 7.5.

7.1.5 An Overview of Two theoretical Treatments of the Japanese
Accent
At this point I introduce two outstanding formal treatments of the Japanese
accent. Both have exerted important influence on subsequent accentual
studies. The first was proposed by Haraguchi (1977), the second by
Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988).
(a) Haraguchi (1977)
Haraguchi Shôsuke has presented a formal treatment of the Japanese
accent within the framework of autosegmental phonology (Goldsmith, 1976)
which has exerted unquestionable influence both on the development of
autosegmental theory and on the comprehension of the Japanese accent
as a whole. Autosegmental phonology assumes pitch accent to be a tone
mark located on a separate tier, and that it is realized on the surface when
associated with some tone-bearing unit such as the syllable or the mora.
What we have thus far called ‘accent’ is assumed to be the result of the
association of a HL melody to a specific tone-bearing unit within the word,
lexically specified in the case of nouns. In tonic words, the accented mora
is associated with the H tone of the HL melody, while the low tone remains
unassociated. Atonic words are seen as lexically unspecified.
In tonic words, there exists, at the lexical level, one mora marked as
accented. It is this mora which is associated with the H of the melody,
followed by the L (p. 190 ) which remains unassociated. The other moras are
not specified as H or L. If the word is atonic, i.e. not specified as accented in
the lexicon, a default HL melody will be associated with the last mora of the
word, as in the miyako° example below.
(5) Lexical representation of words within the autosegmental
framework (Haraguchi 1977)3

A series of rules and association conventions, the ‘tone association
conventions’, the ‘initial lowering rule’, and the ‘contour tone simplification
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Accent

rule’ (of which I shall leave aside the detailed presentation) applies, so that
in the end all surface vowels are associated with an H or L tone, as shown
below.
(6) Surface representation after the application of the tone
association conventions, the initial lowering rule, and the
contour tone simplification rule

Haraguchi’s assumption is that at the surface level, all moras receive an H or
L specification.
(b) Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988)
Janet Pierrehumbert and Mary Beckman have proposed an analysis in which
the Japanese accent is taken as a tonal melody associated with a mora at the
lexical level. Their work follows the laboratory phonology approach, which
consists in exploring, with experimental tools, the relationship between
the phonetic realization and the phonological representation. It is both
theoretically and model- (p. 191 ) oriented. The book published in 1988
aims at describing the surface tonal patterns of Japanese by identifying
the phonetic mechanisms that control the interpretation of phonological
representations, in other words, it aims to uncover the phonetic rules
that govern the surface tonal realization of utterances. It is not directly
a study about the lexical accent but a study on the tonal, in the sense of
‘intonational’ structure. Their purpose is ‘to develop a theoretically welldefined and empirically motivated system of surface representation, in order
to derive the quantitative characteristics of the F0 contour’. Accordingly,
their study is to be considered as a theory of the interaction between word
accent and prosodic structures of a higher level. The experiments thus
shed new light on the status and nature of the lexical accent because,
in a language such as Japanese, the lexical accents constitute by and
large the representational input to which the phonetic rules that interest
Pierrehumbert and Beckman are supposed to apply.
Pierrehumbert and Beckman call into question Haraguchi’s analysis based
on the following two theoretical postulates (see above). First, accent is
conceived and represented as a mark associated with a vowel within
the word. This mark is later reinterpreted as an HL melody through the

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Accent

application of rules. Second, all vowels are linked to a tonal specification at
the surface level.
Pierrehumbert and Beckman draw a distinction between three types of tones,
based on the level of the prosodic hierarchy at which the tones operate. At
the lexical level, there is first an accent tone which consists of an HL melody.
The H tone is phonologically associated with the accented mora of the word,
in the spirit of Haraguchi’s model.
At the level of the accentual phrase (also known as minor phrase or
phonological phrase, see Chapter 6) such as akai seetaa wa (‘red’ +
‘sweater’ + Topic), there is, on the one hand, an isolated H tone (phrasal
H), which is inserted and linked with the second mora, except if the
phrase starts with an initial-accented lexeme. On the other hand, we have
a boundary tone L%, which is inserted at the end of each phrase. The
accentual phrase is thus delimitated by an H associated with the second
mora of the word and an L% in final position.
Finally, at the utterance level, one has an L% boundary tone, inserted at
the beginning of the phrase as a whole. It will be ‘strong’ and associated
or ‘weak’ and unassociated, depending on whether the word starts with a
light or heavy initial ‘syllable’ (in Pierrehumbert and Beckman’s model) or on
whether the second mora is special (in our model).
In this model, tone spreading is rejected, so that no tones other than those
that are described here are claimed to exist in the surface phonological
representations of utterances of Tôkyô Japanese. The result is that there are
fewer tones than tone-bearing units. Accentual phrases are thus unspecified
for tone even at the surface level, as represented in (7). The main innovation
of this model, in comparison with a majority of the preceding analyses, lies
in the fact that (p. 192 ) Japanese is treated as a tone language (but note
that the tonal perspective goes back to Poser, 1984) and, especially, that
an explicit formal distinction is made between tones assigned at the lexical
level (HL) and those assigned at the level of the accentual phrase (H and L
%) and at the level of the utterance (L%). Such a distinction between word
level and phrase level accent assignment was already made by the Japanese
phonetician Kawakami (1957) who analyses the initial HL melody as resorting
to the accentual phrase (## ku) rather than to the lexical accent in the strict
sense.
(7) Representation of surface tone patterns for the words
yamazakura, kageboushi,toumorokoshi,moushikomi°, and

Page 17 of 115

Accent

murasakiiro° in isolation (adapted from Pierrehumbert and
Beckman, 1988:14)

Pierrehumbert and Beckman’s hypothesis in favour of tonal
underspecification is based on robust phonetic experimental data, showing
in particular that the F0 contour over the prosodic units following the phrasal
H in unaccented phrases (p. 193 ) (for example moushikomi° or murasakiiro
°) is not identical to that occurring after a lexical HL. The most plausible
explanation for this fact is thus that there are, at the surface phonological
level, fewer tones than tone-bearing units likely to condition the slope of
the F0 contour. In the absence of tonal specifications, phonetic mechanisms
determine the transitions between the phrasal H on the second mora and the
final L%.

7.2 Accent of Simplex Words
Japanese words almost always occur with affixes: enclitic particles such as
case markers in the case of nouns, auxiliaries or enclitic particles in the case
of verbs and adjectives. However, in so far as these affixes are deprived of

Page 18 of 115

Accent

lexical autonomy, formations built upon single words consisting of a Noun +
one or several enclitics, or a Verb/Adj + one or several auxiliaries or enclitics,
constitute single prosodic words (or, extended word structure in the terms of
Higurashi, 1983). We thus call ‘simplex word’ any autonomous linguistic form
that possesses at most one accent peak and that is not decomposable into
smaller elements likely to have lexical autonomy. Following this definition,
yama-ga ‘mountain + Subject’, yama-bakari or yama-bakari ‘only the
mountain’, kaeri-masu ‘to return + Polite’ are simplex words, while yamamichi ‘mountain lane’ or kaeri-tsuku ‘to return’, which have one accent peak
but are made up of two autonomous elements (yama,michi°, kaeru, tsuku),
are considered as compounds.

7.2.1 Yamato Nouns
All the accent possibilities described above (in 3a and b) are attested for
simplex Yamato nouns. A Yamato noun may be tonic or atonic. If it is tonic,
any of its full moras has the ability to carry the accent kernel. Examples
are presented in Table 7.2, where each noun is followed by the accentually
neutral particle ga (subject marker).
However, not all particles are accentually neutral like ga. Some have the
ability to modify the position of the lexical accent of the preceding noun by
way of complex mechanisms, as the examples in Table 7.3 illustrate. The
term ‘particle’ is used to designate what is called joshi (##) in traditional
Japanese grammar, a category that actually includes elements of various
linguistic types (Japanese so-called particles belong to one of the following
types: casual, adverbial, final, and connective).
Two major types of particles need to be distinguished with respect to
their accentual behaviour: dominant and recessive. Prosodically dominant
particles, (p. 194 )
Table 7.2. Accent of simplex Yamato nouns4
1 mora

2 moras

3 moras

4 moras

atonic nouns

L-H hi-ga° ‘day’ LH-H hana-ga°
‘nose’

LHH-H sakuraga° ‘cherry
tree’

LHHH-H
tomodachi-ga°
‘friend’

tonic nouns

H-L hi-ga ‘fire’

HLL-L karasuga ‘raven’

HLLL-L
koomori-ga
‘bat’

Page 19 of 115

HL-L neko-ga
‘cat’

Accent

LH-L hana-ga
‘flower’

LHH-L
kagami-ga
‘mirror’

LHHH-L
imouto-ga
‘younger sister’

LHL-L kokoroga ‘heart’

LHLL-L
kudamono-ga
‘fruit’
LHHL-L
mizuumi-ga
‘lake’

like dake° ‘only’ or bakari ‘solely’, may impose their own accent pattern on
the noun phrase, while recessive particles, like yori ‘from’ and shika° ‘only’,
do not. The presence of a dominant particle causes the accent of the noun
to be deleted, and the accent pattern of the particle determines the accent
pattern of the phrase, including cases where the particle is atonic, as in the
example with dake°. The accent of recessive particles only shows up in the
surface when the preceding noun is unaccented. Otherwise it is deleted and
only the noun’s accent is realized on the surface as with yori. Note that some
particles are pre-accenting, that is, they cause the appearance of an accent
on the last mora of the noun which precedes them, for instance shika.
The particle ga° is prosodically inert: the noun to which it is attached always
keeps its inherent accent. All the monomoraic particles but for no and ne
belong to this class, as well as some bimoraic particles such as kara° ‘from’
or hodo° ‘just’ (type 1 in Table 7.3).
The particle yori ‘from’ (3 in Table 7.3) is recessive, initially accented. That
is, its inherent accent surfaces only after an atonic noun like hana° ‘nose’,
but is deleted after tonic nouns. A number of other bimoraic or trimoraic
particles, for example made ‘until’,nado ‘and the like’, nomi ‘merely’, demo
‘even’, datte ‘even’,kashira ‘(I wonder) whether’, koso ‘precisely this’,
behave in the same manner. Shika ‘only’ is a recessive pre-accenting particle
for certain speakers (4b in Table 7.3), but a recessive atonic particle for
others (4a).
(p. 195 )

Table 7.3. Accentual effect of particles
1. N + ga 2. N + no 3. N
Atonic
Special
+ yori
Recessive

Page 20 of 115

Initially

4. N +
shika

Atonic

5. N +
dake

Atonic

6. N +
bakari
Tonic

Accent

accented recessive dominant dominant
Recessive (a) or
(a) or
(a) or
preaccenting
recessive recessive
recessive (b)
(b)
(b)

atonic
nouns

hana°
‘nose’

tonic
nouns

ha‘tooth’ ha -ga

ha -no

hana
‘flower’

hana-ga

a.
hanahanadake°
shika
°
b.
hanashika

hana-ga° hana-no° hana-yori

hana-bakari

ha -shika

a.
hadake
°
b.
ha
dake

a.
ha-bakari
b.
ha
bakari

hana-no° hanayori

hanashika

a.
hanadake
°
b.
hanadake

a.
hana-bakari
b.
hanabakari

neko
‘cat’

ne ko-ga ne ko-no ne koyori

ne koshika

a.
nekodake
°
b.
ne
kodake

a.
neko-bakari
b.
ne
kobakari

kokoro
‘heart’

kokoroga

kokoroshika

a.
kokorodake
°

a.
kokoro-bakar

Page 21 of 115

kokorono

ha -yori

kokoroyori

Accent

b.
kokorodake
kudamonokudamono-kudamono-kudamono-kudamono‘fruit’
ga
no
yori
shika

a.
a.
kudamono-kudamono-ba
dake
b.
°
kudamonob.
bakari
kudamonodake

Dake° ‘only’ behaves as a dominant particle for certain speakers
(5a), that is, it totally inhibits the accent pattern of the preceding noun
by imposing its own atonic pattern. However, for other speakers, it is a
recessive atonic particle (5b). Bakari ‘solely’ behaves either like a dominant
particle with initial accent (6a), or like a particle with recessive accent (6b),
on the model of yori.
(p. 196 )

It is also necessary to posit an exceptional class comprising the genitive
particle no (2 in Table 7.3) which behaves in a special way accentwise. As we
saw in section 6.2.4, it causes some finally accented nouns which are at least
two-mora long, like hana ‘flower’, to become atonic, but remains neutral
with the other patterns—including one-mora long words like ha ‘tooth’—
which preserve their intrinsic accent, as they do after ga. A fair number of
exceptions exists, principally nouns ending with special segments, toponyms,
and numerals (see 6.2.4.).
It has to be noted that variation is not rare: a given particle such as dake° or
bakari behaves as recessive in the speech of some speakers but as dominant
in the speech of others.

7.2.2 Verbs And -i Adjectives
Verbs and -i ending adjectives display fewer accent patterns than nouns.
They are either tonic or atonic, and, in the former case, there exists only one
single pattern, whatever the length of the base, as shown in Tables 7.4 and
7.5 below.
Among verbs, the two patterns are about equally represented. Among
adjectives, on the other hand, the tonic pattern is much more frequent.
Akinaga (2002) notes that many verbs and adjectives belonging traditionally
to the atonic class currently show a tendency to become tonic. Note, in
Page 22 of 115

b.
kokorobakari

Accent

passing, that this trend contradicts the one observed for nouns, since nouns
clearly tend to become unaccented under certain conditions (sections 7.1.2
and 7.1.3).
The accentuation of verbs and -i adjectives follows principles that differ from
those of nouns. As stated above, the possible accent patterns are fewer than
they are for nouns. However, this does not mean greater simplicity at the
level of the linguistic mechanisms at work. Quite the contrary, the principles
which govern verb and adjective accentuation appear to be extremely
complex.
The complexity is first due to the fact that it is difficult to determine which
mora of the verb or adjective serves, at the lexical level, as the accent
kernel because the position of accent varies throughout the paradigm
of a given verb or adjective. For example, in the verb taberu ‘to eat’ the
accented mora occupies no less than three different locations at the surface
level, depending on the form of the paradigm that is taken by the verb
and the affixes attached to it. We thus have taberu / tabete / tabemasu
(respectively final form / connective form / polite form). In contrast to nouns,
verbs and adjectives never occur in basic form, without any affix. Under
these conditions, it is hard to determine where the (p. 197 ) accent lies at
the most abstract level. In consideration of the fact that tonic verbs and
adjectives bear an accent on the penultimate mora at the final form (the
sh#shi or dictionary form), as in taberu,shiraberu,atsui,ureshii, it would be
tempting to consider that the penultimate mora is the accent nucleus at the
most abstract level. However, there is actually no particular reason to regard
the final form as basic, since it is neither shorter nor more frequent than
any other form. It is not morphologically simpler either because it includes a
suffix, -u/-ru in the case of verbs, -i in the case of adjectives.5
Kubozono (2008) makes the interesting claim that the same compound
rule which assigns an accent on the last mora of a C1 in nouns with a
monomoraic C2 also applies to verbs and adjectives, whose final vowel or
mora can be seen as a suffix. However, with suffixes other than -u,-ru, and i which mark the final (or dictionary) form of verbs and adjectives, this claim
seems hard to follow because the accent patterns then appear to be very
different in nature from what they are in compound nouns, as Tables 7.4 and
7.5 show.
A categorization of verbal and adjectival affixes (such as auxiliary, particles,
etc.) following that which has been adopted for nouns, which would
distinguish between recessive and dominant suffixes, also appears as
Page 23 of 115

Accent

inadequate and non-operational in the case of verbs and adjectives. Consider
for example the volition suffix -tai: its accent behaviour would lead us to
categorize it as dominant after tonic verbs but as recessive after atonic
verbs. The hypothetical suffix -eba is even more problematic: it causes
an accent to appear on the third-to-last mora in tonic verbs (shirabereba)
and on the fifth-to-last mora in tonic adjectives (ureshikereba), but on the
penultimate mora of atonic verbs (kireba,korobeba) and fourth-to-last mora
of atonic adjectives (tsumetakereba).
Under these conditions, it is more appropriate to consider that verbs and -i
adjectives are specified as tonic or atonic (or [+accent] / [−accent]) lexically,
and that specific rules then come to determine which mora must receive
the accent, depending on the affixes. In this approach, there is thus, within
a given verb or -i adjective, no mora that must, in essence, be considered
as the accented mora at the underlying level. A number of linguists have
subscribed to this view, for instance McCawley (1968) and Poser (1984).
The problem, however (but is it really a problem?), is that nouns, on the one
hand, and verbs and adjectives, on the other hand, are to be represented in
a different fashion in the grammar.6
(p. 198 )

Table 7.4. Accent of verbs
a. Atonic verbs
‘to wear’

‘to fall’

‘to arrange’

Accent
pattern

Final form

kiru°

korobu°

naraberu°

Atonic

Suspensive
form

kite°

koronde°

narabete°

Atonic

Negative
form

kinai°

korobanai°

narabenai°

Atonic

Polite form

kimasu

korobimasu

narabemasu Penultimate

Hypothetic
form

kireba

korobeba

narabereba

Penultimate

korobitai°

narabetai°

Atonic

Volitive form kitai°
b. Tonic verbs

Page 24 of 115

Accent

‘to cut’

‘to eat’

‘to check’

Accent
pattern

Final form

ki ru

taberu

shiraberu

Penultimate

Suspensive
form

ki tte

ta bete

shirabete

Antepenultimate

Negative
form

kiranai

tabenai

shirabenai

Antepenultimate

Polite form

kirimasu

tabemasu

shirabemasu Penultimate

Hypothetic
form

ki reba

tabereba

shirabereba Antepenultimate

tabetai

shirabetai

Volitive form kiritai

Penultimate

Two arguments in favour of this analysis can be offered. First, as Table
7.4 shows, some verbal affixes such as -tai (volitive), present seemingly
contradictory behaviour. When attached to a tonic verb, -tai receives the
accent on the ta mora. When added to an atonic verb, the whole verbal
form is atonic. In other words, the suffix -tai does not carry any intrinsic
accent of its own, since, if it did, this accent would inevitably surface with
atonic bases, but it nevertheless acquires an accent on the ta mora after
tonic verb bases. This suggests that the accent of a tonic verb is not a
priori associated with any particular mora of the stem at the lexical level.
In addition, verbs resulting from the same etymological root always belong
to the same prosodic type [+accent] or [−accent]. Thus pairs of transitive/
intransitive verbs always display the same accent pattern: tonic or atonic, for
instance kimaru° (intr.)/kimeru° (tr.) ‘to decide’, tsuzuku° (intr.)/tsuzukeru°
(tr.) ‘to continue’, deru (intr.)/dasu (tr.) ‘to go out’, kawaku (intr.)/kawakasu
(tr.) ‘to dry’, kireru (intr.)/kiru (tr.) ‘to cut’, and many other examples. (p.
199 )

Table 7.5. Accent of -i adjectives
a. Atonic adjectives
‘thick’

‘cold’

Accent pattern

Final form

atsui°

tsumetai°

Atonic

Suspensive form

atsukute

tsumetakute

Antepenultimate

Adverbial form

atsuku°

tsumetaku°

Atonic

Polite form

atsui desu

tsumetai desu

Preantepenultimate

Page 25 of 115

Accent

Hypothetic form

atsukereba

tsumetakereba

Preantepenultimate

‘hot’

‘happy’

Accent pattern

Final form

atsui

ureshii

Penultimate

Suspensive form

a tsukute

ureshikute

Preantepenultimate

Adverbial form

a tsuku

ureshiku

Antepenultimate

Polite form

atsui desu

ureshii desu

Preantepenultimate

Hypothetic form

a tsukereba

ureshikereba

Pre-preantepenultimate
(−5)

b. Tonic adjectives

Note that the accented mora is not necessarily the same one in the two
members of a pair, as kawaku/kawakasu and kireru/kiru illustrate. The point
is that no verb pair of this type associates a tonic verb to an atonic one.
The assumption that a verb root is specified as tonic or atonic, and that the
accented mora is then determined according to the suffixes added to the
base, better accounts for this regular correspondence between members of a
transitive/intransitive pair. Consequently, which accent pattern should apply
has then to be specified for each auxiliary or suffix.
Tonic verbs and adjectives are always tonic while atonic ones may surface as
tonic or atonic. Note also that denominal verbs derived from a Sino-Japanese
noun containing the dummy verb suru° preserve the original accent pattern
of the noun: we thus have benkyou° # benkyou suru° ‘to study’, annai #
annai suru ‘to guide’, kurou # kurou suru ‘to have a hard time’, and so on.

7.2.3 Sino-Japanese Lexemes Corresponding To A Single Chinese
Character
As stated in section 1.6.2, Sino-Japanese morphemes are one- or two-mora
long, with their second mora (when there is one) corresponding to /N/, /R/, /
i/, /ku/, /tu/, /ki/, or /ti/.
A majority of Sino-Japanese lexemes corresponding to a single character (i.e
Sino-Japanese monomorphemes which can be used autonomously) are finally
accented: for example e ‘image’, shi ‘death’, ji ‘letter’, bi ‘beauty’, kiku
Page 26 of 115

Accent

‘chrysanthemum’, jitsu ‘truth’, shiki ‘ceremony’. One can consider
that when the lexeme ends in /N/, /R/ or an onsetless /i/, the underlying final
accent is moved one position leftward (thus onto the initial mora) at the
surface level by application of the NADM principle. We thus have as in /teN/
# ten ‘sky’, /ai/ # ai ‘love’, /toR/ # tou ‘political party’.7
(p. 200 )

The assumption that monographemic Sino-Japanese lexemes ending in /N/, /
R/, or moraic /i/ are finally accented at the underlying level is supported by
the following evidence. First, almost all the compound nouns which exhibit
an atonic accent pattern result from the combination of a C1 and a C2 of
Yamato or Sino-Japanese origin bearing final accent (8a), or of Sino-Japanese
origin with a surface initial accent ending in a special segment (8b):
(8)
a. C2 = Yamato or Sino-Japanese word with final accent
kodomo°
+ heya #
kodomobeya°

‘children’s
room’

midori + iro
# midori-iro°

‘green colour’

kao° + yaku
# kao-yaku°

‘influential
person’

b. C2 = SinoJapanese
word with
initial accent
(at the
surface)
nihon + huu
# nihon-huu°

‘Japanese
manner’

denwa° + sen
# denwa-sen°

‘telephone
line’

If one considers that huu, and sen in (8b) are actually oxytonic at the
phonological level (i.e. /huR/, /seN/), these morphemes can be considered
as belonging to the same class as heya ‘room’, iro ‘colour’, or yaku ‘role’.
They all end with an accented mora underlyingly and cause the atonicity of a
compound noun when they occur as C2.

Page 27 of 115

Accent

Furthermore, Sino-Japanese morphemes such as kan ‘building’, kai ‘sea’,
jou ‘castle’, shuu ‘province’, which yield the appearance of an accent on the
final mora of the first component when they undergo compounding behave
exactly like the Yamato words of the uma type (9b) rather than those of the
neko type (9c). As will be seen in section 7.3.1., the neko type is the type
which preserves the accent in its original position in compounding. Compare,
for example:
(9)
a.

ariake° + kai
# ariake-kai

‘sea of Ariake’

na goya
+ jou #
nagoya-jou

‘Nagoya
castle’

abare° +
uma #
abare-uma

‘restive horse’

perusha
+ neko #
perusha-neko

‘Persian cat’

The compounds in (9a) all have an accent on the final mora of the C1, just
like the type displayed in (9b). This constitutes an additional argument for
considering (p. 201 ) that kan, kai, jou, shuu, etc. are underlyingly just like
uma, with an inherent accent on their final mora: /kaN/, /kai/, /zyoR/, /syuR/.
Lastly, recall that we also saw in 6.2.4 that some words ending with a
defective mora and bearing an accent on their penultimate mora are deaccented when followed by the determinative particle no, in exactly the
same way as oxytonic words are. This constitutes evidence that it is the final
mora, rather than the penultimate mora, that carries the underlying accent
in this type of word.
An interesting consequence of this analysis is that a majority of SinoJapanese morphemes can now be regarded as finally accented. The final
accent pattern can therefore be considered to be the default accent pattern
for the monomorphemes belonging to this stratum.

Page 28 of 115

Accent

The rest of the Sino-Japanese lexemes are generally atonic: i° ‘stomach’,
cha° ‘tea’, shi° ‘poem’, taku° ‘residence’, toku° ‘favour’, shitsu° ‘quality’,
teki° ‘enemy’, etc., or sometimes with initial accent: seki ‘place, seat’, batsu
‘punishment’. Once again, we observe that words of greater frequency and
familiar use tend to become atonic.

7.2.4 Western Loans
Whereas the accent of simplex words is lexically determined and cannot,
in theory, be predicted by rules, it is to a certain extent predictable in the
case of Western loans, as demonstrated by Kubozono (1996, 2006b and a
number of other papers). Words belonging to this lexical class frequently
have an accent on the antepenultimate mora (10a) if it is a regular mora, i.e.
a CV mora, or on the pre-antepenultimate mora if the antepenultimate mora
is deficient (10b), by virtue of the NADM principle. If the word is short, the
accent is placed on the first mora (10c).
(10) Accent of Western loans
a. Antepenultimate accent
chokoreeto

{chocolate}

piramiddo

{pyramid}

ri zumu

{rhythm}

oosutoraria

{Australia}

b. Pre-antepenultimate accent (antepenultimate mora =
deficient mora)
nabigeetaa

{navigator}

washinton

{Washington}

ahuganisutan

{Afghanistan}

risaikuru

{recycle}

u uman

{woman}

(p. 202 )

c. Penultimate accent (short words)
ka a

{car}

gya ru

{gal}

However, quadrimoraic loans as well as integrated loans of high frequency
are often unaccented, for instance amerika° {America}, huransu° {France},
Page 29 of 115

Accent

rittoru° {litre}, botan° {botão}, oopuningu° {opening}. This is especially
true (at 90%) of four-mora-long words if they end in a sequence of two
regular moras (amerika°), whereas the ratio goes down to about 30% if their
final mora is deficient (ending with a special mora or an epenthetic vowel):
serekuto {select}, pirenee {the Pyrenées} (Kubozono, 2006b).
According to Kubozono (2006b) loanwords do not crucially differ from
native words in accent structure and preference. What appears to be an
accentual difference between the two types of words stems largely from
their difference in phonological structure and in the nature of vowels, since
loanwords contain plenty of deficient moras (including moras containing an
epenthetic vowel).
Lastly, a few loanwords have retained the accent in the location in which
it occurs in the source language, as mentenansu {maintenance} or
konsarutanto {consultant}, except in cases where the original accent is final.
Indeed, there does not exist in Japanese any loanword finally accented at the
surface level.

7.2.5 A Constraint-based Account of the Accent of Western Loans
The accent of Standard Japanese is lexical, but, as we have seen in the
preceding sections, the emergence of a default accent is observable in a
number of word classes belonging to different etymological strata, including
native Japanese or Sino-Japanese lexemes. However, the default accent
pattern is most widely productive in Western loanwords.
In this section, we offer an analysis of the Tôkyô Japanese default accent
pattern within the framework of Optimality Theory, based on the ideas
developed in this paper, and building on the study of the accentuation of
foreign toponyms by Kubozono (1996). Foreign toponyms constitute an
exemplary case of a lexical class in which the default accent is implemented.
These examples also offer an ideal theoretical testground because their
study is based on a statistical approach, on the one hand, and because, on
the other hand, they relate to a representative, well-circumscribed corpus
of foreign place names where accent is attributed by means of a default
process. In addition, an examination of the accentual patterns of foreign
toponyms is particularly interesting because these data have been taken
as evidence for the relevance of the heavy syllable (p. 203 ) in Japanese by
several scholars (Katayama, 1995; Kubozono, 1996, 2006b; Tanaka, 2008).

Page 30 of 115

Accent

Therefore one of the purposes of the present analysis is also to demonstrate
that one can achieve a satisfactory treatment of this classical issue in
Japanese phonology, which has been taken as evidence for the necessity of
the syllable (Kubozono, 1996), without the syllable. As will be shown, only
the mora and the feet are necessary to account for the data. The analysis
which is proposed here is no less simple and natural than syllable-based
analyses. In addition, and more crucially, we will see that it accounts for a
greater number of facts, since it allows a regular treatment of the accent
pattern of words such as pirenee ‘the Pyrenees’ and senegaru ‘Senegal’.
•
– The data
Kubozono (1996) observes that in foreign toponyms longer than two moras,
default accent is generally placed on the antepenultimate mora (11a).
In cases where the antepenultimate mora contains /N/, /Q/, or /R/, the
accent shifts one position leftward and is placed on the pre-antepenultimate
mora, all of this being in accordance with the general principles of Japanese
accentuation (11b). If the word is two moras long, the accent falls on the
initial mora (11c). This accent rule, it is important to note, is actually that
which generally applies to common nouns of Western origin, as established
by Tanomura (1999). Note that, like Kubozono, we shall only consider here
the case of accented nouns, leaving aside that of unaccented ones.
(11) Default accent
a. On antepenultimate mora
meraneshia

‘Melanesia’

isutanbuuru

‘Istanbul’

waiomingu

‘Wyoming’

mo nako

‘Monaco’

de kan

‘Deccan’

b. On pre-antepenultimate mora
ro ndon

‘London’

washinton

‘Washington’

kentakkii

‘Kentucky’

ejinbara

‘Edinburgh’

c. On penultimate mora (bimoraic words)
pa ri

‘Paris’

do n

‘the Don’

(p. 204 )
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Accent

However, and this is what makes this set of data particularly interesting, a
number of words do not conform to these principles. The examples in (12),
which all end in a deficient mora, receive pre-antepenultimate accent instead
of the expected antepenultimate accent.
(12) Pre-antepenultimate accent
pi
renee

*pirenee

‘the
Pyrenees’

te
heran

*teheran

‘Teheran’

se
negaru

*senegaru

‘Senegal’

(the
final
u
is
epenthetic)

Kubozono (1996:74), according to whom the syllable plays an active role in
the accentuation of loanwords, proposes the following generalization:
If the word ends with a heavy syllable (or a light syllable
containing an epenthetic /u/) accent is placed on the initial
syllable, whether it is light or heavy […]. If the word ends with
a light syllable and the penultimate syllable is heavy, accent
is placed on the heavy syllable […]. Note that in this case, it
does not matter whether the final light syllable contains an
epenthetic vowel /u/ or not.
Although this formulation seems perfectly correct on the descriptive level,
provided that one accepts the idea that a distinction between light and
heavy syllables is relevant in Japanese phonology, it has no explanatory
power. Why should the presence of a heavy syllable word-finally have such
an accentual effect on the pre-antepenultimate syllable? I argue that a
better, sounder explanation for this data is possible and that this account can
be made with no direct or indirect reference to the syllable.
I will now propose a formal treatment of this data within the framework of
Optimality Theory. This treatment will take as a basis the analysis of default
accent assignment in Japanese adaptations of French words proposed by
Shinohara (2000). (For other OT treatments, see Kubozono, 1996 or Tanaka,
2008.)
•
– OT constraints as proposed by Shinohara (2000)

Page 32 of 115

Accent

The French words studied by Shinohara (2000) obey accentuation principles
that are identical to those displayed by foreign toponyms (except for a few
exceptions), hence the relevance of her work for the present study.
The constraints proposed by Shinohara (2000) in order to account for the
default accent pattern are the following:
(p. 205 ) (13) Constraints (adapted from Shinohara, 2000)
Head-Left:

Feet are trochaic.

Align (F, R, PrWd,
R):

Align the right
edge of every
foot with the
right edge of a
prosodic word
(PrWd).

NonFinality:

No prosodic head
(accented foot or
accented syllable)
of PrWd is final in
PrWd.

FootBinarity:

Feet are binary
at some level of
analysis.

Parse-Syllable:

Parse every
syllable into a
foot.

An additional constraint prohibits an epenthetic vowel to be the head of a
foot:
(14)
*v (epenthetic
vowel)

A non-prominent
nucleus cannot
be the head of a
foot

Due to space limitations, I will not take up here all the details of Shinohara’s
(2000) analysis, which is rather complex and implements two concurrent
hierarchies of the above constraints. Note that her analysis makes explicit
reference to the syllable, through the constraints NonFinality and Parse-

Page 33 of 115

Accent

Syllable. However a major shortcoming of Shinohara’s analysis is that it
cannot provide any explanation for the initial accent of a word like senegaru.
In the pages that follow, I shall propose another line of analysis which
preserves some of the proposals formulated by Shinohara, which have the
advantage of being very standard in the treatment of accent within OT.
My intention is thus to use Shinohara’s proposal as a basis for a syllablefree analysis of default accent assignment in Japanese, and to propose a
simple and natural explanation of the accent of Western loan words including
senegaru.
•
– A syllable-free account
The general ideas that underlie my analysis are the following: feet are
preferably binary and trochaic and, within a word, the head foot is located
on the rightmost edge, but it must not be final. In addition, no foot can start
with a deficient mora. The interaction between these principles gives an
account of the position of accent in foreign place names, but also, more
generally, in the majority of Western loans.
In the lines which follow, the symbol µ corresponds to the mora, whatever its
structure, while the symbol m corresponds to a weak or deficient mora.
A first group of relevant constraints is the following:
(15)

(p. 206 )

* F[m :

No foot starts
with a deficient
mora.

NonFinality (Foot)
(= NonF(π)):

The head foot
must not be final.

ParseMora (=
ParseM):

Moras are parsed
into a foot.

AlignRight
(=AlignR):

The accented
mora is rightmost
in the prosodic
word.

In the category of deficient moras falling under the scope of the *F[m
constraint, we find the elements located at the bottom of the hierarchy
provided in Chapter 6, whose phonological structure is of the type C• or •V,
namely, the first part of a geminate obstruent /Q/, the mora nasal /N/, the
Page 34 of 115

Accent

second part of a long vowel /R/, onsetless moras made up of the vowels /
i/ and /u/, and finally, some8 moras containing an epenthetic vowel that
behave as if their nuclei were empty.
Note that the constraint NonFinality(Foot) concerns the head foot exclusively.
ParseMoras stipulates that no mora is left outside a foot. The action of
this constraint guarantees an exhaustive organization of the feet. Finally,
AlignRight is different from the constraint Align(F, R, PrWd, R) as proposed
by Shinohara (2000). AlignRight stipulates that the accent be as close as
possible to the end of the prosodic word. Since, in theory, no Western loan
longer than three moras has its accent located on one of the last two moras,
everything points to AlignRight being located below NonFinality(Foot),
which prohibits the accented foot from being final. Note that AlignRight
is a gradient constraint. For this reason, each mora located between the
accented mora and the rightmost edge of the word counts as one violation.
A second group of constraints, Foot=Binary and Foot=Trochee, relates to
foot structure:
(16)
Foot=Binary
(F=Bin):

Feet are binary
under moraic
analysis.

Foot=Trochee
(F=T):

The head foot is
trochaic.

Foot=Binary ensures that feet are made up of two moras, no more and no
less, while Foot=Trochee guarantees that the head foot, i.e. the accented
foot, is trochaic. The case of the word pari {Paris}, which will be examined
just below, will show that it is necessary to place ParseMoras above
Foot=Binary in the hierarchy. This is because otherwise, the unaccented
form *pari° would turn out to be the optimal output, a totally undesirable
result.
With regard to Foot=Binary and Foot=Trochee, we know that these
two constraints are both placed above AlignRight because, as we will see,
they are the very two constraints which play a role in the choice of pirenee
rather than *pirenee as the optimal output of /pireneR/, or of senegaru
rather than *senegaru for /senegaru/ (see tableaux (18) and (19)). However,
we have no evidence to determine the relative subranking of Foot=Binary
and Foot=Trochee.
(p. 207 )

Page 35 of 115

Accent

There is no decisive argument to determine the position of NonFinality(Foot)
in the general constraint ranking either, except that it dominates AlignRight.
I thus choose to place NonFinality(Foot) above all the other constraints, with
*F[m at the top of the hierarchy. However, this choice has no direct effect on
the analyses, and NonFinality(Foot) could just as easily be placed anywhere
else above AlignRight.
These considerations lead to the following hierarchy.
(17) *f[m, NonF(π) ## ParseMoras ## F=T, F=Bin ##
AlignRight
With the exception of *F[m, the constraints which have been introduced
here, namely Foot=Trochee, NonFinality(Foot), Foot=Binary, and ParseMoras
(an adaptation of ParseSyllables), are identical to standard constraints
found in the OT analyses of the Japanese accent based on the idea that
the syllable plays a crucial role in the phonology of the language (see in
particular Kubozono, 1997, Shinohara, 2000, 2002, Shirose et al., 1997, and
others). The main innovation in the treatment proposed here thus lies in the
introduction of the *F[m constraint. Even though this constraint does not play
a decision role in every example that will be examined, resorting to *F[m
brings simplification to the analysis and avoids using ambivalent constraints
referring indifferently, and in an ad hoc manner, to the foot and/or syllable
(Shinohara, 2000) or to the syllable and/or mora (Kubozono, 1997), while
allowing us to provide a principled account of the general cases of default
accent assignment.
In the following tableaux, the candidates containing only unfooted moras
will not be examined, since such candidates would remain accentless (and,
as stated at the beginning of the section, the issue of atonicity will not be
dealt with here). However, it is not without significance to observe that the
candidates in question would, in any event, never be in a position to emerge
as optimal candidates.
•
– The tableaux
Let us now proceed to the examination of the tableaux. We will start with
the two examples which are of particular interest to us: those comprising
a deficient mora in final position, like pirenee ‘the Pyrenees’ and senegaru
‘Senegal’, and which appear irregular within the traditional framework
because they carry an accent on (p. 208 ) the pre-antepenultimate mora
rather than on the antepenultimate. As we will see, such words turn out to
be perfectly regular if one adopts the constraints and the hierarchy proposed
here.
Page 36 of 115

Accent

(18) pirenee ‘the Pyrenees’

Candidate a., (pire)(nee), with pre-antepenultimate accent, wins over the
others because it is the only candidate that satisfies all the constraints
except the lowest ranked AlignRight. Yet, let us consider candidates d., e.,
g., and h. which present an antepenultimate accent, as expected in the
traditional approach. The form in d. (pire)(nee) contains a non-trochaic foot,
which is enough to eliminate it with respect to a. The form in e. (pi)(rene)(e)
contains a foot beginning with a deficient mora e (/R/), making it the worst
candidate of the series (the foot in question being, in addition, non-binary).
Candidate g., pi(rene)e is excluded because, despite its trochaic foot, and
the fact that no foot starting with a deficient mora is constructed, it has two
unbounded moras, in violation of ParseMoras, which make it a candidate
worse than (pire)(nee). Finally, h. (pi)(rene)e contains a non-binary foot, in
addition to one unparsed mora.
Candidate f. (pire)nee with initial accent is another serious competitor to a.
However, the presence of two moras left unparsed is fatal in comparison with
a (pire)(nee).
The same type of reasoning applies to candidates d., e., f., g. and h. of the
input /senegaru/ whose final u is epenthetic. Recall that the mora ru belongs
to the category of deficient moras just like the final vowel length in /pireneR/.
(p. 209 ) (19) senegaru (with final epenthetic /u/) ‘Senegal’

Page 37 of 115

Accent

Let us now consider the general case, with antepenultimate accent, of words
which do not contain a deficient mora in their final or penultimate position,
such as baruserona ‘Barcelona’.
(20) baruserona ‘Barcelona’

Candidates b., c., and d. are the least optimal because they violate *F[m.
The form e. is excluded because it violates Foot=Trochaic. F, g., and h. leave
one or several unbounded moras. Under these conditions, the victorious
candidate can only be candidate a. (baru)(sero)(na). Note that f. would be
optimal if the order between Foot=Binary and ParseMoras were inverted
(this, as already stated, remains a possible option), but this change would
not affect in any way the location of the accent in the output.
The word burunji /buruNzi/ ‘Burundi’ also constitutes a case
traditionally recognized as regular. It is also in our analysis. Contrary to
baruserona, it contains a special mora in penultimate position, and it is
precisely for this reason that it deserves special interest.
(21) burunji ‘Burundi’
(p. 210 )

Candidate a. (bu)(run)(ji) wins over all the other candidates because it is the
only form which respects the four higher-ranked constraints. The candidates
h. bu(run)ji and g. (bu)(run)ji also display an antepenultimate accent, but
the former also has two non-binary feet, while the latter has a non-binary
foot and an unparsed mora. They are thus disqualified in comparison with a.

Page 38 of 115

Accent

Let us see now how the form rondon ‘London’ is selected. It is interesting to
note that words such as haaremu ‘Harlem’ or andesu ‘the Andes’, which end
with an epenthetic vowel and contain a special segment in second position,
behave exactly as rondon since they are indeed accented on the initial.9 This
confirms the correctness of positing a ‘deficient mora’ category broader than
the traditional ‘special mora’ category.
(p. 211 ) (22) rondon ‘London’

The candidate a. (ron)(don) respects all the constraints higher than
AlignRight, and thus wins over all the other candidates.
Let us now consider three-mora words, which are all accented on the
antepenultimate mora. Two subtypes can be distinguished: those that
do not contain any deficient mora, like monako ‘Monaco’, and those that
do, either in final position, like dekan ‘Deccan’, or in medial position, like
mekka ‘Mecca’. All these examples can be accounted for in a straightforward
manner.
(23) monako ‘Monaco’

Candidate a. (mona)(ko) emerges as the optimal output.
The next example, dekan, contains a deficient mora in final position, just like
pirenee or senegaru, which makes it particularly worthy of interest.
(p. 212 ) (24) dekan ‘Deccan’

Page 39 of 115

Accent

Tableau (24) shows that candidate a. (de)(kan) is the best candidate.
In the case of mekka, the result of the tableau is also as expected. Candidate
a. (mek)(ka) emerges as victorious.
(25) mekka ‘Mecca’

Let us close with the examination of the bimoraic word pari, whose accent
is initial. According to the hierarchy that I propose, candidate c. (pa)(ri) is
optimal. Here, once more, the other possible hierarchies would produce an
optimal output with initial accent. Of all the alternatives considered here, the
candidate with initial accent emerges as the winner, a desirable result.
(26) pari ‘Paris’

However, notice that the unaccented, prosodically unstructured
form pari (pari°, which does not figure in the tableau) could appear here
as a better candidate than (pa)(ri) if ParseMoras had been placed below
Foot=Binary, as tableaux (27) and (28) show. If, as in (27), ParseMoras is
ranked below Foot=Binary, candidate a. pari° becomes the best candidate,
a totally undesirable result. This is what justifies, in the present analysis, the
ranking of ParseMoras above the constraints Foot=Trochee and Foot=Binary.
(27)
(p. 213 )

Page 40 of 115

Accent

(28)

The above analysis accounts in a simple and natural way for the assignment
of the accent in foreign toponyms, including quadrimoraic forms with initial
accent like pirenee, teheran and senegaru, which resist existing analyses,
with no need to assume any opposition between heavy and light syllables.
Although all the examples reviewed above are place names of foreign origin,
the present analysis applies more generally to common nouns borrowed from
Western languages, since they follow the same accentuation principles.10
(p. 214 )

7.2.6 Other Types of Simplex Words

The remainder of simplex words is divided into a multitude of specific
subcases, for which general principles of accent assignment can sometimes
be posited. I shall rapidly mention here some of these categories. More
detailed descriptions can be found in the references already cited.
Adjectives ending in -na form a heterogeneous class from the point of view
of accentuation. The pattern of the source word (in most cases a noun)
from which the -na adjective is derived generally applies to the adjective.
Thus we have ooki # ooki-na (Yamato) ‘large’, shinpuru # shinpuru-na
(Western) {simple}, dame # dame-na (mixed Sino-Japanese + Yamato)
‘vain, no good’. However, -na adjectives whose base ends in -ka (originally,
an adjectival suffix) are automatically accented on the antepenultimate mora
of the base: shizuka-na ‘quiet’, komayaka-na ‘detailed’.
Interrogative words are all initially accented: nani ‘what’, doko ‘where’,
ikutsu ‘how many’, dochira ‘in which direction’, etc., but the corresponding
deictics are generally atonic: koko° ‘here’, are° ‘that’, sono° ‘this’, asoko°
‘over there’, sonna° ‘such’, etc.
Adverbs show a tendency to receive a penultimate accent when they
are bimoraic, and an antepenultimate accent when trimoraic or longer:
mada ‘not yet’, mushiro ‘rather’, mochiron ‘of course’, shibaraku ‘for
Page 41 of 115

Accent

one moment’, yurai ‘in the beginning’ (but note that as a noun yurai° ‘the
origin’ is atonic). A fair number of four-mora adverbs are atonic: ainiku°
‘unfortunately’, hanahada° ‘extremely’, kekkyoku° ‘finally’.
Simplex mimetic words (onomatopoeias and ideophones) bear a final or
penultimate accent when they end with -ri (to), and a penultimate accent
when they end in -n (to) or -t (to): korori(-to) / korori(-to) ‘rolling’, katan(-to)
‘with a clatter’, gyorot(-to) ‘glaring goggle-eyed’.
Two- and three-mora truncated words are regularly accented on the
initial: shami (# shamisen°) ‘shamisen’, tero (# terorizumu) ‘terrorism’,
anime (# animeeshon) ‘cartoon’. This rule also applies to hypocoristic
truncations: masa, masa-kun # masaki (male first name), nao, naochan # naomi° (female first name). Four-mora-long abbreviations are
generally atonic: rihabiri° (# rihabiriteeshon) ‘rehabilitation’, masukomi° (#
masukomyunikeeshon) ‘mass media’.
It is also interesting to observe that modification of the grammatical category
of a word can materialize through modification of its accent pattern. For
instance, nouns with temporal or quantitative reference accented on the
final mora such as (p. 215 ) ashita ‘tomorrow’, hutatsu ‘two’ are unaccented
when used as adverbs: ashita°,hutatsu° (Kindaichi and Akinaga, 2001;
Uwano, 2003). Semantic factors also come into play: thus the suffix sei # is
pre-accenting with the meaning ‘pupil, student’ (ichinen-sei ### ‘first-year
pupil’, yuutou-sei ### ‘brilliant pupil’), but atonic in the botanical sense
(ichinen-sei° ### ‘annual plant’, tanen-sei° ### ‘perennial plant’, Satô H.,
1989).

7.3 Accent of Compound Words
The accentuation of compound words constitutes one of the thorniest
and most interesting issues within the domain of Japanese accentology,
both from the descriptive and theoretical point of view, and as such it has
been the focus of a number of descriptive or analytical studies. Whereas
the accent pattern of a compound, whatever it is, seems very generally
predictable from that of its components, except when the second constituent
is short, the factors that condition compound accentuation are numerous and
varied, and their interactions extremely difficult to capture.
Contrary to what occurs in a language like English, where the position of
the primary accent in a compound can be analysed as the projection of
the primary accent of one of its members (christmas + cake # christmas
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Accent

cake, feather + pillow # feather pillow), things work very differently in
Tôkyô Japanese. In this language, the accentual algorithm of the compound
is entirely recomputed, so that accent may fall on a mora which was
not accented in the simplex form of the lexeme to which it belongs. For
example, the combination of yuki ‘snow’ + otoko ‘man’ gives yuki-otoko
‘snowman, yeti’, with an accent on o, and deletion of the original accents on
ki and ko (neither *yuki-otoko nor *yuki-otoko is attested). In Japanese, an
analysis which would directly project the accent of the head member of the
compound cannot be conducted, except, as we shall see, in the two following
notable cases: when the length of the second component is equal or superior
to five moras, or when the compound has a coordinative meaning (dvandva
compounds).
The main parameters which may determine the accent of a Japanese
compound word are the following:
•
– The nature of the morphological and syntactic relation between
the two constituents.
•
– The size of the compound.
•
– The size of each constituent of the compound.
•
– The grammatical category of the constituents (noun, verb, etc.).
•
– The intrinsic accent of each constituent.
•
(p. 216 ) – The lexical stratum of the constituents (Yamato, SinoJapanese, Western).
•
– The degree of sonority of the vowels in the head foot.
The degree of lexicalization of the compound also constitutes a major
parameter. For example, it is very unlikely that ancient, strongly lexicalized
compounds whose compositional nature is rather opaque, such as kaya°
‘mosquito net’, ido ‘a well’, tamago (or tamago°) ‘egg’, amado ‘shutter’,
namae° ‘name’, or hanabi ‘fireworks’, are to be treated in the same way
as formations such as kokuritsu-daigaku ‘national university’, yuki-otoko
‘snowman, yeti’ or orenji-iro° ‘the colour orange’, whose compositional
nature is much more transparent. Unfortunately, most studies do not provide
a clear definition of what a ‘compound word’ is, and this inaccuracy accounts
for much of the differences, and, even, the apparent contradictions, which
one observes in the analyses of various scholars. Thus Kindaichi and Akinaga
(2001), which adopts a strictly etymological criterion to define what a
compound is—and thus treats kaya°, ido,tamago,amado,namae°, and
hanabi as compounds—states a general rule that is exactly the opposite to
that proposed by Tanaka and Kubozono (1999). According to Kindaichi and
Akinaga (2001, page 13 of the appendix), the accent of such compounds is
Page 43 of 115

Accent

determined by and large by its first member, whereas Tanaka and Kubozono
(1999) considers that only the second element is decisive for the attribution
of the accent in compounds.
In the present section, the focus will be on transparent compounds whose
global meaning is easily deducible from that of their components, which both
exist independently in the modern language. Accordingly, kaya°, ido, and so
on are regarded as non-compound words.
We will successively review the accent of [modifier–head] structured
nominal compounds, of dvandva compounds (equipollents, or coordinative
compounds) and mimetic compounds. We will then examine the case of fixed
Sino-Japanese compounds made up of two Chinese characters, as well as
that of compound verbs. We will finally have a look at numeral compounds,
with or without a specifier. For additional descriptive or theoretical
treatments of compound accent, the reader can refer to McCawley (1968),
Higurashi (1983), Poser (1990), Kubozono (1993b, 2006b, 2008), Uwano
(1997, 2003), Satô H. (1989), Shinohara (2002), Tanaka (2008), and to the
appendices of the two accent dictionaries (NHK, 1998; Kindaichi and Akinaga,
2001). Most of the examples provided here are drawn from these sources.

7.3.1 Compound Nouns With A [modifier–head] Structure Containing
Only One Accent Nucleus
In compound nouns having a [modifier–head] structure, for example yamainu° (‘mountain’ + ‘dog’) ‘wild dog, coyote’, or denwa-ki (‘telephone’ +
‘machine’) (p. 217 ) ‘telephone’, the accent pattern depends principally,
in theory (in a manner that will be examined below) on the size and
original accent pattern of the second constituent (henceforth C2), which is
syntactically the most important one. However, it seems that the accent
pattern of the first constituent (C1) also plays a role in certain cases. For
instance, nearly all quadrimoraic compounds containing hito° ‘human being’
as their C1 are atonic,11 whatever the accent pattern of the C2, as the
examples below illustrate:
(29)
hito° + naka
(‘middle’) # hitonaka°

Page 44 of 115

‘in the company
of people’

Accent

hito° + kaki
(‘fence’) # hitogaki°

‘a row of people’

hito° + nami°
(‘ordinary’) #
hito-nami°

‘average’

As we will see later, the accent of numeral compounds is also largely
determined by the accent pattern of the C1.
The general rules presented below apply to [modifier–head] compound
nouns whose components are Yamato, Western, or Sino-Japanese, with the
exception of fixed Sino-Japanese compounds made up of two characters such
as benkyou° ## ‘study’, shinju° ## ‘pearl’, or akumu ## ‘nightmare’, which
will be examined in section 7.3.6.
One has to distinguish three main categories, according to whether C2 is
short (one or two moras), long (three or four moras), or extra-long (five
moras and longer). The shorter the word, the more irregular its accent
pattern in compounding is likely to be.
(i) Short C2
If C2 is one or two mora long, we encounter three types of patterns:
•
– the accent of the compound falls on the last mora of the first
member (30). If it is a deficient mora, consisting of a special
segment or single vowel, the accent might move one position
leftward, according to the NADM principle. This is the most
productive pattern according to Kubozono (1995b, 2008).
•
– the accent of the compound falls on the initial mora of the second
member (31). C2’s affected by this rule amount to a small number.
All of them are initially accented, and are mainly of Yamato or
Western origin, with only very few Sino-Japanese words. They never
end with a deficient mora.
•
– the compound is atonic (32). Almost all C2’s that fall under this
rule have a final accent in their independent form, and are of
Yamato or Sino-Japanese origin.
Note that a given lexeme can belong to two different categories. For instance
kuni° (-guni) is both pre-accenting and de-accenting.
(p. 218 ) (30) Pre-accenting C2

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Accent

ka
buto
+
mushi
°

kabutomushi

‘beetle’

abareuma

‘restive
horse’

ningyo-hime

‘Little
Mermaid’

hukuokashi

‘city
of
Fukuoka’

denwaki

‘telephone’

(‘helmet’
+
‘insect’)
abare°
+
uma
(‘unruly’
+
‘horse’)
ningyo
+
hime
(‘mermaid’
+
‘princess’)
hukuoka
+
shi
(Fukuoka
+
‘city’)
denwa
°
+
ki
(‘telephone’
+
‘machine’)

Here is a list of some of the most frequent pre-accenting lexemes (when
the lexeme is not used independently, no accentual information is given).

Page 46 of 115

Accent

They are mostly finally accented (see also McCawley, 1968: appendix I, NHK,
1998, for lists):
machi # ‘town’, kawa (/-gawa) # ‘river’, -dake # ‘mount’, uri # ‘melon’,
su (-zu) # ‘vinegar’, sushi (-zushi) # ‘sushi’, uta # ‘song’, kami (-gami)
# ‘paper’, mochi° # ‘rice cake’, kuni° (-guni) # ‘country’, toshi (-doshi)
# ‘year’, hime # ‘princess’, uma # ‘horse’, -jin# ‘person’ (except after
certain nouns ending with a mora nasal as in nihon-jin), -in # ‘member’, -in #
‘institute’, eki # ‘station’, -en # ‘park’, -on # ‘sound’, -kai # ‘association’, -kai
# ‘world’, -gai # ‘street’, -gaku # ‘study’, -kan # ‘feeling’, -kan # ‘building’,
-ki # ‘chronicle’, -ki # ‘period’, -ki # ‘récipient’, -ki # ‘machine’, -gou #
‘number’, -koku # ‘country’, -shi # ‘Mr’, -shiki # ‘style’, -shitsu # ‘room’, -sha
# ‘society’, -shuu # ‘collection’, -shou # ‘ministry’, -shoku # ‘colour’, -sei #
‘pupil’, -zoku # ‘tribe’, -hi # ‘expenses’, -ki # ‘machine’, -byou # ‘disease’,
-bu # ‘part’, -ryoku # ‘power’.
(31) C2 maintaining the original initial accent in the compound
uroko
°/
uroko
+
kumo

uroko-gumo

‘a
cirrocumulus’

garasu-mado

‘glass
window’

karasu-mugi

‘oats’

(‘scale’
+
‘cloud’)
garasu
°
+
mado
(‘glass’
+
‘window’)
ka
rasu
+
mugi
(‘crow’
+
‘wheat’)

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Accent

Most of the nouns which maintain the accent in its original location when
used as a C2 are initially accented. The most frequent are: kumo (-gumo)
# ‘cloud’, neko # ‘cat’, ame # ‘rain’, shiru (-jiru) # ‘juice’, hune (-bune) #
‘boat’, kasa (-gasa) # ‘umbrella’, obi # ‘belt’, koe (-goe) # ‘voice’, muko #
‘son-in-law’, tsuru (-zuru) # ‘crane’, mugi # ‘wheat’, mae # ‘front’. Some
nouns of (p. 219 ) Western origin behave in the same manner, for example
gasu ## ‘gaz’, piza ## ‘pizza’, as well as the Sino-Japanese derivative
morpheme -shugi ## ‘-ism ’ (shakai-shugi ‘socialism’, keishiki-shugi
‘formalism’).
(32) De-accenting C2
kodomo
°
+
heya

kodomo-beya
°

‘children’s
room’

orenjiiro
°

‘colour
orange’

otokode
°

‘man’s
help’

nihonhuu
°

‘Japanese
way’

(‘child’
+
‘room’)
orenji
+
iro
(‘orange’
+
‘colour’)
otoko
+
te
(‘man’
+
‘hand’)
nihon
+
huu
(/
huR/)12
(‘Japan’
+
‘manner’)

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Accent

Among the most frequent de-accenting lexemes, we find iro # ‘colour’, mura
# ‘village’, kumi (-gumi) # ‘group’, inu # ‘dog’, kao° (-gao) # ‘face’, tera
(-dera) # ‘temple’, tama (-dama) # ‘ball’, kami # ‘hair’, kuni° (-guni) #
‘country’, kata (-gata) # ‘pattern’, gawa° # ‘side’, te # ‘hand’, ba° # ‘place’,
me # ‘eye’, -ka # ‘section’, -ka # ‘section’, -tou # ‘party’, -ka # ‘agent’, -ka
## ‘-ation’, -kyou # ‘religion’, go # ‘language’, -jou # ‘place’, -tai # ‘body’,
-chuu # ‘while’, -hu # ‘woman’, huu /huR/ # ‘manner’, -you # ‘usage’, -ryuu
# ‘current’. They are mostly final-accented and a small number of them are
atonic.
A few words yield final accentuation of the compound, such as kaze° ‘wind’,
mono ‘thing’, or mono ‘person’. We thus have: minami-kaze ‘southern wind’,
hitori-mono ‘single person’. However, there always exists a variant which
follows one of the regular patterns: minami-kaze°, hitori-mono°.
Finally, it is interesting to observe that four-mora compounds resulting from
the combination of two bimoraic Yamato nouns are in their majority atonic
(Kubozono and Fujiura, 2004). This is especially the case when the head
noun has a final lexical accent such as uma ‘horse’ or iro ‘colour’.
Kubozono (1997, 2008) proposes an analysis which assumes that only
de-accenting short morphemes (such as those shown in 32 above) are
lexically marked, that is, specified in the lexicon with respect to their accent
behaviour in compounds. So initial accenting and pre-accenting patterns are
predictable by rule on the basis of their own lexical accent pattern. Kubozono
thus posits the following two basic principles as a generalization of the preaccenting and initial accenting patterns (the romanization and terminology
have been adapted):
(p. 220 ) (33) Kubozono’s generalization
a. Keep the accent of C2 as compound accent except when
it is on the very final mora:
2. neko ‘cat’: perusha-neko ‘Persian cat’
b. Otherwise, put a compound accent on the final mora of
C1:
4. inu ‘dog’: akita-inu ‘Akita dog’
5. mushi° ‘bug’: kabuto-mushi ‘beetle’
(ii) Long C2
When the C2 is three or four mora long, the pre-accenting and de-accenting
types such as those seen above in (30) and (32) do not exist. The general
principle is that the compound will receive an accent on the first mora of the
C2, except when C2 has an accent that is neither initial nor final in isolation,
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Accent

in which case the accent will generally be preserved in the same position
within the compound, particularly (according to Shinohara, 2002) if it is
quadrimoraic with an antepenultimate accent.
However, when C2 has a penultimate accent in isolation, the situation is
rather confusing. Tanaka and Kubozono (1999) observe that in such a case,
the compound may be accented on the initial mora of C2 (34e).
(34)
a. Long C2 with an initial accent
kogata
°
+
kamera

#
kogata-kamera

‘small
camera’

#
shimaguni-konjou

‘insularism’

#
yuki-daruma

‘snowman’

#
kuchi-yakusoku

‘verbal
promise’

(‘small
size’
+
‘camera’)
shimaguni
+
konjou
(‘island
country’
+
‘disposition’)

b. Atonic long C2
yuki
+
daruma
°

(‘snow’
+
‘Dharma
(doll)’)
kuchi
°
+
yakusoku
°

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Accent

(‘mouth’
+
‘promise’)

c. Long C2 with a final accent
yuki
+
otoko

#
yuki-otoko

‘yeti’

#
nuka-yorokobi

‘vain
joy’

(‘snow’
+
‘man’)
nuka
+yorokobi
(‘rice
bran’
+
‘joy’)

d. Quadrimoraic C2 with an antepenultimate accent
kami
+
hikouki

#
kamihikouki

‘paper
plane’

#
wakamurasaki

‘light
purple’

#
enjinsutoppu

‘stalling
of
a
motor’

(‘paper’
+
‘plane’)
wa
ka
+
murasaki
(‘young’
+
‘purple’)
e
njin
+
sutoppu

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Accent

({engine}
+
{stop})
(p. 221 )

e. Long C2 with a penultimate accent
hidari
°
+
uchiwa(‘left’
+
‘fan’)

#
hidari-uchiwa/
hidariuchiwa

‘to
live
in
ease’

yude
°
+
tamago(‘boil’
+
‘egg’)

#
yude-tamago/
yudetamago

‘boiled
egg’

onna
+
kokoro /
kokoro

#
onna-gokoro

‘woman’s
heart’

#
denki-nokogiri

‘power
saw’

(‘woman’
+
‘heart’)
denki
+
nokogiri /
nokogiri13
(‘electricity’
+
saw’)

The examples presented in (34e) are actually very debatable. This is because
the majority of compounds cited in the literature in order to exemplify the
cases at hand (for example Tanaka, 2001) concern the following categories:
(i) their C2 is a noun with two possible accent patterns such as nokogiri /
nokogiri ‘saw’, kamisori / kamisori ‘razor’, namekuji / namekuji° ‘slug’,
hoobeni / hoobeni° ‘cheek rouge’, kokoro / kokoro ‘heart’; (ii) their C2 is a
Page 52 of 115

Accent

noun which must be analysed as deverbal, with an original final accent which
has undergone an accentual shift due to the NADM principle (machigae #
machigae ‘error’, kangae # kangae ‘thought’); (iii) the compound admits
two accent patterns (hidari° + uchiwa # hidari-uchiwa / hidari-uchiwa ‘to
live at ease’). Non-ambiguous examples of compounds which illustrate the
fate of C2’s with a penultimate accent are actually hard to find.
An additional and secondary factor conditions accent placement: the sonority
of vowels. Tanaka (2008:157ff.) demonstrates that vowel sonority plays a
role in the attribution of the accent when the C2 is four mora long (except if
it is of Western origin and if the third mora of the C2 is a deficient mora). So,
when the first vowel in the C2 has a lower degree of sonority than the second
vowel, the compound is more frequently accented on the antepenultimate
mora than on the pre-antepenultimate one. The two following sets of
examples illustrate this phenomenon:
(p. 222 ) (35) Correlation between vowel sonority and accent
(Tanaka, 2008)
a. V1 is higher in sonority than V2 in C2 ( → regularly
accented compound)
a#
o

oka
°
+
yadokari
°

oka-yadokari‘land
hermit
crab’

e#
i

kokusan
°
+
benibana
°

kokusan-benibana
‘safflower
produced
in
Japan’

b. V1 is lower in sonority than V2 in C2 ( → irregularly
accented compound)

Page 53 of 115

i
#o

ie
+
shiroari
°

ieshiroari

‘house
termite’

e
#a

reitou
°
+

reitouedamame

‘frozen
green
soybeans’

Accent

edamame
°

(iii) Extra-long C2
When the C2 is five mora long or longer, the rules are considerably simpler.
The accent of the second member is preserved even when it is final. If it is
atonic, the compound will also be.
(36)
shi
donii
+
orinpikku

shidoniiorinpikku

‘Sydney
Olympic
Games’

isoppumonogatari

‘Aesop’s
fables’

chihousaibansho

‘regional
tribunal’

minamikariforunia
°

‘Southern
California’

({Sydney}
+
{Olympic})
isoppu
+
monogatari
({Aesop}
+
‘story’)
chihou
+
saibansho
(‘region’
+
‘tribunal’)
minami
°
+
kariforunia
°
(‘south’
+
{California})

In the above pages, we have reviewed the accentuation of compound nouns.
Although the phenomenology seems incredibly complex, the following
Page 54 of 115

Accent

general trends can be established: the number of exceptions to the accent
rules decreases according to the length of the second component; the
compound most generally carries the accent on the second member (except
for some compounds with short C2); a final accent is generally avoided
(except in extra-long compounds); a certain convergence in favour of
the antepenultimate pattern can be observed, resulting either from the
privileged maintenance of the original accent of C2, or from the attribution
of a default accent. Finally, all things being equal, it seems that if the accent
of C2 can be preserved in its original location in the compound, it will be,
provided this does not infringe some of the other basic principles.

7.3.2 A Constraint-based Account of Compound Noun Accentuation
Let us now move to the formal and theoretical analysis of the mechanisms
reviewed above. We shall take as a starting point the work by Kubozono
(1997) who presents an OT treatment of these data. After summarizing (p.
223 ) Kubozono’s paper, which brings new light to this complex problem and
has greatly contributed to its reconsideration, we will see what treatment we
can propose of the same facts.
As we have just seen, the length of C2 is traditionally regarded as the main
parameter in order to determine the prosodic pattern of a compound. It is
precisely to the issue of this length parameter that Kubozono (1995b, 1997)
makes a first significant contribution, by proposing that the same principles
apply to the accentuation of short and long C2 compounds, and that it is thus
irrelevant to distinguish between these two classes. On this basis, the accent
principles can be reformulated according to the following generalization:
(37) Kubozono’s generalization (slightly adapted)
•
– A short or long C2 accent is parsed in compounds except
when it is final.
•
– If C2 is atonic or oxytonic, a default compound accent
emerges on the rightmost non-final foot.
•
– There exists a class of exceptions among the words whose
C2 is short (equivalent to a one- or two-mora foot). They
yield unaccented compounds.
However, as Kubozono observes, there exists in fact a second class of
exceptions among short C2’s (the ‘Little Mermaid’, ningyo-hime type,
see below). It will be noted moreover that Kubozono does not address the
issue of compounds with an extra-long C2. They thus constitute, de facto,
a special class with regard to his analysis. There is also, and this should not
Page 55 of 115

Accent

be forgotten, a whole list of words whose accent is idiosyncratic, as well as
many cases of accentual variation.
The distinction between short and long C2’s being now irrelevant, only the
de-accenting type must be specified as such lexically, and considered as
exceptional. This contrasts with former analyses which consider (implicitly
or explicitly) that there exist three different classes of short C2’s. This
descriptive simplification constitutes the first important contribution of this
work: one now has a general case, which can be accounted for in a unified
way, and a number of exceptions, which should be treated as such.
The second important contribution lies in the theoretical treatment that
is proposed, on the basis of this new formulation of the problem. This
treatment will be summarized here. We shall then proceed to a reanalysis of
the data, which, I believe, improves on that originally proposed, while being
in accordance with the conception of the Japanese prosodic units and the
role of the mora and the foot in the phonology of Japanese defended in the
present book.
•
– OT treatment: Kubozono (1997)’s analysis
According to Kubozono, the principles highlighted in (37) can be accounted
for by the interaction between a small number of constraints, defined as
follows:
(p. 224 ) (38) Kubozono’s constraints (1997, adapted)

Page 56 of 115

OCP:

No more than one
prominence peak
(i.e. word accent)
is allowed in a
single PrWd.

Parse(accent):

Parse the lexical
accent of the
C2 in compound
nouns.

NonFinality(µ):

The head mora,
i.e. the accented
mora, is not final
in PrWd.

NonFinality(σ):

The head syllable,
i.e. the accented

Accent

syllable, is not
final in PrWd.
NonFinality(π):

The head foot,
i.e. the accented
foot, is not final in
PrWd.

Edgemostness/
Rightmostness:

A peak of
prominence lies
at the right edge
of the Word.

As pointed out by Kubozono, an essential aspect of his analysis lies in the
fact that the NonFinality constraint is decomposed into three independent
subparts: NonFinality(µ), NonFinality(σ), and NonFinality(π). Recall, in
connection with this issue, that Kubozono is a scholar for whom the
distinction between mora and syllable is held as essential in Japanese, and
who regards the analysis of compound accentuation as a definite argument
in favour of such a distinction.
Kubozono assumes that the constraints OCP and NonFinality(µ) are
undominated. The hierarchy that he proposes is given in (39):
(39) Constraints hierarchy (Kubozono, 1997, adapted)
•
OCP, NonFinality(µ, σ) ## Parse (accent) ## NonFinality
(π) ## Edgemostness
The undominated constraint OCP will be omitted in the following discussion
and tableaux. The following four tableaux illustrate the action of the
constraints and their hierarchy according to Kubozono’s analysis. Only the
candidates that respect the constraint OCP appear here. The examples we
will consider are the following (we continue to use our notation conventions
throughout):
(40)

Page 57 of 115

pe rusha
+ neko #
perusha-neko

(accent is kept in
C2)

nebada + shuu
# nebada-shuu

(C2 is preaccenting)

Accent

abare° + uma #
abare-uma

(C2 is oxytonic
and preaccenting)

ka buto + mushi
° # kabuto-mushi

(C2 is atonic and
pre-accenting)

(p. 225 )

(41) perusha + neko # perusha-neko ‘Persian cat’
/perusya/
+/neko/

NonF(µ,
σ)

ParseA

☞
a.
perusha)(neko)
b.
perusha)(neko)
c.
perusha)(neko)

NonF(π)

Edgemost

σ
#

µ,
σ!

σσ
#
*

In (41), the first candidate, perusha-neko is optimal because it maintains
the non-final accent of neko, thus respecting the higher-ranked constraints
NonFinality (µ, σ) and ParseAccent.
The following tableau illustrates the case where the C2 is assumed by
Kubozono to be a monosyllable.
(42) nebada + shuu # nebada-shuu ‘the State of Nevada’
/nebada/
+/syuu/

NonF(µ,
σ)

a.
nebada)(shuu)

σ!

☞
b.
nebada)(shuu)

Page 58 of 115

ParseA

NonF(π)

Edgemost

σ
#

Accent

c.
nebada)(shuu)

σ
σ
σ
#!

Here, candidate a. cannot win because it violates NonFinality(σ). It is thus
candidate b. which, although violating ParseAccent, is optimal because it
incurs fewer violations to edgemostness than c.
In tableau (43), C2 uma is bimoraic (as well as bisyllabic in Kubozono’s
terms). Once again, the candidate with an antepenultimate accent, in c.,
emerges as victorious.
(43) abare° + uma # abare-uma ‘restive horse’
/
abare

NonF(µ,
σ)

a.
abare)(uma)

µ,
σ!

°/
+/
uma/

ParseA

NonF(π)

Edgemost

b.
abare)(uma)

☞
c.
abare)(uma)

σ
#
σσ
#

Finally, we consider the case where the C2 is atonic, with no lexical accent to
parse.
(p. 226 ) (44) kabuto + mushi° # kabuto-mushi ‘beetle’
/kabuto/
+/

NonF(µ,
σ)

a.
kabuto)(mushi)

µ,
σ!

musi
°/

Page 59 of 115

ParseA

NonF(π)

Edgemost

Accent

b.
kabuto)(mushi)

σ
#

☞
c.
kabuto)(mushi)

σ
σ
#

d.
kabuto)(mushi)

σ
σ
σ
σ
#!

Here too, the candidate with an antepenultimate accent, kabuto-mushi in c.,
is selected.
Apart from the class of de-accenting nouns, excluded from the scope of
the analysis from the beginning because they are regarded as marked
exceptions in the lexicon, and that of extra-long compounds which
are not discussed in the article, this treatment generates two types of
exceptions. The first type consists of the so-called ‘Little Mermaid’ pattern
(as exemplified by ningyo + hime # ningyo-hime ‘Little Mermaid’ or yoyaku
° + seki # yoyaku-seki ‘reserved seat’), which are words in which the initial
accent of the C2 is not faithfully parsed, contrary to neko in perusha-neko.
The second type includes cases ending with a supposedly bimoraic ‘syllable’,
such as sunakku + baa # sunakku-baa ‘snack-bar’ or eiga° + fan #
eiga-fan ‘movie fan’, which preserve the accent of C2 on the final putative
‘syllable’, in violation of NonFinality(σ), and thus contradict the analysis
proposed for nebada-shuu. We will not enter the details of the extensions
that Kubozono gives to his analysis in order to provide an account of these
exceptions and of the strong inter-speaker variation observed in the accent
pattern of some compounds. We shall merely observe that he analyses
these exceptions as resulting from a ‘minimal deviation’ from his standard
constraint hierarchy. This is a classic approach to exception and variation in
OT. However, although such an approach correctly succeeds in formalizing
the exceptional character of the words under consideration, it fails to explain
why it should be so.
I claim that a better analysis of these data can be proposed. It remains
based on the descriptive generalization of Kubozono, but baa and fan no
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Accent

longer appear as exceptions. This reanalysis builds on the conception of the
Japanese lower prosodic units as consisting only of the mora and foot, with
no reference to the syllable, presented in Chapter 6. (p. 227 )
•
– My analysis
As mentioned above, Kubozono’s analysis rests on the assumption that the
difference between mora and syllable is relevant in Japanese. It is precisely
this assumption that we call into question. The explanation that I propose
in the following lines rests on the distinction between the mora and the
foot. I claim, on the one hand, that a simpler and more coherent account
can be provided, and, on the other hand, that we can get rid of one class of
exceptions, the sunakku-baa and eiga-fan type. Indeed, these words, which
pose a problem in the original analysis, turn out to be perfectly regular in our
approach.
The reason why Kubozono calls upon the constraint NonFinality(σ) is because
it is essential in the analysis to account for one-character Sino-Japanese
morphemes ending in a deficient mora like shuu #, in nebada-shuu. When
they occur as the second constituent of a compound, these morphemes
require an accent to be put on the last mora of the first component: they
thus do not preserve their apparent lexical accent after compounding,
contrary to the neko type. For Kubozono, as seen before, the difference
between shuu and neko lies in the fact that shuu is a bimoraic monosyllable
while neko is a bimoraic bisyllable. The behaviour of the words fan or baa
which, despite the fact that they are also bimoraic monosyllables like shuu,
behave like neko rather than like shuu in keeping their accent on the moras
fa and ba in compounding (sunakku-baa,eiga-fan) leads Kubozono to treat
them as exceptions. However, one can assume that it is not the number of
moras or syllables that is at stake here but some other kind of difference.
In reality, the difference between the shuu type and the baa type is to
be captured at some other level. I assume that there exists an accentual
difference at the underlying level between these two lexemes. Morphemes
like shuu are accented on their last mora at the lexical level: /syuR/ (see
also sections 6.2.4 and 7.3.6 for additional evidence), whereas baa or fan
are accented on the first one: /baR/, /faN/. One thus distinguishes, at the
lexical level, the two following types for words consisting of one foot whose
second mora is deficient (that is, which consist in a heavy syllable following
Kubozono’s analysis):
(45) Underlyingly final accent
a. Sino-Japanese morphemes
Page 61 of 115

Accent

/
syuR/
shuu
#

‘state’

/
tyuR/
chuu
#
‘middle’

/
toR/
tou
#

‘party’

/
hoN/
hon
#
‘book’

/
yoR/
you
#

‘use’

/
ryuR/
ryuu
#
‘stream’

etc.

b. Western morphemes
/piN/ pin
{pin}

/paN/ pan
{paõ}

/maN/ man
{man}

etc.

(p. 228 )

(46) Underlyingly initial accent (Western morphemes)
/baR/ baa {bar}

/faN/ fan {fan}

/kiR/ kii {key}

etc.

Morphemes in (46) are all of relatively recent Western origin. Morphemes in
(45) are mostly Sino-Japanese, but it is worth noting that they also include
a small number of ancient loans from Western languages, such as pin
‘pin’, pan ‘bread’, or man ‘man’. Interestingly, there exist some Western
words like kaa ‘car’ or tii ‘tea’ that behave like the words in (45) or (46)
depending on speakers. One thus has patorooru-kaa or patorooru-kaa
{patrol car}, and remon-tii or remon-tii {lemon tea}. Noteworthy enough,
these words obviously belong to a class of loans which are neither very
old nor very recent. So, the phonological difference in the localization of
the lexical accent that we see actually reflects a difference in the dating of
the borrowing, be it from Chinese or from a Western language. Older loans
Page 62 of 115

Accent

generally bear an underlyingly final accent while more recent ones tend
to bear an underlyingly initial accent. Words such as kaa or tii represent
an intermediate stage, which is why they allow accentual variation in
compounding.
The surface pattern shuu corresponding to the underlying form /syuR/ and
that of the other words of the same class is accounted for by the action of
the NADM principle, which prohibits accentuation of deficient moras (see
section 6.3.2).
Note that PeakProminence, the constraint of which the NADM principle is a
reformulation (see section 6.3.2) is needed to correctly derive the output
form of monographemic Sino-Japanese morphemes finishing with a deficient
mora, but since it is not directly active here, it will not be mentioned in the
tableaux below.
As seen in section 7.2.3, it is thus not because it consists of a ‘heavy syllable’
that shuu behaves differently from neko in compounding but because
it actually possesses a final accent at the input level, exactly like uma,
examined in (43). This question being set, the NonFinality(σ) constraint
proposed by Kubozono is no longer necessary.
I thus propose to revise the list of constraints as follows:
(47)

Page 63 of 115

OCP:

No more than one
accent peak in
PrWd.

FaithIO(Head
Accent):

The accent kernel
of the head noun
occupies the
same position in
the input and in
the output.

NonFinality(µ):

The accented
mora must not be
final.

NonFinality(π):

The accented foot
must not be final.

Accent

AlignRight:

The accent lies at
the right edge of
the word.

Except for NonFinality(σ), which has now become superfluous, the
constraints proposed here are essentially the same as those introduced
by Kubozono (1997). We adopt the constraint FaithIO(HeadAccent)
in replacement (p. 229 ) of ParseAccent, for the sake of clarity.
FaithIO(HeadAccent) requires that the accent occupy exactly the same
position in the output as in the input. Moreover, AlignRight, already used
for the analysis of the default accent in Western loans in section 7.2.5,
henceforth replaces Edgemostness/Rightmostness.
The analysis by Kubozono (1997) does not address the issue of compounds
with a long C2. This class of compounds was the subject of a previous work
by the same author (Kubozono, 1995b), but the treatment suggested for
compound nouns with long C2 in the 1995 paper is independent of the one
proposed for short C2 in 1997. This is why it is essential to look for a unified
approach, which can account for the two types: compounds with a short
C2 and compounds with a long C2. I will retain from the 1995 paper the
constraint given in (48). I shall also assume that this constraint is at work
both for long and short C2 compounds:
(48)
AlignCA: Align the accent with the boundary between C1 and
C2.
AlignCA stipulates that the accent is aligned with the boundary
between C1 and C2, either on the last mora of C1 or on the
first mora of C2.
In addition, I propose that a constraint imposing the realization of an accent
in the compound, the Accent constraint, be ranked above all the other
constraints. Due to the action of this constraint, atonic candidates are
systematically eliminated. Like Kubozono, I consider that atonic compound
nouns constitute a closed word class, limited to forms containing a short C2,
which it is preferable to treat as exceptional.
(49)
Accent:

Page 64 of 115

Compounds must
have an accent.

Accent

In the following tableaux, the Accent constraint does not figure, nor do the
atonic candidates that fatally violate it.
Mutatis mutandis, the hierarchy in (50) remains that of Kubozono, but
without the NonFinality(σ) constraint. Note that it is also fully compatible with
our analysis of foreign place names developed in section 7.2.5.
(50) Final constraint hierarchy
•
Accent ## NonF(µ) ## FaithIO(A) ## NonF(π) ##
AlignCA ## AlignRight
Let us now examine how five of the examples presented earlier in this
chapter, that is, perusha-neko, abare-uma, kabuto-mushi, nebada-shuu, and
sunakku-baa, can be handled following this new proposal.
Let us start with perusha-neko, abare-uma, and kabuto-mushi.
(p. 230 ) (51) perusha + neko # perusha-neko ‘Persian cat’
/perusya/
+/neko/

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

☞
a.
perusha)(neko)

AlignCA

b.
*!
perusha)(neko)

c.
perusha)(neko)

AlignR

(52) abare° + uma # abare-uma ‘restive horse’
/
abare

NonF(µ)

a.
abare)(uma)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

°/
+/
uma/

Page 65 of 115

Accent

b.
abare)(uma)

☞c.
abare)(uma)

(53) kabuto + mushi° # kabuto-mushi ‘beetle’
/kabuto/
+/

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

****

musi
°/

a.
kabuto)(mushi)
b.
kabuto)(mushi)

c.
kabuto)(mushi)

☞
d.
kabuto)(mushi)

In each of the three cases above, the expected form is correctly selected.
These examples do not pose any particular problem because they do not
include a prosodic unit likely to be analysed as a heavy syllable. In this
respect, the following example, nebada-shuu, appears as crucial. As we have
stated, the morpheme shuu carries an initial accent at the surface level, but
we now assume that it actually contains an accent on its final mora at the
lexical level, which constitutes the input of tableau (54).
(p. 231 ) (54) nebada + shuu (/syuR/) # nebada-shuu ‘the
State of Nevada’
/nebada/
+/

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

syuR/

Page 66 of 115

Accent

a.
nebada)(shuu)
b.
nebada)(shuu)

☞
c.
nebada)(shuu)

The candidate in c. is victorious, even though it does not maintain the accent
in its original position. It is actually non-optimal to maintain the final accent
of the input, as candidate b. does, because this violates the higher-ranked
constraint Nonfinality(µ). The nebada-shuu case is actually identical to that
of abare-uma in (52).
Finally, let us see what happens with sunakku-baa {snack bar}, an
example which is problematic in Kubozono’s analysis. Recall that, as seen
above, the word baa has its underlying accent on the initial mora ba in
the present approach, contrary to shuu which has an underlyingly final
accent: /baR/versus /syuR/.
(55) sunakku + baa # sunakku-baa ‘snack-bar’
/
sunaQku/

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

+ /baR/

☞
a.
sunakku)(baa)

b.
sunakku)(baa)

c.
*!
sunakku)(baa)

The candidate in c. displays a fatal infringement to NonFinality(µ), and is
eliminated. So is b. which violates FaithIO(HeadAccent). It is thus the form
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Accent

in a., whose non-final lexical accent is faithfully parsed, which emerges as
optimal.
The analysis proposed here has the advantage of getting rid of what
appears, in Kubozono’s analysis, as a class of exceptions. The accent pattern
of baa can now be distinguished from that of shuu. The former is accented
on the initial mora underlyingly (/baR/), while the latter is on the final mora (/
syuR/), hence the difference in their accentual behaviour when they undergo
compounding.
There remains one type of lexical exception in the treatment I have
proposed, as in Kubozono’s, the ‘Little Mermaid’ case: ningyo + hime yields
ningyo-hime instead of *ningyo-hime, the expected output. As mentioned
above, this type resorts to a closed class, and one should resign oneself to
mark it as exceptional at the lexical level at the present state of research.
(p. 232 )

One can go one step further and extend the analysis to the class
of compounds containing a long C2, such as kogata° + kamera #
kogata-kamera ‘small camera’, shimaguni + konjou # shimaguni-konjou
‘insularism’, yuki + daruma° # yuki-daruma ‘snowman’, kami + hikouki #
kami-hikouki ‘paper plane’, kuchi° + yakusoku° # kuchi-yakusoku ‘verbal
promise’, nuka +yorokobi # nuka-yorokobi ‘premature joy’, waka +
murasaki # waka-murasaki ‘light purple’ (see section 7.3.1).
We can consider that the regular output for compounds with a long C2 is
to preserve the accent in its original position except when it is final. In this
case, or if the C2 is atonic, an accent is placed on the first mora of C2. We
are only dealing here with cases that do not present any variation, be it
in the accent of the compound or in that of the noun in C2 (we thus leave
aside those examples likely to present more than one accentual possibility
like hidari° + uchiwa # hidari-uchiwa/hidari-uchiwa, or denki + nokogiri/
nokogiri # denki-nokogiri, previously discussed in section 7.3.1).
In the first example (tableau 56), the candidate kogata-kamera in a., in
which the non-final accent of the trimoraic C2 kamera is preserved in its
position of origin, wins over all other candidates because those violate one or
more than one of the four higher-ranked constraints. The same applies to the
compound with a four-mora C2 in tableau (57), where it is the form in a. with
an accent on the first mora of konjou that is optimal.
(56) kogata° + kamera # kogata-kamera ‘small size camera’
/
kogata
Page 68 of 115

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

Accent

°/
+ /kamera/

☞
a.
kogata)(kame)
(ra)/
(ka)
(mera)

b.
kogata)(kame)
(ra)
c.
kogata)(kame)
(ra)

d.
kogata)(ka)
(mera)

***

(p. 233 )

(57) shimaguni + konjou # shimaguni-konjou ‘insularism’
/
NonF(µ)
simaguni/

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

+ /konzyoR/

☞
a.
shimaguni)(kon)
(jou)

Page 69 of 115

***

b.
shimaguni)(kon)
(jou)

c.
shimaguni)-

****

Accent

(kon)
(jou)

The following tableau exemplifies the case of a trimoraic C2 atonic in its
independent form, in which there is thus no original accent to parse.
(58) yuki + daruma° # yuki-daruma ‘snowman’
/
yuki/

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

+/
daruma
°/

☞
a.
yuki)(daru)
(ma) /
(da)
(ruma)

b.
yuki)(daru)
(ma)
c.
yuki)(daru)
(ma)
d.
yuki)(daru)
(ma)

*** !

The form yuki-daruma in a. will be selected. Its most serious competitors are
b. and d., which also respect the three higher-ranked constraints. However,
candidate b. fatally violates AlignCA, while d. presents one infraction more in
comparison to a. for AlignR.
In (59), C2 is a four-mora-long noun with an original antepenultimate accent.
Here, candidate b. wins out because it is the only one that respects the three

Page 70 of 115

Accent

highest constraints, and particularly FaithIO(HeadAccent), which both the
candidates a. and c. violate.
(59) kami + hikouki # kami-hikouki ‘paper plane’
/
kami/

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

+/
hikoRki/

a.
kami)(hi)
(kou)
(ki)

***

☞
b.
kami)(hi)
(kou)
(ki)

c.
kami)(hi)
(kou)
(ki)
d.
kami)(hi)
(kou)
(ki)

****

(p. 234 )

Turning now to (60), we can consider the case of a quadrimoraic atonic
C2. The candidate in b., kuchi-yakusoku, is the best one, as expected. Its
most serious competitors are the forms in a. and e. with an antepenultimate
accent. Their elimination is due to the fact that the accent is too far from the
C1–C2 boundary (infringement of AlignCA). The same applies to candidate d.,
which presents four infringements of Align(Right), whereas b. has only three.
(60) kuchi° + yakusoku° # kuchi-yakusoku ‘verbal promise’
/
kuti
Page 71 of 115

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

Accent

°/
+/

yakusoku
°/

a.
kuchi)(yaku)
(soku)

☞
b.
kuchi)(yaku)
(soku)

***

c.
kuchi)(yaku)
(soku)

d.
kuchi)(yaku)
(soku)

****!

e.
kuchi)(ya)
(kuso)
(ku)

In the compound nuka + yorokobi in (61), the original accent of C2 cannot
be maintained in the compound since that would involve fatal violation of
NonFinality(µ), which is higher in the hierarchy than FaithIO(HeadAccent).
The candidate in a. is thus excluded. The correct output must then be
selected among the forms which infringe FaithIO(HeadAccent). It is the lowranked constraint Align(Right) that makes the difference between b. and e.,
allowing candidate b. to win over e., because, all other things being equal, b.
has one violation less than e. with respect to Align(Right).
(61) nuka +yorokobi # nuka-yorokobi ‘premature joy’
/
nuka/

Page 72 of 115

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

Accent

+/
yorokobi/

a.
nuka)(yoro)
(kobi)

☞
b.
nuka)(yoro)
(kobi)

c.
nuka)(yoro)
(kobi)

d.
nuka)(yoro)
(kobi)

e.
nuka)(yoro)
(kobi)

f.
nuka)(yo)
(roko)
(bi)

***

**** !

(p. 235 )

Tableau (62) exemplifies the case of a compound with a quadrimoraic C2
accented on the antepenultimate mora in its lexical form. One expects
that the accent will be kept in this position, even after compounding. And
indeed, this is what occurs. One of the forms in a., the only ones that respect
FaithIO(HeadAccent), is selected as the optimal candidate because all the
other possible outputs present fatal violation of this constraint.
(62) waka + murasaki # waka-murasaki ‘light purple’

Page 73 of 115

Accent

/waka/
+/

NonF(µ)

FaithIO(A) NonF(π)

AlignCA

AlignR

murasaki/

☞
a.
waka)(mura)
(saki)/(mu)
(rasa)
(ki)
b.
waka)(mura)
(saki)

***

c.
waka)(mura)
(saki)

****

d.
waka)(mura)
(saki)

In conclusion, it must be pointed out that the treatment proposed here
presents a number of improvements. First, the recourse to the ambivalent
and problematic constraint NonFinality(µ, σ) is no longer necessary. Only
NonFin(µ) and NonFin(π) are. Second, the sunakku-baa and eiga-fan
types, treated as mere exceptions in the previous analysis, are no longer
exceptional. In third place, our analysis provides a unified account of
compounds with short and long C2’s. And, last but not least, it illustrates the
uselessness of resorting to the syllable. Not only is reference to the mora
and to the foot sufficient for handling the examples but it also provides a
more satisfying account of the data, thus confirming the proposals made in
Chapter 6.

Page 74 of 115

Accent

7.3.3 Compound Nouns Containing Two Accent Nuclei
The accentuation principles which have been presented up until now apply
to [modifier–head] structured compounds which only get one accent nucleus
after the compounding process. However, there also exist compounds with
two accent nuclei. Such compounds preserve the accent pattern of each of
their components after the compounding process (Kubozono, 1993b, 1998a;
Kubozono, Itô and Mester, 1997).
Such formations involve two or more nouns, which, on the morphological
level, do not seem any different from the constructions previously seen.
However, they do not follow the same accent rules. Thus kyuushuu + nanbu
receives (p. 236 ) the pattern kyuushuu-nanbu ‘Southern Kyûshû’, with two
accent nuclei, rather than *kyuushuu-nanbu if it had followed the previously
mentioned rules. In the same way, jishin° + soushitsu° yields jishin°soushitsu° ‘loss of self confidence’ (but jishin-soushitsu also seems to be
attested), and obama + daitouryou becomes obama-daitouryou ‘president
Obama’ (*obama-daitouryou). Each member of the compound preserves its
original accent nucleus in its original location, and we thus have two distinct
prosodic words. The conditions which govern this prosodic structuring are
not clear: whereas jishin°-soushitsu° #### is treated as a succession
of two distinct prosodic words, kioku-soushitsu ‘loss of memory’ (kioku°
+ soushitsu°) #### is treated as only one. Yet, the morphological and
semantic structure of these two compounds is strictly identical.
In a number of such cases, we are no longer dealing with a [modifier–head]
structure in the narrow sense but rather with an appositive-like morphosyntactic structure (see the examples cited above: ‘South(ern) Kyûshû’,
‘president Obama’), which can justify that each member keeps its own
accent. Nevertheless, this analysis does not apply to all the cases concerned,
for instance, jishin°-soushitsu° cannot be considered to be an appositive
construction.
In constructions made up of three nouns, accent differences may reflect
differences in the morphological and syntactic structure of the compounding.
Kubozono (1993b) mentions the example nihon + buyou° + kyoukai°
(‘Japan’ + ‘dance’ + ‘association’), which can be realized with two accented
nuclei, nihon-buyou-kyoukai (with a [A [B–C]] structure) or with only one
nucleus nihon-buyou-kyoukai ([[A–B] C]), depending on the meaning of the
compound: ‘Japanese association of dance’ in the first case, ‘association of
Japanese dance’ in the second.
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Accent

7.3.4 Yamato Dvandva Compounds
In Yamato dvandva (coordinative) compounds, containing two equipollent
terms whose order is not fixed by syntactic factors (none of the two modifies
the other one), the first member determines the accentual pattern of the
compound. The accent of the second word is deleted, and the first member
maintains its accent in the original location, following a principle somewhat
identical to that governing the accentuation of the phonological syntagm
(see section 7.4.). If the first word is atonic, the compound will also be.
(63)
natsu
+
huyu

natsu-huyu

‘summer
and
winter’

haru
+
aki

haru-aki

‘spring
and
autumn’

momo°
+
kuri

momo-kuri°

‘peaches
and
chestnuts’

(p. 237 )

7.3.5 Compound Mimetics
Compound mimetics mostly occur under the reduplicated form of a
monomoraic or bimoraic base, possibly followed by the particles to or ni, or
the copula da (and its pre-nominal form -na). They also include echo words,
which do not consist of the reduplication of an identical base but rather of
the concatenation of two different mimetic bases.
When used in isolation or followed by the particle to, compound mimetics
bear an accent on the initial mora: kiri-kiri(-to) ‘diligently’, kon-kon(to) ‘coff
coff’, pappa(-to) ‘puff puff’, chira-hora(-to) ‘scatteringly’.
When followed by da (the copula), -na (adjectival ending), or ni (adverbial
particle), they are atonic: kan-kan ni° ‘red hot’, tsuru-tsuru° da ‘it is soft’.
When -to is preceded by /Q/, an accent is placed on the antepenultimate
mora: doki-dokit-to ‘fast beating (heart)’.

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Accent

Sino-Japanese reduplicated mimetics are generally atonic, sometimes
paroxytonic: rin-rin° / rin-rin ‘piercingly (cold)’.
Forms which are, in nature, mimetic, but are etymologically derived from the
reduplication of a non-mimetic base, are accented on the penultimate mora
when they occur with the particle to: taka-daka-to ‘high’, and are atonic
when they occur with da or ni: atsu-atsu da° ‘it is very hot’.

7.3.6 Two-character Fixed Sino-Japanese Compounds
The use of the term ‘compound’ to refer to Sino-Japanese lexemes made up
of two Chinese characters, like denwa° ## ‘telephone’, kagu ## ‘piece of
furniture’, isha° ## ‘doctor’, henji ## ‘answer’, deshi ## ‘disciple’, which
are so numerous in the Japanese lexicon, is debatable. One can argue that
such combinations are not necessarily analysed as compounds by speakers
in their everyday oral use because they are generally semantically and
referentially simple. Besides, their meaning cannot always be deduced
from the meaning of each component in a direct and transparent fashion.
Moreover, the constituents themselves are bound morphemes that are
generally not used independently. For example, the two components of
denwa° ‘telephone’, den # ‘electricity’, and wa # ‘to speak’, are never
employed in isolation.14 In fact, many compounds of this type are totally
lexicalized and are to be considered as single lexemes. However, in writing,
they contain two identifiable components, each with stable and transparent
meaning represented by one Chinese character. This is the reason why I use
the term ‘fixed compound’ to distinguish such formations from those which
are made up of two or more components with true lexical autonomy as in (p.
238 ) the examples seen above in section 7.3.1. Some scholars also call them
‘Sino-Japanese binomials’.
Fixed Sino-Japanese compounds written by means of two Chinese characters
follow specific accent rules. These rules are mainly conditioned by the
phonological length of the compound, its phonological structure, and by its
nominal or verbal character. However, many exceptions can be found. In
certain cases, semantic criteria also have a role to play. Finally, one should
note that some characters impose their own special accent pattern when
they appear in the second position of the compound. This leads to lists which
try to enumerate all the special cases. Actually, the accent of Sino-Japanese
compounds seems to be a topic rather neglected in the field of accent
research. More work is thus necessary, especially since the area appears to

Page 77 of 115

Accent

be a very promising field in terms of the wealth of the data, the theoretical
implications, as well as the historical depth.15
Sino-Japanese compounds that I call ‘non-fixed’, that is, compounds which
are made up of three or more characters, of which one is a derivational
suffix like -go # ‘language’, -jin # ‘person’, -tou # ‘party’ (as in nihon-go
° ### ‘Japanese language’, nihon-jin ### ‘Japanese person’, shakai-tou
° ### ‘socialist party’) or which represent the combination of two fixed
compounds (like kokuritsu-kouen #### ‘national’ + ‘park’ = ‘national park’,
seishin-bunseki #### ‘spirit’ + ‘analysis’ = ‘psychoanalysis’) will thus not
be dealt with here. Such compounds fall under the scope of the general
accent rules described in section 7.3.1.
A thorough analysis of the principles governing the accent of fixed SinoJapanese compounds requires, first of all, detailed morphological and
semantic analysis of the various types of Sino-Japanese compounds. Such a
study cannot be carried out here. For this reason I will confine myself to an
overview of the most general principles.
Most words of this class are either initially accented or unaccented (Nakada
and Hayashi, 1982).
Bimoraic two-character fixed compounds with a (µ)(µ) structure generally
bear an initial accent: chiri ## ‘geography’, kagu ## ‘piece of furniture’,
shuhu ## ‘housewife’. According to Kindaichi and Akinaga (2001), there
exist approximately 20% of exceptions, among which isha° ## ‘doctor’,
jama° ## ‘obstacle’, sewa ## ‘assistance’, deshi ## ‘disciple’, including a
rather high number of old loans related to Buddhism, according to Takeuchi
(1999).
Kindaichi and Akinaga (2001) states that when the compound is
trimoraic, with either a (µµ)(µ) or (µ)(µµ) morphological structure, it will be
attributed an initial accent if it is nominal in nature but will be atonic if it
is verbal: kokka ## ‘state, nation’, seishi ## ‘official history’, shigai ##
‘suburbs’, kokyou ## ‘native village’ vs. akka° ## ‘aggravation’, nyuukyo°
## ‘moving in’, seishi° ## ‘stop’, shibou° ## ‘death’. There too exceptions
can be found, like henji ## ‘answer’, chitsujo ## ‘order’, dougu ## ‘tool’.
(p. 239 )

However, the criteria for determining whether a word is nominal or verbal
remain vague. According to Ogawa (2004, 2008), the influence of the noun/
verb distinction on the accent pattern of trimoraic Sino-Japanese compounds
is only partial, and not limited to this part of the lexicon (it can also be
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Accent

observed in the Yamato and Western strata). Ogawa presents a statistical
study that demonstrates that the prosodic structure of the compound plays
the most important role in determining the accent of Sino-Japanese words.
Indeed, if one compares the accent patterns of Sino-Japanese compounds
having MmM and MMm structure16 (in syllabic terms, HL and LH structures
respectively, where H represents a bimoraic foot ending in /N/, /R/, or
the moraic vowel i, and L, a regular mora), it appears that nearly 80% of
MmM (HL) words are accented on the first mora, while 82 % of MMm (LH)
words are atonic. However, since this calculation does not include words
that contain a geminate or that have a bimoraic CVCV structure with one
component like jitsu or seki whose final u and i is etymologically epenthetic,
these results need further examination. Moreover, the morphological
structure also plays a role, since a majority (50%) of [MM][M] trimoraic SinoJapanese words tend to bear an initial accent, whereas 80% of those having
a [M][MM] structure are atonic, as shown by Ogawa (2003), cited by Tanaka
(2008:176). According to Tanaka (2008), the morphological structure is, on
the whole, less determining in kango than it is in wago for accent attribution.
The important role of the prosodic structure of fixed Sino-Japanese
compounds on accentuation probably explains why accent has practically no
distinctive function with homophonous Sino-Japanese two-character words,
according to Coyaud (1985). Only a few minimal pairs based on an accentual
difference can be found, for instance koukou ## ‘filial piety’ and koukou° #
# ‘high school’.
In the case of four-mora compounds, the same general tendency is observed
towards atonicity as that already seen in quadrimoric words of other lexical
groups.We thus have daigaku° ## ‘university’, kokusai° ## ‘international’,
tankyuu° ## ‘search’, suigai° ## ‘flood’, teikoku° ## ‘empire’, koukou° #
# ‘high school’. However, words in which the accent falls on the last mora of
the first component (with NADM left-shift of the accent when relevant) can
be found (p. 240 ) among older and/or strongly lexicalized compounds such
as kokunai ## ‘domestic’, shokubutsu ## ‘plant’, (mangetsu#) mangetsu
## ‘full moon’, (kaishaku #) kaishaku ## ‘interpretation’. Note also that
there are a few rare words with final accent like shougatsu ## ‘New Year’s
day’.
According to Kindaichi and Akinaga (2001), the occurrence of a penultimate
accent frequently results from an accent shift consecutive to the devoicing
of the initial vowel. This factor could account for many apparent exceptions
such as chihou (# chihou) ## ‘area’, or kikai (# kikai) ## ‘machine’.
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Accent

Moreover, many characters impose a specific accent pattern when they
occur in final position, whatever the size of the first component: the
characters tou # ‘party’, tai # ‘body’, jou # ‘place’, sei # ‘nature, gender’,
ren # ‘ream’, wa # ‘speech’, etc. cause the compound to be atonic (seitou°
## ‘political party’, dantai° ## ‘group’, josei° ## ‘woman’) while ou #
‘king’, suu # ‘number’, ryou # ‘fee’, and others involve the appearance of
an initial accent on the second component (kokuou ## ‘king’, sansuu ##
‘arithmetic’).
When the first character has prefixal status, such as sho # ‘various’, i #
‘more’, kaku # ‘each’, shin # ‘neo’, the compound generally receives initial
accent: shokoku ## ‘various countries’, inan ## ‘south of’, kakui ## ‘all’,
etc.

7.3.7 Compound Verbs
In the conservative variety of speech, the accent of the first member
determines the accent pattern of a compound verb made up of two
independent verbs (V1 and V2), following a rather curious principle of accent
inversion: if the first verb is atonic, the compound will be tonic with the
accent on the penultimate mora (64); if the first verb is tonic, the compound
will be atonic whatever the pattern of V2 (65).
(64) Atonic V1 # tonic V1–V2
kiru° + kazaru° #
ki-kazaru

‘to dress up’

(‘to wear’ + ‘to
decorate’)
naku° + dasu #
naki-dasu

‘to burst into
tears’

(‘to cry’ + ‘to
take out’)

(65) Tonic V1 # atonic V1–V2
taberu
+
owaru° #

tabe-owaru°

‘to
finish
eating’

(‘to
eat’

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Accent

+ ‘to
finish’)
huru
+
dasu
#

huri-dasu°

‘to
begin
to
rain’

(‘to rain’ + ‘to take out’)
(p. 241 )

However, in the innovative speech, the current trend is towards the
attribution of a tonic pattern to all compound verbs, even if V1 is tonic: huru
+ dasu # huri-dasu ‘to begin to rain’.

7.3.8 Numeral Compounds
The label ‘numeral compounds’ designates two types of compounds
comprising a numerical expression. On the one hand, we have numeral
cardinals containing at least two (linguistic) elements, for example san-juusan ‘33’, sen-ni-hyaku-hachi-juu-nana ‘1287’. On the other hand, we have
forms comprising a numeral followed by a specifier (this label also includes
measurement terms), like rok-ko ‘6 small objects’, san-juu-san-mai ‘33
sheets’, hitotsu-boshi ‘1 star’, ichi-meetoru ‘1 meter’. We will examine these
two types in turn.
The principles that govern the accentuation of this particular type of
compound are incontestably among the most complex of the Japanese
language. One outstanding characteristic of this class is that it is sometimes
the accent of the initial component that determines the accent of the
compound, contrary to the majority of other non-verbal compounds of
Standard Japanese, in particular those of the Yamato stratum, where the
prosodic characteristics which are relevant in accent assignment are those of
the final component.
The rules that apply here are thus specific to this class, and notably different
from those applying to the common run of non-numeral compound nouns.
The factors, very diverse, which condition the accentuation of numeral
compounds, are determined on phonological, lexical, or even syntactic
grounds. These factors are:
•
– the intrinsic accent of the numeral.
•
– the origin of the numeral (Yamato, Sino-Japanese, or Western).
Page 81 of 115

Accent

•
•
•

– the origin of the specifier.
– the length of the specifier.
– the syntactic status (nominal or adverbial) of the numeral
expression.

Inter- and intra-speaker variation is very frequent, even if, as a whole,
speakers generally agree with each other, even when it comes to the accent
pattern of numeral expressions which they have never heard before, as can
be noted for example with the recent diffusion of the new specifier yuuro
‘euro’.
Let us first consider the intrinsic accent of cardinal numerals when they
occur without a specifier.
(i) Cardinal numerals (with no specifier)
The series used to form cardinal numerals is that of Sino-Japanese numerals.
Let us recall however that the forms 4 yon and 7 nana, of Yamato origin, are
also frequently employed in this series.
As will be noted in the following examples, there are a number
of variants of some of the numerals. Cardinals are accented as follows in
isolation:
(66) Accent of Sino-Japanese numerals
(p. 242 )

•

– Oxytonic (with leftward accent shift conditioned by NADM
principle)
1 ichi, 2 ni, 4 shi (yon), 5 go, 6 roku, 7 shichi, 8 hachi, 9 kyuu /
ku, 10 juu, 100 hyaku, 1000 sen, 10000 man (only in innovating
varieties for 5 go and 9 ku)
– Atonic:
3 san°, 5 go°, 9 ku° (only in conservative varieties for 5 go° and 9
ku°)

One may consider that with the exception of san° ‘3’, all the Sino-Japanese
numerals are finally accented underlyingly in the innovative variety.
Among the numerals of Western origin, only 0 zero is commonly employed in
compounding.
In compound cardinal numerals, either the original accent of the rightmost
element is maintained even when it is final (67), in a manner which is
somewhat reminiscent of what occurs in the accentuation of the major
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Accent

phonological phrase (see section 7.4) or, in compounds of the series 20, 30,
40, 70, 90, and 300, 400, 700, 900 (examples 68), an accent is attributed
to the leftmost numeral even when that numeral is unaccented in isolation,
so for instance san° becomes san in san-juu ‘30’. This rule does not apply
solely to round figures, since 51, or 888, for instance, are also accented on
their rightmost element. However, in cases of leftmost accent preservation
or attribution, it seems that long numbers are treated as two or even more
than two prosodic words by some speakers, and may thus contain more than
one accent kernel, as some of the examples in (68) illustrate.
(67) Rightmost accent preservation

Page 83 of 115

13:

ju
u
+
san
°

juusan
(also
juu-san)

16:

ju
u
+
roku

juuroku

51:

go
°
+
juu
+
ichi

gojuuichi

251:

ni
+
hyaku
+
go
°
+
juu
+
ichi

nihyakugojuuichi

800:

hachi
+
hyaku

happyaku

Accent

888:

hachi
+
hyaku
+
hachi
+
juu
+
hachi

happyakuhachijuuhachi

(68) Leftmost accent preservation or attribution

Page 84 of 115

20:

ni
+
juu

ni
juu

31:

san
°
+
juu
+
ichi

sanjuuichi
(also
sanjuuichi)

75:

na
na
+
juu
+
go
°

nanajuugo
(also
nanajuu-go)

300:

san
°
+
hyaku

sa
nbyaku

311:

san
°
+
hyaku
+
juu

sanbyakujuuichi
or
sanbyakuAccent

+
ichi

juuichi
(the
latter
seems
more
common)

426:

yo
n
+
hyaku
+
ni
+
juu
+
roku

yonhyakunijuuroku
or
yonhyaku-nijuuroku
(the
latter
seems
more
common)

700:

na
na
+
hyaku

nanahyaku

(p. 243 )

(ii) Numeral compounds containing a specifier
Let us now proceed to the examination of numeral compounds containing
a simplex numeral expression followed by a specifier. We will only look at
the forms from 1 to 10, and at compounds with a nominal syntactic status,
keeping in mind that in adverbial use they sometimes present an atonic
pattern. For example, ringo° mittsu wo katta° (‘bought three apples’), where
mittsu ‘three’, followed by the object particle wo, is tonic, and is distinct from
ringo° wo mittsu° katta°, where mittsu, which modifies the verb, is atonic.

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Accent

Note also that when the numeral meaning of a compound is weakened, the
regular compound nouns accent rules tend to apply, for example we have
hutago° ‘twins’ (literally ‘two children’) rather than *hutago or *hutago.
•
– Yamato numerals
The intrinsic accent of simple Yamato numerals likely to appear in
compounding (according to Kindaichi and Akinaga, 2001) is as follows. Note
that these forms are never used in isolation, except yon ‘4’ and nana ‘7’.
(69) Accent of short Yamato numerals
•
•

– Final accent:
1 hito, 2 huta, 3 mi, 4 yo, 6 mu, 8 ya, 10 to
– Penultimate accent:
4 yon, 5 itsu, 7 nana, 9 kokono

If the two components are of Yamato origin, and the specifier is one or two
mora long, it is in theory the last mora of the numeral that will carry the
accent: hito-ri ‘one person’, huta-hako ‘two boxes’, hitotsu-boshi ‘a star’,
mittsu-boshi ‘three stars’, nana-tsubu ‘seven grains’, kokono-e ‘nine layers’,
etc. The names of the days of the month ending in -ka are all atonic, thus
irregular: hutsu-ka° ‘the 2nd of the month’, mik-ka° ‘the 3rd’, yok-ka° ‘the
4th’, itsu-ka° ‘the 5th’, etc. but nano-ka ‘the 7th’ and kokono-ka ‘the 9th’
may also receive a final accent.
Some compounds starting with huta- ‘2’ are sometimes exceptional in the
conservative varieties in so far as they receive a final accent, whatever the
size of the specifier: huta-ri ‘two persons’, huta-michi (also huta-michi°) ‘two
ways’, and so on.
Forms with the generic specifier -tsu are strongly irregular. They are
accented sometimes on the second mora from the beginning, sometimes on
the final mora (70).
(70) Yamato numerals in -tsu (‘x things’)
(p. 244 )

•
•

– Accent on the second mora:
1 hitotsu, 5 itsutsu, 7 nanatsu, 9 kokonotsu
– Accent on the final mora:
2 hutatsu, 3 mittsu, 4 yottsu, 6 muttsu, 8 yattsu

It is interesting to observe that the accentual behaviour of words such as iro
‘colour’, taba ‘bundle’, tsubu ‘grain’, or hako° ‘box’ employed as specifiers
is completely different from that which they adopt as elements entering
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Accent

into the formation of endocentric compound nouns. Thus, as we saw in
section 7.3.1 (examples 32), within a non-numeral compound iro causes
the compound to de-accentuate (mizu-iro° ‘colour of water, light blue’)
whereas in numeral compounds, it is pre-accenting, and the accent is placed
on the numeral (hito-iro,huta-iro, mi-iro,nana-iro, etc.). The same applies
to taba ‘bundle’ and tsubu ‘grain’ whose initial lexical accent is generally
preserved in a non-numeral compound (satsu-taba ‘bundle of banknotes’,
meshi-tsubu ‘grain of rice’) in the manner of the examples seen above in
(31), whereas in a numeral compound, it is the initial constituent that is
accented (hito-taba,huta-taba, etc. and hito-tsubu, huta-tsubu, mi-tsubu /
san-tsubu). Lastly, hako° ‘box’, which is unaccented in its lexical form almost
always yields de-accentuation of non-numeral compounds, but in numeral
compounds, it is pre-accenting (hito-hako, huta-hako, etc.).
The rules which have just been seen also apply when the specifier is a oneor two-mora-long word of Sino-Japanese origin written using one character,
such as maku ‘act (in theatre)’ (hito-maku,huta-maku/huta-maku, mimaku/san-maku…).
When the Yamato specifier is longer than two moras, such as
hashira°/hashira (a specifier for gods, lit, ‘pillar’), or toori/toori ‘manner’,
another rule applies. The general tendency is then to place the accent on the
second mora of the compound, whatever the length of the numeral element.
One thus finds an accent either on the last mora of the initial component (the
numeral), or on the first mora of the final component (the specifier): hitohashira,huta-hashira / huta-hashira, mi-hashira, yo-hashira, itsu-hashira,
etc. Kasane° ‘layer’, which is atonic in isolation but receives initial accent
on ka in numeral compounding (hito-kasane ‘1 layer’), is an exception. This
type of accent assignment, starting from the beginning of the word, is rather
unexpected in Tôkyô Japanese, where the accent is in theory attributed from
the end of the word.
In short, the general conclusion is that, when the numeral is Yamato,
the accent does not depend on the intrinsic accent of the specifier except in
rare cases. Moreover, atonic numeral compounds are almost non-existent. It
should be noted that this is fundamentally different from what is observed in
cases of non-numeral compound words with a [modifier–head] structure, as
previously presented in section 7.3.1, whose accent depends mainly on the
final component, and among which atonic compounds are legion.
•
– Sino-Japanese numerals
(p. 245 )

Page 87 of 115

Accent

We have seen above that in isolation Sino-Japanese numerals had the
following accent pattern: 1 ichi, 2 ni, 3 san°, 4 shi, 5 go/go°, 6 roku, 7
shichi, 8 hachi, 9 kyuu/ku/ku°, 10 juu. Recall that 4 yon and 7 nana,
although of Yamato origin, have slipped into the so-called Sino-Japanese
series, so that one frequently encounters them in place of 4 shi and 7
shichi. It is actually not uncommon for the numeral and the specifier to be
heterogeneous from the point of view of the lexical stratum.
If the specifier is Yamato and one or two mora long, the tendency is that the
numeral receives an accent (ichi-kumi, ni-kumi, san-kumi ‘1, 2, 3 groups’,
ichi-wari, ni-wari, san-wari ‘1, 2, 3 tenth’), except with -gata ‘pattern’, which
always yields an atonic compound (ichi-gata°,ni-gata°, etc.).
If the specifier is Yamato and longer than two moras, the long compound
accent rule applies. An accent is placed on the initial mora of the final
component. The word shiai° ‘match’, atonic in its isolated form, thus
produces is-shiai,ni-shiai, san-shiai, yon-shiai…‘1, 2, 3, 4 matches’.
Finally, in cases where both the numeral and the specifier are of SinoJapanese origin, the accent patterns are various and largely dependent on
the specifier, but with many complications or exceptions, of which Table
7.6 gives an overview. One should not, however, be surprised to encounter,
in actual usage, an important variation on this type of data, even within
Tôkyô Japanese. One will find in the appendix of NHK (1998) a more or less
complete list of specifier accents, but the diversity of the actual uses is not
always reflected.
All the accent possibilities are represented in Table 7.6: accent on the
numeral (with the specifiers ji #, dai #); accent on any of the moras of the
specifier (satsu #, gatsu #); atonic forms (kai #). The compounds with 3, 4,
5, and 9 sometimes behave differently from the other members in the same
paradigm of their series. Some remain atonic when the rest of the series
is tonic (ban #, nen #). It is rare for a paradigm to be completely regular,
even if the usage of the younger generations presents a tendency towards
paradigmatic regularization within the series.
(p. 246 )

Table 7.6. Accent of compounds made up of a numeral + Sino-Japanese
specifier.

Page 88 of 115

Accent

#
#
#
#
#
#
#
‘hour’ ‘book’ ‘machine’
‘time’ ‘floor’ ‘month’‘year’

#
#
#
‘ordinal‘time’ ‘degree’

ichi-ji
ik-ko

isichiik-kai
satsu dai ipip-piki pon

ichiban

ichi-do ichido

ni -ji
ni-ko

ni ni -dai ni-kai ni-kai° ninisatsu ni-hon
gatsu nen
ni-hiki
/ nigatsu

niban

ni-do

ni -do

sa n- sa nji san- satsu
ko
sanbiki

sa ndai
sanbon

sannen°

sanban°

sa ndo

yo -ji
yonko

yo n- yo n- yondai /
kai /
kai°
yo-dai yon-kai
° yonhon

shiyogatsu / nen°
shigatsu

yo nban /
yoban°

yo n- yo ndo /
do
yo-do

go -ji go go-ko satsu
gohiki

goban°

go-do go do

roku-ji roku- rokurok-ko satsu / dai
roku- ropsatsu pon /
roprokupiki / hon
rokuhiki

rokuban

roku-dorokudo

shichiji
nanako

#
#
# ‘long
‘object’‘animal’object’

Page 89 of 115

yo nsatsu
yonhiki

nanasatsu
nanahiki

ik-kai° ichiichigatsu nen

san-kai sankai° /
sangai°

sa ngatsu

go-dai go-kai go-kai go ° go°
gatsu
hon
° / gohon
rok-kai rokkai°

nana- nana- nanadai
kai /
kai°
nana- nana-kai
hon

gonen°

roku- rokugatsu nen

n°’

shichi- shichi- nanagatsu nen / ban
nananen

nanado /
shichido

Accent

hachiji
hachiko /
hakko

ku -ji kyu
kyuu- uko
satsu
kyuuhiki

kyu
kyu
u-dai / u-kai
kudai°
kyuuhon

ju uji jukko /
jik-ko

ju udai
juppon /
jippon

(p. 247 )

•
•
•

•
•

hassatsu
happiki /
hachihiki

jussatsu
/ jissatsu
juppiki
/ jippiki

hachi- hachi-kai
hachi/
hachi- hachi- hachi- hachi- hachidai
hak-kai kai° / gatsu nen
ban
do
do
haphakpon /
kai°
hachihon
kyuukai°

ku gatsu

kyu
kyu
kyu
u-nen u-ban u-do

juk-kai /juk-kai juuju ujik-kai ° / jik- gatsu nen
kai°

ju uban

ju udo

kyu
u-do /
ku-do

ju udo

The examples in Table 7.6 illustrate fairly general types.
– the specifiers # -ku (‘ward’), # -hun (‘minute’), # -bu (‘part’), #
-sai (‘year old’), # -gou (‘number’), # -byou (‘second’) behave like
# -ji (‘hour’) and # -ko (‘small object’) in the first column.
– # -soku (‘pair of footwear’), and # -hatsu (‘shot, round’) behave
like # -satsu (‘book’) and # -hiki (‘small animal’) in the second
column.
– # -dai (‘-th’, ‘generation’), # -chou (‘sheet’, ‘block’), # -chou
(‘city’), # -hai (‘glass’), # -mai (‘leaf, sheet’), # -mei (‘person’)
behave like # -dai (‘machine’) and # -hon (‘long object’) in the third
column.
– # -kan (‘volume’), # -sen (‘a sen (penny)’), # -tsuu (‘letter’), #
-ten (‘point’) behave like # -kai (‘time’) in the fourth column.
– # -kyuu (‘level’), # -shuu (‘week’), # -ren (‘series’), # -tou
(‘class’), # -bai (‘time’) behave like # -kai (‘floor’) in the fifth
column.

Lastly, one should not forget that a number of specifiers are of Western
origin, for example kiro ‘kilogram’ or ‘kilometre’, paasento ‘per cent’,
burokku ‘block’, shiishii ‘CC’, diikee ‘DK’ {dining kitchen} (a specifier for
Page 90 of 115

Accent

the type and room number of flats or houses), ton ‘ton’. They combine in
theory with a Sino-Japanese numeral. The accent principles which apply
are the same as those of extra-long compounds, as presented in section
7.3.1: the accent is maintained in the specifier on the mora which carries the
inherent accent (thus kiroguramu keeps its accent on gu: ichi-kiroguramu,
ni-kiroguramu; paasento has an accent on se: ichi-paasento,ni-paasento),
except for the specifiers kiro and ton, which have the common properties
of being short and old loans. Numeral compounds containing these two
elements are accented on the numeral: ichi-kiro, ni-kiro, san-kiro, yon-kiro,
etc; and it-ton, ni-ton, san-ton, yon-ton, etc.
Only a very short outline of the complexity of the accent patterns
encountered in numeral compounds has been provided. The principles that
govern the accent of this particular type of compound word are basically
different from those that apply elsewhere in the language, in particular in
[modifier–head] compounds, except when the specifier is long and/or of
Western origin. It is interesting to note that the prosodic prevalence of the
initial component, as observed on several occasions in numeral compounds,
is also found in dvandva formations (shiro-kuro ‘black and white’, see section
7.3.4) or in mimetic compounds (teki-paki ‘brisk’), which, just like numeral
compounds (7.3.5), have a common property of not being endocentric.
To sum up, the basic generalization that can be drawn from the above can be
summarized as follows:
•
– when the numeral is Yamato, with the specifier being Yamato,
Sino-Japanese, or Western, the numeral determines the
accentuation pattern, except when the (p. 248 ) specifier is a long
Yamato lexeme, in which case the accent is generally assigned
from the beginning of the word and falls on the second mora.
•
– when the numeral is Sino-Japanese, the accent pattern is
determined by the specifier, be it Yamato, Sino-Japanese, or
Western, except when the specifier is a short Yamato lexeme.
•
– numeral compounds are de-accented when employed as
adverbials.

7.4 The Accentuation of Phonological Phrases
Up to this point, we have mainly considered the accent at the level of the
prosodic word, consisting in a simplex or compound lexeme to which suffixes
may be attached. We will now examine what occurs when prosodic words are

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Accent

integrated into units of a higher level. As we shall see, the principles which
apply are notably different from those in compounds.
The prosodic hierarchy of Japanese was introduced in Chapter 6. Recall that
at the upper levels, it contains the following layers:

The minor phonological phrase (or accentual phrase) can contain one or
several prosodic words, generally not more than two. It has at most one pitch
accent, and its periphery is marked with an H tone at the beginning and a L
% tone at the end (Pierrehumbert and Beckman, 1988:16; see also section
7.1.5).
The major phonological phrase (or intermediate phrase in Pierrehumbert
and Beckman’s terminology) is the domain of post-accent downstep and
catathesis. The presence of an accent triggers catathesis, which lowers
everything to the right of the H accent. An intermediate phrase boundary
blocks the effect of catathesis (Pierrehumbert and Beckman, 1988:90).
The general principle is that the major phrase, like the prosodic word,
contains at most one HL pitch fall. This HL sequence corresponds to the
projection of an accent at the prosodic word level.
If the prosodic words constituting the minor phrase (or accentual phrase)
contain more than one inherent lexical accent, the principle is as follows: the
accent located at the left of the syntagm is preserved and all subsequent
accents are removed. If there is no accent, the whole group remains atonic.
The general (p. 249 ) accentuation principles that have been introduced
earlier then apply, namely, the principle of adjacency and that of initial
dissimilation. The difference between the accentuation of accentual phrases
and that of compound words is that in the latter it is generally the accent
pattern of the last element that determines the accent of the new form
(except in dvandva compounds, mimetic compounds, and in some numeral
compounds), whereas in the former prevalence is given to the initial accent
of the group.

Page 92 of 115

Accent

In each of the following examples, two simplex lexemes (possibly followed by
suffixes), form a minor phrase. We only consider here the sequences of L and
H corresponding to the mapping of accent patterns in the strict sense, not
the surface intonational structure. Below are the four possible combinations
of two lexemes in a phrase: tonic + tonic, atonic + tonic, tonic + atonic, and
atonic + atonic.
(71) Two lexemes domain (minor or accentual phrase)
a. tonic + tonic
utsukushii + hana-ga #

utsukushii hana-ga

LHHHL + LH-L #

LHHHL LL-L

‘beautiful’ + ‘flower –
Subject’ #

‘beautiful flower –
Subject’

b. tonic + atonic

utsukushii +
sakura°-ga

utsukushii
sakura-ga

LHHHL +
LHH-H

LHHHL LLL-L

‘beautiful’ +
‘cherry tree –
Subject’

‘beautiful
cherry tree –
Subject’

sakura°-ga +
utsukushii

sakura-ga
utsukushii

LHH-H +
LHHHL

LH-H HHHHL

‘cherry tree
– Subject’ +
‘beautiful’

‘the cherry
tree is
beautiful’

sakura°-ga +
saku°

sakura-ga
saku°

LHH-H + LH

LHH-H HH

‘cherry –
Subject’ +
‘bloom’

‘the cherry
tree blooms’

c. atonic + tonic

d. atonic + atonic

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Accent

In (71a), the word hana on the right loses its accent; only the accent of
utsukushii is maintained as the accent nucleus of the phrase. In (71b)
and (71c), there is each time only one tonic lexeme, utsukushii, whose
accent becomes the accentual peak of the phrase. In the fourth example
(71d), there is no tonic lexeme, and the whole phrase remains atonic. These
principles apply in a similar way to groups containing more than one minor
phrase:
(p. 250 ) (72) Major phrase (intermediate phrase)
1.

2.
3.
4.

‘garden – Locative’ + ‘bloom’ + ‘flower – Subject’ + ‘beautiful’
‘the flower blooming in the garden is beautiful’

5.
6.
7.

‘garden – Locative’ + ‘bloom’ + ‘cherry tree – Subject’ + ‘beautiful’
‘the cherry tree blooming in the garden is beautiful’

8. ‘garden – Locative’ + ‘beautiful’ + ‘flower – Subject’ + ‘bloom’
9. ‘a beautiful flower blooms in the garden’
10.

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Accent

11. ‘spring – Det’ + ‘flower – Subject’ + ‘beautiful’
12. ‘spring flowers are beautiful’
Focus displacements may involve accent patterns different from those
presented here,17 but we will not go into the details of what actually relates
to (p. 251 ) another issue, that of intonation, which will not be treated in
this book. Interested readers can refer to the studies by McCawley (1968),
Higurashi (1983), Poser (1984), Kubozono (1987, 1989), Pierrehumbert
and Beckman (1988), Koori (1997, 2003), and to Venditti et al. (2008) for a
recent synthesis.
It will be noted, finally, that in the preceding examples (71a, b, and c), the
initial LH melody is present only at the beginning of the utterance, and
not at the beginning of each lexeme. The prosodic words saku°, hana-ga,
sakura-ga°, and utsukushii do not start with a L tone, because they do not
appear in initial position of the phrase. On the other hand, niwa°, the first
element of the phonological phrase, has a LH melody (but not haru-no in
(71d) since this word is initially accented). This type of data is confirmation
of the analysis by Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988) presented in section
7.1.5, which postulates that an initial L tone is a boundary tone attributed at
the level of the utterance.

7.5 Dialectal And Sociological Variation In Accent
Accent appears as a key phenomenon for the understanding of both dialect
relations and historical linguistics, including the reconstruction of the ProtoJapanese language.
The disparities between the Japanese dialects are huge, to the point
that mutual comprehension is not always possible. The prosodic system
constitutes one of the loci of variation, as well as the segmental units, the
lexicon, and the syntax.
From the point of view of word prosody, Japanese dialects are traditionally
classified into several basic types (see Map 2), generally from three to five:
the accentless type (mu akusento ######), the one-pattern type (ikkei
akusento #######), the Kagoshima type (sometimes called ‘special type’
tokushu-shiki akusento ########), the Tôkyô type (tôkyô-shiki akusento
########), and the Kyôto-Ôsaka type (keihan-shiki akusento #######
#).

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Accent

The accentless and one-pattern types are sometimes confused. This
is because they are both characterized by the fact that a constant,
recognizable prosody is assigned to phrases. However, whereas this
melody fulfils a demarcative function in the one-pattern accentual type—for
example any word is invariably accentuated on the last mora in Miyako-no-jô
(Miyazaki prefecture) or on the initial mora (p. 252 )

Map 2. Geographical distribution of accent types
in Ôzu (Ehime prefecture) according to Akinaga (1986)—it does not do so in
the case of the accentless type. Moreover, native speakers of the latter type
are said to be incapable of perceiving it. The accentless type extends over a
vast area north of Tôkyô, from the Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures as far as
Sendai, as well as into certain parts of the Kumamoto prefecture in Kyûshû.
The Kagoshima type is widespread in Western Kyûshû. It operates a
distinction between two types of words, tonic and atonic. The location of
the accent is fixed in tonic words and thus always predictable. For instance,
it invariably falls on the penultimate mora in the dialect of the city of
Kagoshima.
The Tôkyô type is the type that has been described throughout this
chapter: it is a system in which the prosodic pattern of a word is determined
by the presence or absence of an accent and by its location within the word.
(p. 253 )

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Accent

The Kyôto-Ôsaka type is characterized by the fact that, in addition to one
accent nucleus that may be located on any of the moras of the word, each
lexeme carries a register (a tonal melody) that determines the tonal pattern
of the moras occurring before the accent nucleus. Thus, in the Kyôto variety,
the principle of initial dissimilation does not exist. Two-mora nouns are
accented or unaccented, and there exist two registers: a high register (noted
H), and a low register—or rising register according to certain scholars—
(noted L), which affects the beginning of the word. In this system, there is a
three-way contrast for one-mora words18 (73), a four-way contrast for twomora words (74), a six-way contrast for three-mora words (75), a seven-way
contrast for four-mora words, and a nine-way contrast for five-mora words.
Moreover, in this dialect family, deficient moras except /Q/ have the ability to
constitute accent nuclei.19 Most of the data concerning the Kyôto dialect has
been taken from Nakai (2002). All the nouns cited below are followed by the
subject-marking enclitic particle ga.
(73) Accent patterns in the Kyôto dialect (Kyôto-Ôsaka type):
underlyingly monomoraic nouns
a. Words with high register
Hkaa-

HH-H

/ka/

‘mosquito’

hi iga

HL-L

/hi/

‘day’

LL-H
(or LHH in
certain
areas)

/me/

‘eye’

ga°
H

b. Words with low register
Lmee-

ga°

(74) Accent patterns in the Kyôto dialect: bimoraic nouns
a. Words with high register
HH-H

‘nose’

HL-L

‘summer’

Lhashi-ga°

LL-H

‘chopstick’

Lame-ga

LH-L

‘rain’

Hhana-ga°
H

na tsu-ga

(p. 254 )

b. Words with low register

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Accent

(75) Accent patterns in the Kyôto dialect (Kyôto-Ôsaka type):
trimoraic nouns
a. Words with high register
HHH-H

‘cherry tree’

a tama-ga

HLL-L

‘head’

Hniwashi-ga

HHL-L

‘gardener’

Lusagi-ga°

LLL-H

‘rabbit’

Lkabuto-ga

LHL-L

‘helmet’

Ldeppa-ga

LLH-L

‘buckteeth’

Hsakura-ga°
H

b. Words with low register

In two- and three-mora low-register nouns with final accent (Lame, Ldeppa),
the final mora is articulated with a falling melody when no particle follows.
When uttered in isolation with no enclitic attached to it, thus ame for
instance is generally realized with a falling pitch on the second mora in the
Kyôto dialect. Some speakers maintain this falling pitch even when a particle
follows, while most others replace it by a high pitch, and put a low pitch on
the particle.
It is to be noted that high-register words never have an accent on the final
mora, and that low-register words never have an accent on the initial mora.
Another major difference between Tôkyô and Kyôto-Ôsaka lies in the fact
that it is generally the second noun that determines the accent pattern of
a compound in Tôkyô, whereas it is the first noun that does this in KyôtoÔsaka.
In view of the various dictionaries written and studies carried out by
Japanese dialectologists, one should acknowledge that the criteria for
determining whether a dialect belongs to such or such group are not always
explicit. Other more rigorous and explicit accent classifications have been
proposed, in particular that of Uwano (1999). Uwano (1999) proposes that
the Japanese accent systems are first divided into two groups, accented and
accentless. The former is then subdivided into multi-pattern accents (the
number of accentual distinctions increases in proportion to the length of
the lexeme) and N-pattern accents (N oppositions exist, independent of the
length of the lexeme), as follows:
(p. 255 ) (76) Classification of Japanese accent systems
according to Uwano (1999)
Page 98 of 115

Accent

Accented

Multipattern
accent

With
registers

Without
registers

Three
registers

Ibuki

Two
registers

Kyôto

SyntagmaShizukuishi
dependent20 (Iwate)
SyntagmaTôkyô
independent

Npattern
accent

Accentless

Threepattern

Oki
(Shimane)

Twopattern

Kagoshima

Onepattern

Miyakonojô
Sendai,
Kumamoto

Two striking—and apparently contradictory—facts characterize crossdialectal accent variation. First, it is the extreme diversity of the systems
in use, going from accentless dialects (Sendai, Kumamoto) to dialects with
several tonal melodies, which look rather more tonal than accentual, and
are somewhat reminiscent of some Bantu languages (we shall return to this
issue in section 7.6). Second, the systematic nature of the correspondences
that exist among the various dialects, in spite of the surface differences,
are remarkable: a given word class with the same accent pattern in one
dialect will generally correspond to one common other pattern in some other
dialect in a consistent manner. Thus, for instance, LH two-mora words of
the Tôkyô dialect such as hashi ‘bridge’, hana ‘flower’, or yama ‘mountain’
regularly correspond to initially accented lexemes in the Kyôto dialect
(hashi, hana, yama). The general regularity in the correspondences between
dialects can be taken as evidence that the accent (p. 256 ) systems of
present-day Japanese dialects represent different evolutions from a single,
common original system of which they are the descendants (Hattori, 1951;
Kindaichi, 1974, 1977). The prevailing view in Japan is that the Kyôto type
has remained the most faithful to the proto-system, but it is sometimes
assumed that Tôkyô-type dialects have better preserved the original system
(Tokugawa, 1972 cited by Shibatani, 1990:213, Ramsey, 1979. There is also
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Accent

a cautious proposal by Hattori Shirô according to Ramsey, 1982). Yamaguchi
Yukihiro (1998) even assumes that accentless dialects reflect the most
ancient stage of the language (see also the next section).
Following the proposal by Kindaichi Haruhiko (1974), based on philological
evidence and modern cross-dialectal accent correspondences, monomoraic
nouns of Proto-Japanese can be divided into three accent classes, bimoraic
nouns into five classes, and trimoraic nouns into six (or seven) classes. Table
7.7 presents some of the modern correspondences between the dialects of
Tôkyô, Kyôto, Ibuki-jima, Ôita, Kagoshima, and Miyako-no-jô for each of the
five bimoraic noun classes.
In the present-day Tôkyô dialect, classes 2 and 3, as well as classes 4
and 5 have merged and now display the same accent pattern. Class 1 is
distinguished from classes 2 and 3, on one hand, and from classes 4 and 5,
on the other hand; there are thus, in Tôkyô, three accent possibilities for twomora nouns. In Kyôto and Ôsaka, classes 2 and 3 have merged, but 1, 4, and
5 remain distinct, hence the four accent patterns nowadays in this dialect.
In the Shikoku Island, which belongs to the Kyôto-Ôsaka type, classes 1, 4,
and 5 each form a distinct type, while 2 and 3 are confused; the number of
accent constrasts thus amounts to four (this type is not represented in Table
7.7). In Ôita, a Tôkyô-type dialect spoken in Kyûshû, classes 1 and 2 have
merged, as well as classes 4 and 5, yielding three distinct accent patterns,
partially different from those that exist in Tôkyô. In
Table 7.7. Cross-dialectal accent correspondences for bimoraic nouns for the
five Kindaichi word classes
Classes

Tôkyô

Kyôto

Ibukijima

Ôita

Kagoshima

Miyakono-jô

HH-H

LH-L

LL-H

HH-L

LH-L

LL-H

HL-L

hana-ga
‘nose’

LH-H

HH-H

natsu-ga LH-L
‘summer’

HL-L

inu-ga
‘dog’

hashi-ga HL-L
‘chopstick’

LL-H

LH-H

ame-ga
‘rain’

LH-L

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Accent

Kagoshima (Kagoshima-type), only two patterns are attested:
accented with an accent kernel on the final syllable, and unaccented. Finally,
in certain dialects, for example that of Sendai in the Miyagi prefecture or in
Miyako-no-jô, Miyazaki prefecture, the difference between the five classes
has been completely neutralized. We therefore find an accentless dialect in
Sendai (not represented in Table 7.7), and a one-pattern dialect in Miyakono-jô.
(p. 257 )

For a long time, accentologists have believed that no modern dialect had
maintained a five-way accent opposition for two-mora nouns, similar to the
one reconstructed for Archaic Japanese, until the discovery by Wada Minoru,
in the 1960s, of the Ibuki-jima dialect, spoken on a small island of the Inland
Sea (Kagawa prefecture), in which the five classes were still preserved in a
distinct way. It is the most complex word-prosodic system among modern
dialects.
The preceding lines offer the merest hint of the richness and complexity of
cross-dialectal comparison and of their relevance for Japanese linguistics
as a whole, as well as for general linguistics. However, even if, as pointed
out by Matsumori (2003), a colossal amount of descriptive work has been
accomplished from the 1930s on in the field of accentual dialectology, much
remains to be done. Indeed, scholars have been mainly concerned with the
collection of data from a comparative point of view, with a special emphasis
on short, morphologically simple Yamato words. However, there is much
more to be uncovered concerning the accent of longer words, of compounds,
of inflected forms, or pertaining to the lexical classes of Sino-Japanese or
Western loans in the various modern dialects.
Within the same dialectal community, accent variation is not rare, as
some of the examples given throughout this book illustrate. A number of
words display two or even three different accent patterns which may vary
according to the socio-cultural profile of the speaker. Accent dictionaries
often provide contradictory information about this sort of linguistic variation,
and the actual observation of the empirical facts sometimes also seems in
opposition with current descriptions. Age seems to be one of the determining
factors for such diversity within a single dialect, as the examples below show.
One characteristic of younger people’s speech that is commonly mentioned
(and sometimes deplored) in the literature is the spreading of the atonic
pattern in most frequently used words, or in words a speaker feels familiarity
with, as discussed in 7.1.2.
(77) Examples of accent variation
Page 101 of 115

Accent

standard
variety

innovating
varieties

kareshi

kareshi
°

‘boyfriend’

kuma

kuma,
kuma°

‘bear’

odoroki,
odoroki

odoroki
°

‘astonishment’

oi°, oi

oi, oi°

‘old
age’

(p. 258 )

According to Akinaga (2008), initial-accented and final-accented patterns
are declining in contemporary Japanese; for instance the words akatonbou
‘dragon fly’ and katana ‘blade’ now tend to be realized as akatonbou and
katana. Uwano (2003) states that two- and three-mora finally accented
words tend to become atonic or initially accented: µµ, µµµ change to µµ°,
µµµ°, or µµ, µµµ. Similarly, middle-accented trimoraic words turn into atonic
or initial accented: µµµ -# µµµ° or µµµ.
In addition, it is necessary to point out the role of vowel devoicing, which,
as mentioned previously, is likely to cause accent shifts within a word
(even if this tendency is not as strong as it used to be in the contemporary
language). For this reason, voiceless vowels constitute a major cause of
intra- and inter-speaker accent variation.

7.6 Tone Or Accent? the Japanese Word-prosodic System
From the Typological Point of View
Throughout this book, the term ‘accent’ has been used to refer to the wordprosodic system of Japanese, thereby following the practice of most modern
Japanese linguists. However, it is time to reflect more thoroughly upon the
essential nature of the so-called Japanese ‘accent’ from the typological point
of view.
Traditionally, canonical types of ‘accent’ or ‘stress’ languages such as
Spanish, English, or Russian are generally opposed to ‘tone’ languages
like Chinese or Yoruba. Some researchers consider that, typologically, two
subsets of accent languages exist, in opposition to tone languages: stress
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Accent

accent languages with an intensity accent (like English) and pitch accent
languages with a musical accent (or restricted tone languages). Following
this point of view, Tôkyô Japanese is regarded as a prototypical example
of a pitch accent language, of which it is undoubtedly the best and most
extensively described type.
The very use of the term ‘accent’ to qualify the word-prosodic system of
(Tôkyô) Japanese suggests that Japanese might be typologically closer to the
accentual type than to the tonal type. Here, it is essential to note that the
fact that Japanese linguists use the term ‘accent’ (akusento) undoubtedly
introduces a bias in the discussion (on the use of the term ‘accent’ by
Japanese philologists of the Meiji Period, see the discussion in the following
section). However, if one abstracts away from the common terminology and
starts reflecting upon the very nature of the Tôkyô Japanese word-prosodic
system, taking into consideration the intricate picture formed by such a
constellation and variety of other dialects that (p. 259 ) often differ only
slightly and in a parametric-like manner from their neighbouring dialects,
the issue is far more complicated. So the first question is: typologically
speaking, should not some Japanese dialects be classified as tonal rather
than as acccentual? Another, more difficult question is: what are the criteria
that will allow us to determine whether a given dialect is tonal whereas a
neighbouring one is accentual within the Japanese linguistic area?
If, like Odden (1999), who, on this point, reflects a rather traditional position,
one considers that there exists, on the one hand, languages with distinctive
intensity stress like English or Russian, and, on the other hand, languages
with tones like Chinese, a language such as Tôkyô Japanese, usually
described as a pitch-accent language, poses a major problem in so far as
its prosodic characteristics hold, some for stress, others for tone. Thus, like
stress, the so-called accent of Tôkyô Japanese is privative in nature (a mora
is accented or not); it is culminative (there is at most one pitch drop per
word); it fulfils a demarcative function; its domain is the word, rather than a
lower prosodic unit such as the mora or the syllable, unlike tone; its position
may be predictable under certain conditions; it is attributed from one of the
margins of the word (see, inter alia, the rule of antepenultimate accent in
foreign loans).
In contrast, just like tone, the so-called Japanese accent first manifests itself
through variation in the fundamental frequency; it can spread from one mora
to another mora: in fact, it can be considered to spread across all the moras
preceding the HL mark (‘accent’ nucleus) but the first one of a given word;
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Accent

one may consider that there exist latent marks, for example the fact that
an atonic word and a word with a tonic final can only be distinguished when
an enclitic particle is attached to them; the so-called accent does not affect
the quality of the vowels, whereas stress is known to sometimes modify
the length and quality of the accented vowels, as in English or Russian; a
full word may not possess any ‘accent’ (i.e. a HL shift), something that is
inconceivable in a prototypical stress-accent language where any lexical
polysyllabic word inevitably has an inherent accent; one also encounters
in Japanese mechanisms of prosodic polarity (or inversion) typical of tone
languages, i.e. a lexeme is assigned a tonal pattern opposite its original
pattern (Maddieson, 1978), becoming atonic if it is tonic, and tonic if it is
atonic (see for example the accent of compound verbs, presented in section
7.3.7).
The categorization of a given Japanese dialect as tonal or accentual thus
depends on the importance which one chooses to attach to each criterion.
For several decades, Japanese linguists, taking into account the fact that
there exists at most one mora that is relevant to determine the prosodic
pattern of a lexical word in Standard Japanese, have unanimously been in
favour of the accent analysis.
However, as Odden (1999) points out, the culminative criterion
is not inevitably determining. In the Bantu family, there exist languages
which are classified as tone languages but whose lexemes can have at
most a single high tone. In reality, it should be acknowledged that it is
precisely for these types of languages that accent analyses are sometimes
called upon; see the discussion in Creissels (1994) or Yip (2002:260) who
assumes that ‘“accentual” is a convenient descriptive term for a particular
type of language in which tone is used in a rather limited way, with one
(or perhaps two) tone melodies […]. Such languages occupy a transitional
ground between pure stress languages and pure tone languages’. It is thus
all a matter of definition. If one adheres to the views of Hyman (2001), who
considers that a tone language is a language in which an indication of pitch
enters the lexical realization of at least certain morphemes of the language,
then, Tôkyô (and Kyôto) Japanese is indisputably to be classified among
the tone languages. On the other hand, if, like Clements and Goldsmith
(1984:13), one categorizes as an accent language any language in which a
‘fixed Basic Tone Melody’ (or more rarely, two) can be specified for all words,
this melody being associated with the accented tone-bearing units following
the principles of autosegmental phonology (through association of the
melody with the vowel marked as accented in the lexicon, and application
(p. 260 )

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Accent

of well-formedness conditions), then most Japanese dialects are just as
indisputably accentual. But whatever the definition—and the authors that I
have just mentioned seem to agree on this point—it is manifestly apparent
that tone and accent are not disjoint classes. There is no rigid dichotomy, it
is more a matter of gradual transition or parametric specification. Yip (2002)
considers Japanese to occupy an intermediate position between accent
languages and tone languages. So does Labrune (2006). Hyman (2009) also
agrees that there is no pitch-accent prototype but rather that so-calledpitch accent systems freely pick and choose various properties from the
tone and stress prototypes. He claims that it is possible to define ‘tone’ and
‘stress’ but that it is impossible to provide an independent definition of ‘pitch
accent’. In his 2001 paper and others, Larry Hyman actually categorizes
Japanese as hybrid. This linguist indeed adopts a parametric approach of
the prosodic phenomena. For him, there exist only two prototypes: the tonal
type and the intensity-accent type (stress). Each type is characterized by a
set of distinct properties. Following this point of view, so-called pitch accent
languages represent a mixed type, with prototypical properties that are
sometimes typical of purely tonal systems, sometimes of stress systems. So
there is no pitch-accent prototype. I shall now adopt this stand. Moreover,
Hyman argues that prosodic systems cannot be treated as a continuum
placed along a single dimensional scale. Hyman thus takes the rather
extreme view that no language must be analysed with a pitch-accent system
because a tonal analysis is always possible.
Cases of evolution of a tonal system towards an accentual system
have been reported. Chen (2000) describes the example of the Chongming
dialect (Northern Wu dialect, China), and Goldsmith (1984), that of Tonga
(Bantu). As for the other direction, that is, the shift from a stress system to
a system which can be regarded as tonal, Swedish or Serbo-Croat are wellknown cases. This shows that the difference between accent and tone is
not clear-cut and dichotomous but that it is either gradual or parametric (I
am not sure that the two configurations are as different as Hyman claims
because it seems to me that gradation can be obtained by means of a
parametric specification, but this discussion is far beyond the scope of this
book).
(p. 261 )

In the case of Japanese, such a non-dichotomous, gradual, or parametric
approach has as an advantage that the various Japanese dialects would not
be classified in typologically disjoint classes. And it is useful, indeed, to be
able to account for the linguistic continuity21 that one observes between
dialects such as Sendai Japanese (accentless), Kagoshima Japanese (onePage 105 of 115

Accent

pattern accent), and Ibuki-jima Japanese (with a five-way contrast), which
are all closely genetically linked. One cannot of course be satisfied with
a classification which would call the first ‘an accentless language’ like
French or Indonesian, the second ‘an accent language’, a little like Spanish
or Italian, and the third a ‘tone language’, like a certain number of Bantu
languages. If one language—Archaic Japanese—can develop in a rather short
period of time (on the scale of language evolution) and on a small, naturally
well-delimited geographical surface so many prosodic types seemingly as
divergent as those presented by the Japanese dialects, one must posit that
there exists a typological continuity between them. Moreover, as Yamaguchi
Yukihiro (1998) and other linguists observe, their geographic distribution
obeys a concentric, circular model: the prosodically most complex systems
lie at the centre, the simplest ones (the accentless pattern and one-pattern
accent) are found at the periphery in Kyûshû and in Northern Kantô, that is,
in areas that are not contiguous but on the contrary very remote from each
other, and even at the two extreme points of the Japanese linguistic domain.
It is thus in a gradual and continuous mode, by successive transitions or
waves, that one passes from one type to another by spreading outwards,
following a centre–periphery model. On the basis of this observation,
Yamaguchi Yukihiro (1998) makes the assumption that accentless dialects
actually reflect historically older forms of the language (the language of the
Jômon period?), whereas those (p. 262 ) of central Japan, in particular the
more prestigious dialect of the oldest Nara and Heian documents, would
have undergone more recent changes. This quite unorthodox view of central
dialects as being more recent than peripheral ones actually seems to date
back to the work by the great folklorist Yanagita Kunio (1875–1962; see
Ramsey, 1982).
Two geographically close dialects generally differ only by tiny amounts;
but from dialect to dialect, the accumulation of such tiny differences
ends up producing extremely different types. Thus there is not, within the
Japanese area, any real linguistic break from the point of view of wordprosodic systems. Any theory of word-prosodic systems must be able to
account for this situation. This is why a parametric conception, or propertydriven approach such as the one that Hyman (2009) calls for, seems better
fitted to capturing the diversity of the Japanese prosodic subtypes and to
understanding their relationships, even if much work remains to be done in
order to modelize the prosodic variety found across the Japanese linguistic
domain.

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Accent

7.7 An Overview of Accent Studies In Japan
The preceding reflections quite naturally lead us to look back at the history
of accent studies in Japan, because such an epistemological reflection sheds
novel and interesting light on the current debates concerning the typological
categorization of Japanese from the prosodic point of view. It will also provide
us with an opportunity to mention some essential past references within the
discipline.
Accentology constitutes, within Japanese linguistics, one of the key
disciplines, and a very significant number of works, in their majority of a
descriptive nature, have been devoted to the study of accent in Japan.
Interest in the prosodic phenomena goes back a long way. For instance, the
Kojiki (712 ad), one of the first documents to be compiled in the Japanese
language, already provides some information on accent. A considerable
number of texts of all epochs and of various types also give rough accent
information, or sometimes more detailed remarks and analyses on the
prosody of Japanese (for a critical presentation of these documents, see
Kindaichi, 1974). Leading kokugaku scholars of the Edo period (thinkers and
philologists of the ‘national studies stream’) such as Keichû (1640–1701),
Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), and Fujitani Nariakira (1738–1779), to name
but a few, have shown interest in accent and paved the way for prosodic
studies. These precursors have left analyses of unquestionable interest.
Pre-Meiji Restoration scholars use the traditional term of Chinese phonetics
# (read as sei, shou, or kowe in Japanese) to describe the prosodic system of
Japanese words. A majority of them distinguish three different ‘tonalities’ (p.
263 ) (my translation for #) in the native words (and not four as in Chinese),
which are generally # (high), # (mid, level), # (falling). This recourse
to the descriptive categories of the Chinese language does not seem to
have posed any problem. It should be noted that before them, the Iberian
missionaries João Rodriguez and Diego Collado, authors of remarkable
works of description of the Japanese language in the seventeenth century,
had also distinguished three different registers. This is due to the fact that
the language described by all these authors is mainly that of the Kansai
area (Kyôto, Ôsaka) in which, as stated earlier, there exists a falling pitch
at the phonetic level, in addition to the high and low pitches. Moreover, it
is interesting to observe that ancient scholars of the Japanese language,
native and foreigners alike, were all struck by the fact that the same lexeme

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Accent

undergoes drastic modification in the prosodic pattern when used in a
compound, an issue that is still of major concern in current research.
The term akusento, borrowed from English, has been in use since the Meiji
period, but it should be noted that it is also occasionally employed, including
at the present time, to refer to the tones of Chinese. As stated earlier, the
term usually employed by Japanese scholars of the Edo period to talk about
the Japanese word prosody was sei / shô / kowe #. It would be interesting
to know more about the conditions which have governed the terminological
change from sei (shô / kowe) ‘tone’ to akusento ‘accent’, and the reasons
which made Japanese philologists prefer to talk about ‘akusento’ (accent)
rather than ‘tone’ in the Meiji period for the description and analysis of their
native language. The term akusento already figures as an entry in the 1875
edition of the Daigenkai dictionary, the Japanese language dictionary of the
Meiji era. From what we know of the history of the linguistic and conceptual
loans in Japan, one can suspect that the choice of the term ‘accent’ may
have had something to do with extra-linguistic considerations. It is not
impossible that ‘accent’ might have been considered more prestigious
than ‘tone’, at a time when Japan was overtly looking to the West as a
civilization model, and trying to enter the circle of the nations that were
considered more ‘civilized’ by Meiji thinkers and elites, i.e. Western countries
(in accordance with the ‘leaving Asia’ datsu-a-ron ideology advocated by
Fukuzawa Yukichi). The most prestigious European languages being accent
languages, the Meiji scholars may have sought to differentiate their native
language, and hence their nation, from other Asian and African languages,
which were labelled as tone languages. Of course, the typical tone language
that Japanese philologists of the Meiji period were most familiar with was
not Bantu but Chinese, a typologically very distant language with regard to
prosody. They were undoubtedly struck by the prosodic differences which
distinguish Chinese from Tôkyô Japanese. This also undoubtedly justified
their preference for the term ‘accent’. However, and to put it in a nutshell,
the choice of the term akusento ‘accent’ might not have been motivated by
entirely (p. 264 ) linguistic reasons. This is a terminological, sociological, and
historical problem that deserves further investigation.
Furthermore, and rather surprisingly, the word ‘accent’ was adapted as it is
in katakana form as akusento, whereas the nineteenth-century practice was,
notoriously, and especially in linguistics, to create semantic calques using
Chinese characters. For instance meishi [mei ‘name’ + shi ‘word’] was coined
on the Dutch term naam woord. According to Howland (2002), it is especially
after 1880 that the use of Western katakana words becomes widespread. For
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instance, he reports a tripling of loanwords in newspaper articles between
1879 and 1887. Since akusento #####(‘accent’) already figures as an
entry in the 1875 Daigenkai dictionary, this term appears as a very early
borrowing, anterior to the explosion of katakana loanwords in Japanese.
In such a context, it is not illegitimate to wonder about the extent to
which the preference for the term akusento might well have conditioned
the categorization of Japanese among the accent languages rather than
among tone languages from the Meiji period onwards and oriented the
subsequent vision and research on Japanese prosody (see the discussion in
the preceding section), whereas many languages whose prosodic systems
look typologically close to the Japanese systems are regarded as tone
languages, for instance a number of Bantu languages, and of American
native languages.
The first modern linguistic study of the prosodic system of Tôkyô Japanese
was published in 1892 by Yamada Bimyô, to whom we owe the discovery
that only two pitches are relevant in lexemes of the Tôkyô dialect. This
position will nevertheless be challenged later on, at the beginning of the
twentieth century, by Sakuma Kanae and Jinbô Kaku. Yamada uses the term
onchô ## to refer to accent, a term which also has in Japanese the meaning
of intonation.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Sakuma Kanae’s and Jinbô Kaku’s
phonetically oriented work, based on instrumental analyses, dominate the
field of Japanese accentology. For these two linguists, the Japanese accent
consists of a pitch with three distinctive tones: high, low, and medium.
This approach was criticized by Miyata Kôichi (1927), who, like Yamada
Bimyô, recognizes only two relevant levels of height, a vision which is
largely dominant nowadays. Observe in passing that since Meiji the issue
of Japanese accent has been the subject of much dispute and controversy.
The analyses—and therefore the linguists who stand behind them—have
often conflicted: Sakuma Kanae vs. Yamada Bimyô at the beginning of
the twentieth century, Sakuma Kanae vs. Miyata Kôichi, Hattori Shirô vs.
Kindaichi Haruhiko, and Sibata Takesi vs. Kindaichi Haruhiko, in the 1950s
are among the best-known instances of such academic strife.
Meanwhile, prosodic descriptions of the various Japanese dialects were
developing. Let us mention the works by Hattori Shirô, Kindaichi Haruhiko,
Hirayama (p. 265 ) Teruo, Sibata Takesi, and Willem A. Grootaers (inter alia),
as well as the historical studies based on the analysis of old materials by
Kindaichi Haruhiko, Komatsu Hideo, and Akinaga Kazue.
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In a 1954 paper, Hattori Shirô clarified the phonological status of the
Japanese accent by making a distinction between phonetically oriented
descriptions (such as those by Sakuma or Jinbô) and phonologically oriented
ones. Hattori thus opened the path towards more formal treatments, cast
in various theoretical frameworks, which all have in common that they only
specify, at the most abstract lexical level (in Tôkyô Japanese), one mora at
most in a word as the location of the accent kernel.
Hattori (1954) defines the notion of ‘accent nucleus’ (akusento-kaku ####
##) as the mora after which a prosodic fall occurs, and poses the question
of the Japanese accent in the following terms: ‘does a given word have an
accent nucleus? If it does, on which mora?’. This treatment, which consists in
making a distinction between the abstract H tone marking the lexical accent
(at most one within a word) and the H and L tones which are attributed at
the phonetic level, thus seems more abstract compared to that of Kindaichi
(1960) for example, who posits the existence of two tonemes (chôso ##)
high and low. According to Kindaichi’s analysis, each mora of a lexical word
is underlyingly specified at the phonological level as high or low (Sakuma
and Jinbô had already adopted a comparable view, but with three tonemes:
high, low, medium), whereas Hattori argues that only one mora should be
specified. Hattori’s approach thus authorizes a truly phonological approach
to the problem, even if—as Kindaichi Haruhiko has legitimately observed—his
analysis does not easily allow a unified treatment of some other dialects with
prosodic systems more complex than that of Tôkyô.
The year 1958 witnesses the publication of the first modern accent
dictionary, the Meikai Nihongo Akusento Jiten (The Meikai Dictionary of
Japanese Accent), under the direction of Kindaichi Haruhiko and Akinaga
Kazue. This work will be continuously reedited, the last edition to date being
that of 2010. Actually, Kindaichi and Akinaga are also the authors of the
other accent dictionary, the Nihongo Hatsuon Akusento Jiten (A Dictionary of
Accent and Pronunciation of Japanese), published by the Nippon Hôsô Kyôkai
(NHK), the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation.
Another important step was taken by Kawakami (1957, 1961) who proposes
to consider that the initial LH sequence occurring in a word is attributed at
the level of the accent phrase (# ku) and not at that of the lexical word, an
idea that will be taken up by Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988), among
others (whereas for Hattori, the initial LH is regarded as a non-distinctive
property of the lexical accent).

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More recently, Uwano Zendô has proposed in a 1999 article a new
typological classification of the Japanese prosodic systems (see section
7.5). Let us mention also Hayata Teruhiro (1999) whose research from the
typological and contrastive point of view is based on his own analyses of the
prosodic systems of various languages of Asia, including Japanese dialects.
Hayata has also worked out a new proposal for the classification of the
prosodic systems of the world’s languages. For the Japanese dialects, Hayata
(1999:195) makes an interesting proposal. Roughly speaking, for him, the
dialects of Eastern Japan (Tôkyô type) are accentual in nature, whereas the
Kagoshima type (located in Western Japan) is basically tonal (onchô ##). For
Hayata, tonal refers to the following property: the location of the pitch within
the word is not relevant; the only relevant distinction is whether or not there
is going to be an HL pitch within the word, which for Hayata makes this type
comparable to a tone language, with the difference that in traditional tone
languages such as Mandarin Chinese, the tonal unit is the syllable, whereas it
is the word in Kagoshima Japanese. The interesting point in Hayata’s theory
is that he claims that the Kyôto-Ôsaka accent type can be analysed as a
combination of the Tôkyô type (accentual) with the Kagoshima type (tonal).
So Kyôto-Ôsaka would be both tonal and accentual, and as he persuasively
argues, the Kyôto-Ôsaka type is located in the centre of Japan, in the zone
where the tonal (Kagoshima/Western) and accentual (Tôkyô/Eastern) zones
meet.
(p. 266 )

Finally, over the past two decades or so, the work by Kubozono Haruo has
brought major theoretical contributions to the understanding of the Japanese
accent system, especially with regard to the accent of compounds and that
of Western loanwords.
The overall picture that emerges from this rapid overview is that accent
studies in Japan have followed an original development path, and that the
studies which have been devoted to the field are remarkable both in quantity
and quality.

Notes:
(1) In certain studies, the accent is noted by the signˡ placed after the
accented mora: namida = naˡmida.
(2) Words beginning with a putative ‘heavy syllable’ (in our approach, a full
mora followed by a deficient mora) are sometimes described (Hattori, 1954;
Haraguchi, 1977; Vance, 1987:80) as not obeying the principle of initial
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dissimilation. However, this issue is controversial (see also 6.2.4). Haraguchi
(1977:34–35) and Tanaka (2008: 210) further claim that initial dissimilation
does not occur when the second mora is Q, so gakkou° /gaQkoR/ ‘school’
is realized as LLHH. It does not occur either when the second mora is an
onsetless vowel, including /i/.
(3) Following the common practice of autosegmental phonology, Haraguchi
uses a star to denote the vowels carrying the accent. For convenience sake,
we shall continue to mark the accented moras in bold characters, and to add
the symbol ° to unaccented words.
(4) The lexemes tomodachi°,kudamono,mizuumi, koomori, and imouto
in Table 7.2 are actually compounds from the point of view of etymology.
However, they are no longer perceived as such by modern speakers, which
is why they are cited here. Most Yamato words longer than three moras are
actually etymologically compound words.
(5) The analysis presented here is synchronic and description-oriented,
so any element likely to comute with another verbal or adjectival suffix is
regarded as a verbal or adjectival suffix. For instance, the -i type adjective
ureshii ‘happy’ is decomposed as ureshi (base) + -i (suffix), despite the fact
that -shi- is also a suffix from the point of view of etymology. In the same
manner, atsukereba ‘if it is hot’ is decomposed as atsu + kereba, and not as
atsu-kere-ba or atsu-k-er-eba as a diachronic analysis would suggest.
(6) Smith (1998) proposes an OT account of the Japanese accent according
to which nouns and verbs/-i adjectives receive the same type of underlying
representation (input). This constitutes a definite advantage over McCawley
or Poser’s analyses. However, in her model, the problem is actually displaced
from the representations to the constraints. It is now the constraints that
have to operate a distinction between nouns and verbs/adjectives. Some
constraints are supposed to apply only to nouns. Kubozono (2008) also hints
towards a similar approach by arguing that Tôkyô Japanese has a two-accent
system for nouns, just as it does for verbs and adjectives. Nouns would only
differ from verbs and adjectives to the extent to which they admit lexical
exceptions (no lexical exceptions exist for verbs and adjectives, but many do
for nouns).
(7) Note that the NADM principle applies to /N/, /R/ and /i/, and not to the
other final possible moras /ku/, /tu/, /ki/, or /ti/ which are not considered as
epenthetic from a synchronic point of view (see section 2.5).

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(8) As previously mentioned, all epenthetic vowels in Western loans do
not have the same status; some behave like full vowels, others like empty
vowels.
(9) In contrast, toponyms such as ankara° ‘Ankara’, kinshasa° ‘Kinshasa’,
or aidaho° ‘Idaho’ with a special mora in the second position are generally
atonic, exactly like words containing a succession of four regular moras
such as himaraya° ‘the Himalayas’ or minesota° ‘Minnesota’. See
Kubozono (1996), who shows that if a quadrimoraic loan ends in two ‘light
syllables’ (i.e. for us, two full moras) and its final vowel is not epenthetic, the
word will be atonic in Japanese.
(10) But, whatever the analysis one adopts, some exceptions remain. If one
puts aside, on the one hand, atonic words whose very existence constitutes a
particularly problematic issue in Japanese phonology, and, on the other hand,
lexemes which have kept in Japanese the original position of the accent
in the source language (for example interijensu {intelligence}, kyanpeen
{campaign}, dezain {design}, raiburarii {library}, etc.), it is also necessary
to take into account a small number of forms which, to our knowledge, have
remained unaccounted for. These forms are all trimoraic, and they comprise
one or two deficient moras, like words of the type kurasu {class}, dorama
{drama}, suriru {thrill}, kuran {clan}, with initial accent, which contrast
with the type guree {grey}, huroa {floor}, sutaa {star}, purau {plow},
with penultimate accent (Kubozono, 1996; Tanomura, 1999; Tanaka, 2008).
All these words share the common characteristic of starting with a mora
containing an epenthetic vowel. However, the latter group, ending in a
long vowel or a sequence of two different vowels, carries the accent on the
penult, and is thus distinguished from the former group, which displays an
antepenultimate accent. Such a difference shows that, as claimed in Chapter
6, all deficient moras should not be treated as equal, and that there exists
a gradation in mora deficientness. Some moras are ‘more deficient’ than
others.
Moreover, words such as sukin {skin}, supana {spanner}, superu {spell},
which begin with the /su/ sequence (/u/ is epenthetic) followed by a
consonant other than /r/, all bear a penultimate accent, just as the words
whose second mora consists of a single vowel: iesu {yes}, tsuin {twin}. I
leave these issues open for future research.
(11) Kubozono and Fujiura (2004) have also shown that 96% of compounds
with an atonic C1 are atonic, whereas only 61% are when the C1 is tonic.

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(12) Recall that the Sino-Japanese morpheme huu is considered as carrying
an accent on its final mora underlyingly (/huR/). It is phonetically realized
with an initial accent because of the application of the NADM principle.
(13) As already stated, kokoro and nokogiri also admit final accentuation
(kokoro,nokogiri). Under this condition, the compounds onna-gokoro and
denki-nokogiri can be regarded as resorting to the cases examined in (34c).
(14) Such formations can be compared to neo-classical compounds in
European languages, such as geology or laryngectomy.
(15) According to Nakada and Hayashi (1982:394), Sino-Japanese has lost
all connection with the original Chinese tones, but little is known about the
development and attribution of accent in Sino-Japanese and more study is
needed on this issue.
(16) M represents a full mora, m a deficient mora, and µ any mora.
(17) Thus, in the statement (72d), focus on hana would prevent deletion
of the word accent: haru-no hana-ga utsukushii° ‘SPRING FLOWERS are
beautiful’.
(18) Note that one-mora words are phonetically realized as two moras in this
dialect family. So all the monomoraic nouns of Tôkyô Japanese are realized
with prosodic lengthening: hi = hii ‘fire’, na = naa ‘name’, etc.
(19) For descriptions and analyses of accent of the Kyôto and Ôsaka dialects,
see Kindaichi (1974, 1977), McCawley (1977), Haraguchi (1977, 1999),
Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988), Nakai (2001, 2002), Sibata (1955).
Nakai (2001, 2003) provides a presentation of the historical evolution of the
Kyôto accent from the Heian period up until the present day which is both allembracing and well documented.
(20) In Uwano’s account, ‘syntagma-dependent’ refers to the following
property: the fall in pitch is a syntactic marker indicating that the word or
syntagma is phrase-final. It does not appear otherwise. So in a dialect like
that of Shizukuishi, the fall is not a property of the word but of the phrasefinal position. As Uwano puts it, it is a mirror image of the Tôkyô dialect (a
syntagma-independent dialect): in the Shizukuishi dialect, the rise in pitch
indicates the accent kernel, and the fall marks phrase finality, while in Tôkyô,
the fall is the accent kernel, and the rise functions as a phrase-initiality
marker.
Page 114 of 115

Accent

(21) Such linguistic continuity is reminiscent of what one encounters in the
Bantu area. Creissels (1994) notes that the Eastern Bantu languages offer
particularly rich material for the study of the various stages of evolution
of a tonal prosodic system towards an accent system, as is illustrated by
the Swahili case, a language in which the position of the word accent is
phonologically predictable. Clements and Goldsmith (1984:13) make a
similar remark concerning the typological variety found throughout the Bantu
area.

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The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

References
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.004.0001

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The Phonology of Japanese
Laurence Labrune

Print publication date: 2012
Print ISBN-13: 9780199545834
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May-12
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001

Index
*F[m constraint 173–4, 204, 206–13
/a/ 25–7, 34, 48, 76, 88, 90, 91, 151; frequency 57–8
prosodic shortening 47–8
accent 29, 31, 33, 34, 37–8, 50 (n. 7), 51, 54, 55, 102, 113 (n. 4), 159–60; see also initial
dissimilation; NADM principle; deficient mora; atonic
default accent 155, 157, 174, 181, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 207
and devoicing 172, 189
dominant 193–6, 197
on double vowels 47
and foot 172, 173, 205, 206, 224, 228
and heavy syllable 146, 156–157, 204
final 31, 179, 182–4, 186, 196, 199, 200, 201, 202, 217, 218, 219, 220–1, 221, 222,
224, 227–8, 231, 240, 242, 243, 244, 254, 258
initial 179, 180, 184, 186, 191, 201, 204, 205, 208, 210, 212, 213, 214, 217, 218, 219,
228, 230, 231, 237, 238, 239, 240, 251, 254, 255, 258
of loanwords 157–158, 171, 172, 174, 176, 181, 201–14
of no 158, 201
notation 179, 190 (n 4)
and prosodic word 174
recessive 157, 194, 196
of reduplicated words 119
in relation to sonority 169–70, 221–2
Page 1 of 39

Index

secondary 155
and stress 156, 258–260
and voicing 104, 130, 131
and special segments 138–40, 154, 155, 156–7, 159, 164, 169, 170, 173, 188, 200,
228
accent of compounds 171, 176, 188, 254, 257, 266
accent deletion 158, 194, 200–201, 236, 250
accent inversion 240
accent loss 185
accent nucleus 174, 179, 188, 197, 205, 216, 235–6, 249, 253, 259, 265
accent shift 155, 164, 168, 172, 188–189, 200, 203, 221, 239, 240, 242, 258
accentual phrase, see minor phonological phrase
accentless dialects 251–257, 261
adverb, adverbial 10, 49, 50, 51, 52, 70 (n 4), 94, 96, 104, 193, 199, 214–15, 237, 241, 243,
248
affricates 39, 59, 60, 62, 64, 66–8, 152 (n 4), 161
Ainu 14, 22, 75
Akamatsu, Tsutomu 34, 38, 40, 81, 133
Akinaga, Kazue 37, 78, 95, 143, 155, 163, 157, 196, 215, 216, 238–9, 240, 243, 252, 265
akusento ##### 178, 258, 263, 264; see also accent
akusento kaku ###### 179, 265; see also accent nucleus
akusento ku ###### 175; see also minor phonological phrase
Alderete, John 89
alternations 12, 20
between special segments 140
CV / Q 20, 28, 30, 32, 137
e / a 27, 91
h / p 20, 70–4
i / o 27
i / u 20, 28, 31
Page 2 of 39

Index

s / sh 67 (n 2), 68
voiced / voiceless 105, 129
voiced C / CC (geminate) 111, 115
y / i 89
y / zero 68, 89
Amanuma, Yasushi 34, 41, 53, 85
apposition 236
Arai, Masako 68 (n 3)
Arai, Takayuki 143
Archaic Japanese 4, 5, 26, 27, 42, 53 (n), 57–8, 62, 75, 76, 77, 88, 91, 93, 96, 99–100, 107,
108, 166, 257, 261
Arisaka, Hideyo 6, 26, 46, 143
Aston, William George 28, 76
atamadaka-gata ### 179, 186; see also accent (initial)
atonic 179, 181, 182–7, 193–5, 213 (n)
adjectives 196–9
adverbs 214–5, 243
compounds 160, 217, 219, 220, 222–4, 225–6, 229, 232–4, 236, 237, 239–40, 242–4
in dialects 252, 253, 257
deictics 214
four-mora words 29, 164, 202, 210 (n), 214, 217, 239
Haraguchi's treatment 189–90
no particle 158
numerals 242–4, 245
phonological phrase 248–251
Pierrehumbert and Beckman's treatment 192–3
and rendaku 125
shika particle 156–7, 195
in Sino-Japanese 200–1, 239–40, 245

Page 3 of 39

Index

spreading of atonic pattern 186–8, 257–8
to particle 140, 157
verbs 196–8, 240
(p. 288 ) and vowel devoicing 34
Auer, Peter 176 (n 23)
Ayusawa, Takako 172
/b/ 60, 61, 66, 72, 73, 87, 98, 100–1, 107, 133, 135; frequency 99–101; see also voiced
obstruents
[β] 98
babibu language 146
baby talk; see child language
Bantu 255, 260, 261, 263, 264
Beckman, Jill 159
Beckman, Mary 33, 39, 176, 183, 190–3, 248, 251, 253 (n 19), 265
bidakuon ### 78; see also velar nasal
bunsetsu ## 176; see also utterance
Burzio, Luigi 170
Campbell, Nick 57, 58, 151
catathesis 175, 248
Chen, Matthew Y. 261
child language 49, 50, 61, 66, 68, 90, 92, 129, 146 (n 5)
Chinese; see also kango; kanji; kanbun
as a tone language 110, 178, 238 (n), 258, 259, 263, 266
Chinese materials 107
Chinese words coined in Japan (wasei kango) 20
Chongming Chinese 261
diphthongs 55
in Kojiki and Nihonshoki 109
influence of Chinese phonology 107–8, 137

Page 4 of 39

Index

labial glide 91
linguistic tradition 5, 6, 103, 262–3
loans from Chinese 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 75, 89, 228
Modern Chinese 20
Old Chinese 19, 30, 42, 75, 91, 138
writing system 145 (n 3)
Chinese character; see kanji
chô akusento ku ####### 175; see also major phonological phrase
chokuonka ### 28, 89
Chomsky, Noam 3, 7, 140, 163 (n 13)
chôon ## 132; see also /R/
Clements, George Nick 111, 260, 261 (n 21)
coalescence 27, 43–4, 47
coda 33, 95, 98, 149, 150–3, 156, 160, 165
Coda Condition 95, 140–1
Coleman, John 60
Collado, Diego 34, 263
compensatory lengthening 43–4, 47, 52
compounds 193; see also rendaku
accentuation 29, 138, 197, 200, 215–48
adjectives 118
ancient compounds 216
boundary 42, 81, 125
determinative compounds 114
dvandva 114, 124, 186, 215, 216, 236, 247, 249
extra-long compounds 222, 223, 226
gemination as compounding mark 73, 115
hybrid 14, 15, 70, 116, 214
lexicalization 33, 115, 194, 216, 240
Page 5 of 39

Index

long compounds 117, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126–7, 185, 220–1
[ᵑ] 80–2, 85
neo-classical 20
numeral 23, 71, 73–4, 119, 186, 216, 217, 241–8
of Western origin 16, 23, 99, 116
[p] and [h] in compounds 71–2, 77
personal names 120, 154, 159–60
Right Branch Condition 118–19
short compounds 117, 122, 123, 126–7, 217
Sino-Japanese 17, 30, 31, 33, 61, 70, 73, 80–1, 217, 237–40
transparent 77, 216
truncation 171, 172
verbs 93, 113, 114, 118–9, 122, 240
vowel alternation as compounding mark 27, 91
Yamato 41, 73–4, 86, 115, 118, 216, 219, 236, 239
Coyaud, Maurice 239
Creissels, Denis 260, 261 (n 21)
culminative function 130, 179, 185, 259, 260
Cutler, Anne 146, 150
CV → /Q/ alternation 20, 28, 30, 32, 137
/d/ 62–3, 65, 97, 107, 112; frequency 99–101; see also voiced obstruents
Daigenkai 263, 264
dakuon ## 102; see also voicing
dakuten ## 10, 72, 108, 109, 110–11, 131; see also voicing
Daniels, F. J. 60
Davis, Stuart 165 (n 16)
days of the week 51
days of the month in -ka 243

Page 6 of 39

Index

de Chêne, Brent 96
de-accentuation 158–9, 184, 185–6, 219, 244; see also accent deletion; accent loss
default accent 155, 157, 174, 181, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 207
deficient mora 162–70, 176; see also NADM principle; special segments; *F[m
accentuation 160, 188–9, 201–2, 204, 205–13, 217, 221, 253
and epenthetic vowels 29
final in Sino-Japanese and Western short morphemes 227–8
foot structure 172–4
initial dissimilation 154–5, 180 (n 3), 191
degenerate foot 126, 160, 171
deictic 49, 50, 96, 214
delabialization 92
demarcative function 130, 154–5, 180, 185, 251, 259
devoicing (of vowel) 28, 29, 32, 34–9, 104, 136, 163–4, 240, 258
dialects 4, 5, 6, 10, 40, 54, 65, 66, 67, 68, 78, 92, 95, 98, 112, 140, 259, 261, 265, 266; see
also Ryûkyû
accent systems 251–8
(p. 289 ) Amami 27
central dialects 262
dialectal vowel systems 26–7
Eastern dialects 4, 261
Ibuki 255, 256, 257, 261
Izu 54, 142, 157, 169
Kagoshima 65, 142, 251, 252, 255, 256
Kansai 4, 52, 69, 76 (n 7), 77, 142, 263
Kantô 34, 69, 261
Kumamoto 255
Kyûshû 34, 40, 65, 88, 91, 142, 185, 251, 252
Miakejima 27
Miyako-no-jô 251, 255, 256, 257
Page 7 of 39

Index

Niigata 27
Nôbi 27
Oita 256
peripheral dialects 262
Sendai 27, 252, 255, 257, 261
Shikoku 65, 107, 256
Shizukuishi 255
Tôhôku 65, 75, 91, 107, 142, 185
Western dialects 4, 76
Yonaguni 27
diminutives 43, 90; see also hypocoristics
diphthongs 42, 44, 53–6, 161
dissimilation 119, 120, 121; see also initial dissimilation
Dommergues, Jean-Yves 147
double vowel 44–7; see also diphthong; /R/
dvandva compounds 114, 124, 186, 215, 216, 236, 247, 249
/e/ 17, 25, 27–8, 30, 34, 44, 66, 88, 89, 93; frequency 57–8
long /e/ 40, 48, 53, 132
/ei/; see /e/ (long /e/)
empty onset 46b (n 6), 162, 165, 166, 168, 169; see also onsetless vowel
empty position 163, 165, 169; see also empty onset; onsetless vowel.
English; see also wasei eigo, Japenglish; loanwords
clipping 184
diphthongs 55
palatalization of velars in loans 63–4, 89
phonic adaptation 61, 98, 138
stress 131, 178, 215, 258, 259
stuttering 167
syllable 147, 151, 155, 156, 157, 165 (n)

Page 8 of 39

Index

epenthetic consonant 94, 96
epenthetic glide 41
epenthetic vowel 28–34, 162–6, 169–70, 176, 205, 206, 239
and accent 188, 202, 204, 208–9, 210, 213 (n 10)
Everett, Daniel 165
Everett, Karen 165
expressive (connotation; words) 13–14, 55, 60–62, 67, 68, 70, 79, 80, 90, 102, 135, 137,
138; see also diminutives; hypocoristics; slang
/f/, [f] 69, 97, 98, 99
Faber, Alice 36
final accent; see accent (final)
focus 180 (n 3), 250 (n 17)
foot 170–6; see also NADM principle
and accent 188, 223, 239
degenerate 126, 160, 171
monomoraic foot 126, 160
in OT accounts 205–9, 213, 224, 227, 228, 235
and rendaku 126
structure 142, 143
and syllable / mora 150, 151, 153, 160
and vowel devoicing 37
and vowel sonority 37, 216
formal Sino-Japanese 14
Frauenfelder, Ulrich 147
Frellesvig, Bjarke 137
French 33, 55, 63, 147, 184, 261
Canadian French 30
loans 13, 20, 138, 204
Fujitani, Nariakira 262
Fujiura, Yayoi 217 (n 11), 219

Page 9 of 39

Index

Fukuda, Shinji 114
Fukuda, Suzy 114
full mora 109, 168, 172, 173, 174, 176, 180 (n 3)
/g/ 63–4, 78–87; see also [ᵑ]; voiced obstruents
frequency 99–101
gw 91, 92
palatalization 88, 89
prenasalization 107, 112
ga-gyô bion #### 78; see also velar nasal
gaikokugo ### 14, 21, 23
gairaigo ### 13, 14, 15, 16, 20–2, 23, 27, 61; see also loanwords
gemination; see /Q/
German 2, 20, 98
Germanic 55
giseigo ### 13; see also ideophones; mimetics
gitaigo ### 13; see also idéophones; mimetics
glottal stop 45, 54, 136
go reading 18–19
gojûonzu #### 9
Goldsmith, John 3, 189, 260, 261
Golston, Chris 152
goon ## 18–19
gôon ## 26–7
goro awase 106
gôyôon### 91
Grootaers, Willem A. 265
/h/ 17, 25, 28, 38, 59
allophone [F] 98
and /b/ 60, 73

Page 10 of 39

Index

frequency 99–101
and gemination 70, 68 (n), 136
and /N/ 133, 134
neutralization with /s/ 64
(p. 290 ) and /p/ 60–2, 68 (n), 72, 92, 136
and palatalization 88
/H/ (phonological notation of vowel length) 44; see also /R/
Hagège, Claude 92
ha-gyô tenkoon ##### 75; see also /h/
haiku 17, 145
haku # 132, 133, 142, 143, 144; see also mora
haku hôgen ### 142
Halle, Morris 3, 7, 140, 162 (n 13)
Hamada, Atsushi 1, 41, 45, 49, 50, 66, 68, 75, 105, 108, 110, 133, 137, 140
Hamano, Shoko 61, 76, 89–90, 94, 140, 157
handakuten ### 10, 73; see also /p/
haneru oto #### 132; see also mora nasal
haplology 107
Haraguchi, Shôsuke 1, 146, 149, 154, 158, 180 (n 3), 183, 189–90, 191, 253 (n 19)
Hashimoto, Mantarô 54
Hashimoto, Shinkichi 1, 6, 26, 75, 133
Hatano, Giyô 150
hatsuon ## 132; see also /N/
Hattori, Shirô 1, 3, 6, 26, 45, 46 (n 6), 68, 132 (n), 143, 154, 180 (n 3), 256, 264–5
Haudricourt, André 92
Hayashi, Chikafumi 17, 19, 76, 238
Hayashi, Ooki 15, 101, 141, 184
Hayata, Teruhiro 52, 107, 266

Page 11 of 39

Index

Hayes, Bruce 2, 149, 170 (n)
heiban-shiki ###, heiban-gata ### 179; see also atonic
Hepburn transcription 65, 67, 88, 98, 153
hiatus 16, 45, 47
Hibiya, Junko 78, 80, 81
hierarchy
between two components 124
of constraints 82–5, 127, 168, 169, 174, 206, 207–8, 212, 224, 226, 229, 234
of moras 169–70, 173
prosodic hierarchy 143, 173, 174–175, 191, 248
Higurashi, Yoshiko 148, 157, 193, 216, 251
hihaku hôgen #### 142
hiku oto ### 132; see also /R/
hiragana ### 8–15, 40, 44, 108, 109, 113
Hiraide, Takashi 114 (n), 124
Hirano, Takanori 114
Hirayama, Teruo 142, 264–5
Hoffmann, J. J. 66, 76 (n)
Homma, Yayoi 150
hondaku ## 110
Howland, Douglas 264
Hyman, Larry 3, 148 (n 7), 149, 156, 161, 163 (n 14), 176 (n), 260, 261, 262
hyôjungo ### 4
hybrid compounds 14, 15, 70, 116, 214
hypocoristics 49, 171; see also diminutives
/i/ 25, 28
alternation i / o 27
consonant allophonies induced by /i/ 59, 62 (n), 63, 65–66, 69, 76 (n), 92, 151
devoicing 34–39

Page 12 of 39

Index

in diphthongs 44
duration 151
frequency 57–58
impossibility of *yi 88
insertion and deletion 28–34
moraic /i/ 55, 132, 139, 140, 143, 144, 146, 147, 152, 153, 154, 155, 157, 200, 206
palatalization induced by /i/ 89
prosodic shortening 48
in Sino-Japanese morphemes 25, 28
Idemaru, Kaori 150
ideophones 13, 51, 136, 214; see also mimetics
Imada, Shigeko 38, 133
Imae, Kuniharu 101, 141
Indonesian 261
initial dissimilation 154–5, 180, 181, 185–6, 249, 253
Inoue, Fumio 78, 87, 97, 107
interjection 10, 49, 51, 135, 136, 138 (n)
intermediate phrase; see major phonological phrase
interrogative 49, 51, 74, 214
inversion (accent -) 240, 259
Irwin, Mark 117, 128
Italian 98, 155, 261
Itô, Junko 1, 15, 23–4, 30, 31, 33, 52, 61, 81–5, 90, 94, 95–6, 102, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127–
8, 129, 140, 175, 235
Japanese; see also dialects
Ancient 5, 61, 62 (n), 99, 140
Archaic 4, 5, 26, 27, 42, 57–8, 62, 75, 76, 77, 88, 91, 93, 96, 99–100, 107, 108, 166,
257, 261
Old 4, 5, 16, 26, 42, 44, 93, 96, 107
Middle 5, 42, 62 (n), 107
Page 13 of 39

Index

Proto 27, 75, 94, 251, 256
Japenglish 22
Jesuits 66, 77 (n 9), 107; see also missionaries
jiamari ### 165
Jidai Betsu Kokugo Daijiten 100
Jinbô, Kaku 264–5
jiritsu haku ### 133, 144; see also full mora
Jôo Hakutarô 54, 132, 140
jûboin ### 53; see also diphthong; double vowel
jukugo ## 17; see also compounds (Sino-Japanese)
/k/ 18, 30, 33–4, 63–4, 75, 81–2, 88–9, 91–2, 133;
frequency 99–101
Kager, René 3, 163 (n 14)
Kageyama Tarô 52
kaion ## 26–7
kakekotoba 105–6
Kamei, Takashi 1, 66, 80, 85, 130
kan'on ## 18–19
kan'yôon ### 19, 42
(p. 291 ) kana ## 2, 5, 8–12, 15, 33, 39 (n), 40, 44, 47, 51, 52, 65, 66, 72, 73, 75, 78, 97–8,
101, 108; 109, 135, 136, 140, 144, 145, 146; see also hiragana; katakana
kanbun 110, 111
kango ## 13–16, 17–20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 186, 189; see also Sino-Japanese
kanji ## 2, 5, 8, 9, 11–13, 15, 17, 18, 23
Kano, Yoshimitsu 42
Karlgren, Bernhard 42
Katada, Fusa 146
katakana ### 8–13, 15, 21, 23, 97, 108, 109, 264; see also kana
Katayama, Motoko 203

Page 14 of 39

Index

Kawagoe, Itsue 68 (n)
Kawahara, Shigeto 24, 104, 106, 136
Kawakami, Shin 53, 192, 265
Keichû 262
keihan-shiki akusento######## 251; see also dialects
Kelly, Michael H. 165 (n)
Kenstowicz, Michael 3, 170 (n)
Kess, Joseph 7, 9
kihuku-shiki akusento ######## 179
Kindaichi, Haruhiko 1, 3, 6, 7, 44, 45, 46, 68, 78, 81, 85, 86–7, 121, 143, 155, 157, 215, 216,
238–9, 240, 243, 253, 256, 262, 264–5
kinship terms 49
Kiritani, Shigeru 207
Kishida, Takeo 95, 103, 137
Kitazawa, Shigeyoshi 172
kô boin ### 26
Kobayashi, Akemi 66
Kochetov, Alexei 89
Kojiki 108, 109, 111, 262
Kokugo Gakkai #### 110
kokugogaku ### 1, 177
Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyûjo ####### (KKK) 78 (n 11), 15, 48, 100
Komatsu, Hideo 52, 76, 103, 125, 130, 137, 140, 265
Kondo, Mariko 38, 39
konshugo ### 14; see also hybrid compounds
Koori, Shirô 251
Korean 4, 14, 20, 21, 22, 75, 108
Korean materials 5, 107, 111

Page 15 of 39

Index

Kubozono, Haruo 1, 29, 31, 33, 50, 52, 61, 114, 120, 124, 126, 146 (n 5), 147, 149, 151,
153, 157–8, 159–60, 165, 167, 171, 175, 181, 184, 186, 197, 198 (n), 201–4, 207, 210 (n),
213 (n), 216, 217, 219–20, 222–4, 226–9, 231, 232, 235, 236, 251, 266
Kuginuki, Tooru 93, 94
Kurematsu, Akira 92
Kurisu, Kazutaka 31, 127
Kuroda, Toshiyuki 94, 140
kyôtsûgo ### 4
Labrune, Laurence 7, 48, 76, 93, 94, 95, 96, 110, 111, 130, 131, 154, 172, 173, 175, 177,
185, 260
Latin 20, 29, 55, 148 (n)
Latin alphabet; see rôma-ji
Lawrence, Wayne 70
Lee, Hyun Bok 92
lenition 76–7, 91, 137, 138, 174
loanwords; see also gairaigo, and relevant language entries
accent 155–8, 164, 174, 181, 184, 185, 186, 188, 201–14, 216, 217, 219, 221, 227–9,
239, 241, 242, 247–8, 257, 266
deficient moras 202
geminates 68 (n), 95, 104, 136
long vowels 41
mimetics 13 (n)
neutralization of i and u 28
new sound combinations 59, 62, 63, 69, 90, 97–9
prosodic shortening 48
prosodic structure 24, 172
in the overall lexicon 14–17, 20–2, 264
/p/ 61
palatalization 44, 67, 89
/r/ 95

Page 16 of 39

Index

transition glide 53
voicing 106, 1115–116, 119, 129, 136
vowel epenthesis 28–9
long vowel; see /R/
Loveday, Leo 16, 20
Lowenstamm, Jean 167
Lyman, Benjamin 114
Lyman's law 119, 120, 121, 127, 130
/m/ 77–8, 87, 92 112, 133–4;
frequency 99–101
Mabuchi, Kazuo 25, 66
Maddieson, Ian 26, 151, 259
Maekawa, Kikuo 34, 47, 48
Maës, Hubert 7
major phonological phrase 175, 242, 248, 249, 250, 251
man'yôgana #### 5, 8, 109–110
Man'yôshû ### 99, 109, 165
Martin, Samuel E. 4, 7, 33, 52, 75, 76, 113, 122, 158
Mase, Yoshio 257
Matsumori, Akiko 257
Matsumoto, Katsumi 26
Matsuzaki, Hiroshi 81
McCarthy, John 84, 94
McCawley, James 1, 7, 31, 33, 61, 71–2, 148, 156–7, 175, 197 (n), 216, 218, 251, 253 (n 19)
Mehler, Jacques 146, 147
Meikai Nihongo Akusento Jiten 143, 155, 215, 216, 238, 239, 240, 243, 265
Mester, Armin 1, 15, 23–4, 30, 31, 33, 61, 81–5, 90, 94, 95–6, 102, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127–
8, 129, 175, 235
Middle Japanese 5, 42, 62 (n), 107

Page 17 of 39

Index

mimetics
/e/ 27
/h/ 61, 62, 70, 73, 75
(p. 292 ) [ᵑ] 79
/p/ 61, 62, 70, 73, 75
/r/ 92–95
accent 119 (n), 214, 216, 237, 247, 249
as a lexical class 13–14
ending in -ri 104–105, 138, 214
foot 171
gemination 94–5, 104, 136, 140, 157
palatalization 88, 89–90, 93, 94
prosodic lenghthening 49, 51
pseudo mimetics 119 (n)
reduplicated 80, 82, 84, 119, 124, 129, 237
voicing 103–4, 114
writing of mimetics 10
minor phonological phrase 175, 191, 192, 248, 249
missionaries 26, 66, 76, 77 (n 9), 88, 90, 107, 109,148, 263
mixed compounds 14, 15, 70, 116, 214
Miyake, Takeo 158
Miyamoto, Tadao 7, 9
Miyata, Kôichi 264
Mizutani, Osamu 34, 41, 53, 85
mora 8, 9, 44, 53, 91, 95, 120, 133, 142–70, 175, 224; see also deficient mora; special
mora; full mora
mora and syllable 54, 147–170, 207, 224, 227, 259
mora nasal; see /N/
môra onsô ##### 132; see also special segments; /N/; /Q/; /R/

Page 18 of 39

Index

Morais, José 145 (n 3)
Morishige, Satoshi 26
Morita, Takeru 130
Motoori, Norinaga 262
mu-akusento ###### 251; see also accentless dialects
museika ### 34; see also devoicing (of vowel)
/n/ 78, 87; frequency 99–101
[ᵑ] 64, 78–87, 107
/N/ (mora nasal) 59, 132–135, 143, 147, 153, 171
alternation with other segments 78, 95, 138, 140
and accent 139, 154–5, 156, 169, 218, 157, 188
as a deficient mora 163, 176, 206
as a result of lenition 78, 95, 138
before [͡dz] 64
before /h/ 70–71
before /p/ 60, 72
before /r/ 95
before voiceless consonants 17, 24, 128–30
frequency 141
in Sino-Japanese morphemes 18, 22
in the hierarchy of moras 169 (n 17), 170
insertion of /N/ 95, 104, 105
nasalization of preceding vowel 152
phonological structure 72, 140, 162–3
post nasal voicing 128–130
prosodic shortening 48
syllabification 135, 152–3
words ending with /N/ 29
writing 33, 135, 136, 140, 145
Page 19 of 39

Index

NADM principle 138, 155, 159, 168–9, 172, 188–9, 200, 201, 217, 219 (n), 221, 228, 239,
242
Nakada, Norio 17, 19, 238 (n)
nakadaka-gata ### 179
Nakai, Yukihito 253
nasality, nasalization 80, 81, 86, 105, 107, 111, 112, 133–4, 140, 152, 162; see also
prenasalization
Nasu, Akio 32
Nespor, Marina 153
neutralization 28, 59, 63, 65, 159
NHK (Nippon Hôsô Kyôkai) 4, 34, 79, 80, 85, 174 (n), 216, 218, 245, 265
nigoriten ### 10, 72, 108, 109, 110–11, 131; see also voicing
Nihonshoki 108, 109, 111
nijûboin #### 53; see also diphthong, double vowel; /R/
Nishimura, Kôhei 24
nisshô ## 138
Non Finality 205, 206, 207, 224–6, 227, 228, 229, 231, 234, 235
nucleus (of syllable or mora) 47, 54, 56, 60, 149, 150 (n), 151–2, 156–7, 160–3, 167, 170,
206; see also accent nucleus
numbers 51–52, 106;
accent 241–8
numeral 23, 52 (n 9), 73–4, 80, 196, 249
arabic 8, 9, 12, 13
compounds 23, 71, 73–4, 119, 186, 216, 217, 241–8
Sino-Japanese 245–8
Yamato 243(6
nyôbô kotoba #### 171–2
/o/ 25–27, 48, 143
after y 88–9
after w 92
as epenthetic vowel 29
Page 20 of 39

Index

devoicing 34–5
frequency 57–8
OCP (obligatory contour principle) 224, 228
odaka-gata ### 179; see also final accent
Odden, David 259, 260
Ogasawara, Naomi 39
Ogawa, Shinji 239
Ohnishi, Masayuki 92
Ohno, Kazutoshi 106, 110, 114, 117
Okumura, Mitsuo 73, 122, 123
Old Japanese 4, 5, 16, 26, 42, 44, 93, 96, 107
onbin ## 5, 42, 137 (n)
onchô## 264
Ono, Hajime 24
Ôno, Susumu 99
onomatope ##### 13 (n 6); see also onomatopoeia; mimetics
onomatopoeia 13, 51, 136, 214; see also mimetics
(p. 293 ) onset optimization 135, 152
onsetless vowel 16, 38, 53 (n 11), 55, 100, 144, 162–5, 165, 169, 170, 173, 174, 189; see
also empty onset
onsetsu ## 143; see also syllable
Ootsubo, Kazuo 34, 41, 53, 85
Optimality Theory 1, 3, 4, 38, 82–85, 96, 107, 127–8, 130 (n), 148, 168, 198 (n), 202–14,
222–35
orthography 7, 41, 51, 61, 99, 108, 110, 131; see also writing system
Ota, Mitsuhiko 15, 23, 129, 173
Otake, Takashi 146, 150
otsu boin ### 26
Otsu, Yukio 117–18

Page 21 of 39

Index

oxytonic; see final accent; odaka-gata
/p/ 9–10, 17–18, 20, 30, 60–62, 68 (n), 70–77, 75, 92, 106, 134, 135, 138; frequency 99–101
Padgett, Jaye 15, 129
palatalization 88–90, 143, 144, 171; see also /y/
affective palatalization 67 (n), 89
alternation between CyV and CV 68
and /e/ 27, 67
and /u/ 25
as phonaestheme 89
diachronic development 44, 53, 89
frequency 101
in kango 17, 18, 22
of /k/, /g/ 63–4
of /n/ 78
of /r/ 90, 92, 94–5
phonological representation 56
scarcity 17
in writing 10, 146
Peak Prominence 168, 228
periodization 4–5
phonaestheme 89
phonemization 69, 87, 97–8
phonological phrase; see major phonological phrase; minor phonological phrase
phonologization 69, 87, 97–8
phrase; see major phonological phrase; minor phonological phrase
Pierrehumbert, Janet 175–6, 183, 190–3, 248, 251, 253 (n 19), 265
Piggott, Glyne 111
place names; see toponyms
Portuguese 14, 20, 23, 29, 44, 61, 66, 80, 116
Page 22 of 39

Index

Poser, William 50, 94, 153, 171, 176, 192, 197, 216, 251
prefix 50, 94, 153, 171, 175, 180, 192, 197, 216, 251
prenasalization 65, 66, 87, 94–5, 104, 107–8, 111, 112; see also nasality
Prince, Alan 3, 84, 94, 152, 168
prosodic hierarchy 143, 173, 174–175, 191, 248
prosodic lengthening 41, 43, 47, 49–52, 53, 253
Prosodic Word 82, 126–7, 142, 174–5, 180, 193, 206, 236, 242, 248, 251
Proto-Japanese 27, 75, 94, 251, 256
/Q/ 59, 132, 135–7, 143, 147, 171
and accent 154–5, 157, 253
alternation with /N/ 140
as a deficient mora 163, 176, 206
before /h/ 70, 72, 68 (n)
before /p/ 60, 61, 62, 70, 72
before /r/ 17, 94–5
before /s/ 38, 68, 72
CV → /Q/ alternation 20, 28, 30, 32, 137
frequency 141
in gairaigo 21, 238
in the hierarchy of moras 169 (n 17), 170, 176
insertion of /Q/ 104–5
phonological structure 72, 140–1, 162–3
in Sino-Japanese morphemes 17–18, 22, 30, 32, 33, 70, 239
in super heavy syllables 150 (n)
and voicing 17, 73, 104–5, 111, 115
and vowel devoicing 38, 39
vowel length before /Q/ 150–1
writing 11, 33, 140, 145, 146 (n 4)
/r/ 93–96, 135–6; frequency 99–101
Page 23 of 39

Index

/R/ (vowel length) 44–7, 132–3, 137, 143, see also diphthong; double vowel
and accent 139, 154–5, 157, 200
alternation with other special segments 140
as a deficient mora 162, 163, 164, 166, 169
Ramsey, Robert 256, 262
reduplication 77
and accent 237
and rendaku 118, 119, 124, 129
and velar nasal 79–80, 82, 84–5
in baby talk 50, 119 (n 6)
in kinship terms 49
of verb base 51, 52, 171
regular mora; see full mora
rendaku ## 110, 112–30
and /h/ 60, 73
and foot 174
and gemination 73
and lexical strata 13, 23
of /k/ and /g/ 80, 81–2, 85, 86
renjô ## 13 (n)
rhyme (rime) 149–51
Rice, Keren 129–30
Right Branch Condition 118–19
Rodriguez, João 109, 148 (n 6), 263
rôma-ji #### 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 21, 107, 108, 109
Rosen, Eric 115, 117, 118, 121–3, 124–7, 128
Russian 20, 131, 258, 259
Ryûkyû, Ryukyuan 4, 27, 75, 92
/s/ 28, 38, 64–6, 68, 69, 90; frequency 99–101
Sagisaka, Yoshinori 92, 151
Page 24 of 39

Index

(p. 294 ) Saitô, Yoshio 54, 98, 133
Sakuma, Kanae 183, 264, 265
Sanskrit 14, 22, 111
Satô, Hirokazu 120, 121, 215, 216, 257
Satô, Ryôichi 142
Scheer, Tobias 167
Schourup, Lawrence 95, 106
secret language 52, 146, 171–2
Seeley, Christopher 8, 109
Segui, Juan 147
sei, shô, koe # 262–3
Selkirk, Elisabeth 175
Serbo-croatian 261
Shibatani, Masayoshi 72, 256
Shimizu Han, Mieko 25, 40
shindaku ## 110, 116
Shinohara, Shigeko 173, 204–7, 216, 220
shiritori 146
Shirose, Ayako 207
Shoji, Atsuko 39
Sibata, Ritei 181
Sibata, Takeshi 181, 185, 186, 253 (n), 264–5
Sino-Japanese 17–20
/e/ 40, 41
/p/ 60, 61, 70, 71, 72, 75
accent 184, 185, 186, 199–201, 217, 227–8, 242
as a lexical stratum 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, 23, 24, 27, 41, 216, 257
compounds 17, 30, 31, 33, 61, 70, 73, 80–1, 217, 237–40
CV → /Q/ alternation 28–34, 137, 138
Page 25 of 39

Index

fixed compounds 217, 237–40
formal Sino-Japanese 14
glides 91, 98
introduction of, 5
long vowels 41 (n), 42–3, 47, 52
numbers 51, 106
numerals 241, 242, 245–8
Old Sino-Japanese 30
one-character words 200–1, 227–8
palatalization 88, 89
post nasal voicing 129
prosodic shortening 48
reading 12, 15, 18–19, 23
reduplicated 80, 237
rendaku 115, 116, 119, 128
sequences of two vowels 53
specifiers 244, 245, 246
velar nasal 80, 81, 86
verbs in suru 199
vulgarized Sino-Japanese 14, 115
Sino-Korean 20, 75
slang 10, 13, 52, 72, 103
slips of the tongue 147, 153
Smith, Jennifer 127, 197–198 (n)
Smolensky, Paul 3, 84, 94, 152, 168
sokuon ## 132; see also /Q/
sonority 101, 170, 172, 216, 221–2
Spanish 76, 98, 258

Page 26 of 39

Index

special mora 132–141, 146, 155, 156, 157, 159, 164, 202, 210; see also deficient mora;
mora; special segment
special segment 44, 104, 132–41, 180, 188, 200, 210, 217; see also /N/; /Q/; /R/; deficient
mora; special mora
specifier 73, 119, 241–8; see also numerals
speech errors 147, 153
strengthening 72, 90, 104, 137, 138
strict layer hypothesis 153
stuttering 167
Sugitô, Miyoko 120, 183
Sukegawa, Yasuhiko 47, 48
Suzuki, Takao 7
Swahili 261 (n)
Swedish 261
syllabary 5, 8, 10, 78, 113, 135, 145 (n); see also kana; writing system; orthography
syllable 142, 147–67, 189, 202–5, 207; see also mora and syllable
and accent 180 (n 3), 259
adaptation of syllabic structure in loanwords 98
in Archaic Japanese 53 (n)
closed syllable 33, 39
in Chinese 137, 138, 266
in dialects 257
and foot 171, 172, 173
Hattori Shirô 143 (n)
and rendaku 126
in Sino-Japanese words 239
Non Finality 224–6
onsetless 54–5
syllable-based dialects 142, 257
weight 55, 126, 133, 140, 146, 147–67, 172, 210 (n), 213, 226, 227–8, 230
Page 27 of 39

Index

writing 8 (n 2), 10, 145 (n 3)
/t/ 18, 30, 39, 60, 62–3, 67, 68, 88, 90, 98, 112, 134, 135, 151; frequency 99–101
Takayama Michiaki 114
Takayama Tomoaki 14, 23, 41, 53, 76, 115, 116, 159
Takeuchi, Lone 48, 124 (n 11), 125, 238
Tamori, Ikuhiro 95
Tanaka Shin’ichi (##) 55 (n), 145, 170 (n 17, 18), 171, 172, 180 (n 3), 185, 203, 204, 213
(n), 216, 220, 221–2, 239
Tanaka Shin-ichi (##) 31, 37
tanka 17, 165
Tanomura, Tadaharu 203, 213 (n)
Tateishi, Kôichi 30, 175
Terao, Yasushi 149, 153
Tôdô, Akiyasu 19, 42
Toki, Satoshi 172
Tokugawa, Munemasa 256
tokushu haku ### 132, 133, 144; see also special segments; deficient mora
tokushu onso #### 132; see also special segments; deficient mora
(p. 295 ) tôkyô-shiki akusento ######## 251; see also dialects
tone 110, 130, 179, 189–93, 248, 251, 258–66;
of Chinese 138, 178, 238 (n), 263
tone-bearing unit 4, 189, 193
Tonga 261
tôon ## 19
Topintzi, Nina 165 (n)
toponyms 154, 157, 174, 196, 202–5, 208–13
tôsôon ### 19
Trubetzkoy, Nicolas 148, 161
truncation 21, 48, 52, 153, 171–2, 184, 214

Page 28 of 39

Index

Tsuchida, Ayako 38
Tsuchiya, Shin'ichi 15
Tsukishima, Hiroshi 110
Tsuzuki, Masaki 92
tsumaru oto #### 132; see also /Q/
/u/ 25–6, 28–39
after /h/ 75, 76
after /t/ 62 (n)
after /w/ 89
after /y/ 56
as glide 90
deaccentuation 55 (n)
epenthetic 204
frequency 57–8
length 48
neutralization of /d/ and /z/ before /u/ 65
slightly rounded 92
Ueda, Kazutoshi 75
Uehara, Satoshi 47, 48
Ujihira, Akira 167
unaccented; see atonic
utterance 175–6, 181, 191–2, 248, 251
Uwano, Zendô 54, 146, 156, 157, 158, 159, 183, 184, 215, 216, 254, 255, 258, 266
Vance, Timothy 6–7, 18, 19, 31, 32, 33, 36, 38, 77, 81, 114, 118, 120, 122, 123, 128, 135
(n), 140, 150, 157, 158, 159, 180 (n3), 183
van der Hulst, Harry 152
velar nasal; see ᵑ
Venditti, Jennifer 175, 251
voiced obstruents 49, 60, 102–31; see also post-nasal voicing; rendaku; dakuon; dakuten
distribution 16–17, 22, 102–4
Page 29 of 39

Index

frequency 100
non gemination 18, 32, 104–5, 136
prenasalization 65, 87, 94–5, 107, 152 (n 10)
writing 10, 72, 108–11
Vogel, Irene 153
vowel devoicing; see devoicing (of vowel)
vowel harmony 17
vowel length; see /R/
vulgarized Sino-Japanese 14, 115
/w/ 90–92, 133, 135, 136
frequency 99–100
h # w evolution 69, 76–7
lenition 41
phonotactics 88, 89
in recent loanwords 97
Wada, Minoru 257
wago ## 13–24, 239; see also Yamato stratum
Warner, Natasha 39, 143, 180, 183
wasei eigo #### 21; see also loanwords
wasei kango #### 20
wasei yôgo#### 21; see also loanwords
Wenck, Günther 7, 50, 103
Western borrowings; see gairaigo; loanwords
writing system 7–13; see also kanji; hiragana; katakana; orthography; syllabary
and lexical strata 15, 22
development 5
diphthongs 44
four kana merging 65, 67
loanwords 98

Page 30 of 39

Index

mora 145
of /Q/ 135
of p,b,h 73
relation with phonology 54, 145 (n 3)
voicing 72–3, 108–11, 131
vowel length 40, 51
/y/ 88–90; see also palatalization
*yi, *ye 56, 91
/N/ before /y/ 133, 135
and rendaku 112, 120
consonant allophones before /y/ 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 78
frequency 99–101
in recent loanwords 97–8
non gemination 136
Yamada, Bimyô 264
Yamaguchi, Yoshinori 107, 114, 119, 125, 130
Yamaguchi, Yukihiro 256, 261
Yamane (Yamane-Tanaka), Noriko 31, 107
Yamato stratum 13–17, 22–4; see also wago
[ᵑ] 86
[tsa] 68
*[ti], *[di] 62, 63
*[sye] 67
/a:/ 41–2
/e/, /e:/, /ei/ 27, 40
/h/, /p/, /pp/ 61, 61, 68, 69, 70–2, 73, 75, 77
/r/ 93, 95
s / sh alternation 68
accent 184, 185, 186, 187, 193–6, 200, 216, 217, 219, 257

Page 31 of 39

Index

acronyms 21
compounds 41, 73–4, 86, 115, 118, 216, 219, 236, 239
frequency of consonants 99–100
frequency of vowels 57
long vowels 41–3, 47, 49, 52
numerals 51, 52, 241, 243–5, 247–8
palatalization 89
(p. 296 ) pseudo Yamato words 19, 22, 116
sequences of two vowels 53–4
voiced obstruents 102–4, 111, 125, 128–9
vowel deletions 34, 137, 166
Yanagida, Seiji 50 (n 8), 103
Yanagita, Kunio 262
Yasuda, Naomichi 26
/ye/ 56, 67, 77, 88, 91, 97, 98
Yip, Moira 260
Yokotani, Teruo 37, 170 (n)
yôon ## 57, 88, 143; see also /y/; palatalization
Yoruba 258
Yosa Buson 145
Yoshida, Kanehiko 93
Yoshida, Natsuya 38
Yoshida, Shohei 150 (n)
yotsugana no kondô ####### 65
Yuzawa, Tadayuki 81
/z/ 25, 28, 59, 63, 64–5, 67, 88, 104, 107, 134–4; frequency 99–101; see also voiced
obstruents
zero consonant 46 (n), 93, 100, 132 (n); see also onsetless vowel
Zoll, Cheryl 127
Page 32 of 39

Index

zûja-go ##### 52, 171
zûzû-ben 65; see also dialects

Notes:
(7) Japanese baby words are characterized by the following prosodic
patterns, all with initial accent on the first mora of the stem:
MmM (HL in syllabic terms), for instance onbu ‘piggyback’, nenne ‘sleep’,
an’yo ‘walk’.
MmMm (HH in syllabic terms), as in oppai ‘breast’, haihai ‘crawl’, ponpon
‘belly’.
Finally, a few forms are made by reduplication of a monomoraic stem and oprefixation, for instance o-tete ‘hand’, o-meme ‘eye’.
(4.) However, the words katakana and hiragana also differ accentually.
Katakana is always tonic, with penultimate or antepenultimate accent
(katakana,katakana), while hiragana is tonic with final or penultimate
accent, or atonic (hiragana,hiragana or hiragana°).
(4) The lexemes tomodachi°,kudamono,mizuumi, koomori, and imouto
in Table 7.2 are actually compounds from the point of view of etymology.
However, they are no longer perceived as such by modern speakers, which
is why they are cited here. Most Yamato words longer than three moras are
actually etymologically compound words.
(4) The adverb yahari is a mimetic which contains an intervocalic [h] root
internally and is, as such, exceptional. It is sometimes considered to be
etymologically a compound of ya ‘arrow’ and hari ‘tense’ (###).
(2) A few sporadic occurrences of the she /sye/ combination are encountered
in Yamato words, but they are all free variants of se, for instance misete
/ mishete ‘show me!’. This alternation must probably be interpreted as
dialectal, or as an example of affective palatalization, see also p. 66.
(3) This should be considered in parallel with the behaviour of the other
Japanese fricative /h/, after /Q/. /h/ automatically becomes /p/ in cases of
gemination in Yamato and Sino-Japanese words. Voiceless fricatives thus
seem to resist gemination, and they tend to be transformed into occlusives
when preceded by the gemination segment /Q/. One can thus posit a
Page 33 of 39

Index

correspondence /Qs/ = [tss] ~ /Qh/ = [pp], which would be attributed to
a fortition process. Note also that even in Western loanwords, /h/ and /s/
undergo gemination (as [hh] and [ss]) less often than the other consonants
(Kawagoe and Arai, 2002).
(23.) But note that a small number of scholars have questioned the
universality of the syllable, for instance Kohler (1966), Hyman (2003 [1985]),
and Auer (1994). Hyman (2003 [1985]) claims that the syllable is not a
universal constituent but a language-particular construct built out of weight
units (which correspond to moras). According to him, some languages
simply do not construct syllables. See Labrune (2012), for a more developed
discussion.
(19) For descriptions and analyses of accent of the Kyôto and Ôsaka dialects,
see Kindaichi (1974, 1977), McCawley (1977), Haraguchi (1977, 1999),
Pierrehumbert and Beckman (1988), Nakai (2001, 2002), Sibata (1955).
Nakai (2001, 2003) provides a presentation of the historical evolution of the
Kyôto accent from the Heian period up until the present day which is both allembracing and well documented.
(5.) Kubozono (1993a) studies the case of a child aged 4 years and 9 months
who knows how to play shiritori, but ignores the special moras which occur
word-finally. Instead, she utters a word beginning with the penultimate mora.
For instance, she produces cha-iro after rika-chan,takoyaki after bataa, or
kemushi after tokei. Obviously, special moras pose a problem for very young
children. It is noteworthy that the child studied by Kubozono does not use the
final (special) mora of the words which are submitted to her but the last full
mora, totally ignoring the special mora. Had she uttered chanpon after rikachan, taa-chan after bataa, or keiretsu after tokei we would have had strong
evidence that this child language is syllable-based, but it is not the case.
(3.) It is legitimate to question the relationship between the writing system
and the phonological system in Japanese, and to consider the extent to which
the two systems influence each other. Thus one might wonder for example if
it is because they are written by means of autonomous and specific graphic
units that the mora nasal, or the first part of a geminate, are treated as one
unit in the phonological system, or is it the other way round: is it because
each corresponds to an autonomous phonological unit, the mora, that
they possess a specific and autonomous graphic sign? In other words, is it
phonology which conditions writing, or writing which conditions phonology?

Page 34 of 39

Index

My position is that it is the phonological structure of the Japanese language
which has determined the kana graphic system and its viability. The kana
system is derived from Chinese characters. Had it evolved in accordance
with the logic and spirit of the Chinese graphic system, it would have
produced a true syllabary in Japanese, i.e. a system which uses one graphic
sign (and not two as is currently the case) to transcribe a heavy syllable
such as kan,sou, or kai. In Chinese, where morphemes are monosyllabic,
any syllable, be it heavy or light, occupies one graphic virtual box. This is
not how things work in Japanese, however: each kana sign transcribes one
mora in one graphic virtual box, not one syllable. This evolution was by
no means induced by the Chinese graphic system, so one can reasonably
assume that if Japanese has followed ‘the path of the mora’, it is because of
its phonological structure, not the reverse.
This does not mean that the graphic system could not, in return, contribute
to consolidating and to establishing more firmly the phonological
representation of Japanese as a mora language, in the same manner as the
use of the alphabet, based on the phoneme, unquestionably contributes
to the development of a phonemic conscience in literate speakers (Morais,
1994).
(13.) The feature [consonant] is defined here following Chomsky and Halle
(1968). It indicates a sound which is produced with a radical obstruction in
the mid-sagittal area of the vocal tract.
(21) Such linguistic continuity is reminiscent of what one encounters in the
Bantu area. Creissels (1994) notes that the Eastern Bantu languages offer
particularly rich material for the study of the various stages of evolution
of a tonal prosodic system towards an accent system, as is illustrated by
the Swahili case, a language in which the position of the word accent is
phonologically predictable. Clements and Goldsmith (1984:13) make a
similar remark concerning the typological variety found throughout the Bantu
area.
(16.) A small number of languages, including English, in which the structure
of the onset is argued to be prosodically relevant have been reported (see
Kelly, 2004, Davis, 1988, Everett, and Everett, 1984). See also Topintzi
(2010) for an extensive study.
(3) Following the common practice of autosegmental phonology, Haraguchi
uses a star to denote the vowels carrying the accent. For convenience sake,

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Index

we shall continue to mark the accented moras in bold characters, and to add
the symbol ° to unaccented words.
(7) It also seems that /h/ had remained a bilabial before /i/ until the
nineteenth century in the Western dialects, according to the descriptions by
Aston (1872) and Hoffmann (1868).
(6) In contrast with Kindaichi, Hattori (1955, 1960, 1961) assumes the
presence of a zero consonant /’/ to distinguish long vowels resulting from
the succession of two vowels separated by a morphological boundary (in
our terminology, double vowels) from those which constitute intrinsically
long vowels. According to him, the latter represents a succession of two
vowels with no consonant inbetween. Hattori adopts the notation /V’V/
for the former, and /VV/ for the latter, for example /suuri/ ‘mathematical
theory’ and /su’uri/ ‘vinegar seller’. The zero consonant of Hattori can be
reinterpreted as an empty onset.
(10) But, whatever the analysis one adopts, some exceptions remain. If one
puts aside, on the one hand, atonic words whose very existence constitutes a
particularly problematic issue in Japanese phonology, and, on the other hand,
lexemes which have kept in Japanese the original position of the accent
in the source language (for example interijensu {intelligence}, kyanpeen
{campaign}, dezain {design}, raiburarii {library}, etc.), it is also necessary
to take into account a small number of forms which, to our knowledge, have
remained unaccounted for. These forms are all trimoraic, and they comprise
one or two deficient moras, like words of the type kurasu {class}, dorama
{drama}, suriru {thrill}, kuran {clan}, with initial accent, which contrast
with the type guree {grey}, huroa {floor}, sutaa {star}, purau {plow},
with penultimate accent (Kubozono, 1996; Tanomura, 1999; Tanaka, 2008).
All these words share the common characteristic of starting with a mora
containing an epenthetic vowel. However, the latter group, ending in a
long vowel or a sequence of two different vowels, carries the accent on the
penult, and is thus distinguished from the former group, which displays an
antepenultimate accent. Such a difference shows that, as claimed in Chapter
6, all deficient moras should not be treated as equal, and that there exists
a gradation in mora deficientness. Some moras are ‘more deficient’ than
others.
Moreover, words such as sukin {skin}, supana {spanner}, superu {spell},
which begin with the /su/ sequence (/u/ is epenthetic) followed by a
consonant other than /r/, all bear a penultimate accent, just as the words

Page 36 of 39

Index

whose second mora consists of a single vowel: iesu {yes}, tsuin {twin}. I
leave these issues open for future research.
(17) Thus, in the statement (72d), focus on hana would prevent deletion
of the word accent: haru-no hana-ga utsukushii° ‘SPRING FLOWERS are
beautiful’.
(11) Kubozono and Fujiura (2004) have also shown that 96% of compounds
with an atonic C1 are atonic, whereas only 61% are when the C1 is tonic.
(7.) Of course, the fact that there does not exist any proof of the existence of
an object is not enough to constitute the absolute certainty that this object
does not exist. As Hyman (2003 [1985]) points out, ‘it is of course logically
impossible to prove that a language does not have syllables, since it may be
the case that it has them but does not show obvious evidence of it’.
(9) It is interesting to note that in the words haha ‘mother’’ and hoho ‘cheek’
the intervocalic fricative has first followed the general evolution rule h # w,
as indicated by the Jesuit transcriptions faua for haha, and fou (# *howo) for
hoho. However, a phonetic reversal has occurred and the modern forms have
reverted to haha and hoho.
(11) An electronic version of the maps of the Linguistic Atlas of Japan (Nihon
Gengo Chizu) issued by the Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyûjo (National Institute for
Japanese Language and Linguistics) is available at: http://www6.ninjal.ac.jp/
laj%20map/04/01/.
(17.) Tanaka (2008) also proposes that the special moras should be arranged
along a hierarchy: /J/ # /R/ # /N/ # /Q/ because they do not have a uniform
action with respect to accent location in certain categories of words. In
particular, his study shows that /Q/ does not behave like the other three
special moras.
(9) ‘9’ is pronounced kono in recitation. It is the only numeral which does not
have a form with a long vowel. The long vowel in too ‘10’ is etymological,
and does not result from prosodic lengthening (towo # too). Moreover, in this
series, ‘4’, ‘5’, and ‘7’ also have the alternant forms yon,itsu, and nana.
(6) A number of recent Japanese researchers sometimes use the term
onomatope ##### {onomatopée} (from French) as a cover term for the
mimetic class of words. However, since onomatopée originally refers only to
words which are supposed to imitate a sound of the extra-linguistic world,
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Index

the terms mimetic or ideophone seem more appropriate in the case of
Japanese, because a large number of Japanese mimetic words are not sound
imitation but rather express feelings, sensations, attitudes, visual states, and
so on in an iconic manner.
(11) The situation was very different in Nara Japanese, since the rhythmic
units (syllables or moras) were all of the form V or CV. Onsetless vowels were
not allowed except morpheme‐initially.
(4.) The rendering of the first part of the geminate p by tsu #can be
explained by the kana spelling ####, since the letter that denotes the
sound tsu is also used for the transcription of gemination.
(6.) The exceptions which may come to mind are in fact non-ideophonic in
origin, like kori-gori, kori-gori° ‘learning at one’s cost’, from koriru ‘to learn
by experience’, taka-daka ‘very high’, from takai ‘high’. Such words also
differ from true mimetics by the accent pattern.
(6.) Actually, the first Western linguist to operate a distinction between
long and short syllables in Kyôto Japanese, on the model of Latin, is the
Portuguese missionary Rodriguez, in his Arte da lingoa de Iapam published in
1604–1608.
(2) As we will see in Chapter 6, ‘syllabary’ is not a proper term, since kana
denote moras rather than syllables. However, for the sake of convenience, I
will use the term syllabary to refer to katakana and hiragana thoughout this
book.
(11.) Noteworthy enough, dvandva compounds do not follow the general
compound accent rule either (see section 7.3.4), so it might be expected
that identical semantic constraints account for the resistance to compound
accent and to rendaku, as observed by Takeuchi (1999) based on Kubozono
(1987).
(10.) Moreover, in the speech of certain Tôkyô conservative speakers, I
have heard nasalized vowels before a voiced obstruent, for instance in kazu
‘number’ uttered as [¹kã͡dzɯ], showing that vowel nasalization does not
occur within the domain of the syllable, since it is not even questionable that
the affricate [͡dz] may belong to the same syllable as the preceding /a/ in
kazu. However, to my knowledge, this phenomenon has never been fully
reported nor instrumentally verified for Tôkyô Japanese, so I only mention it
in passing.
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Index

(8) According to Yanagida (1991), aa° is first attested in texts of the end
of the Edo period (nineteenth century), after kou° and sou°, while the first
attestation of dou is older, dating back to 1527.

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Index