silent sounds in japanese?
im learning japanese and im confused about when u and i are
silent between kstp and h.
for example: ryuugakusee, my textbook cd says this word pronounced as ryuugaksee, but i have heard it pronounced with the u. is it preference? dialect?
do most people say them silent. im not asking for this specific word exactly.. more like just in general which way would you say these words.
more ex: desu, ashita, niku
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
In many dialects, the high vowels /i/ and /u/ become devoiced when between voiceless consonants. When a word contains more than one such environment, however devoicing in adjacent syllables doesn't normally occur. Additionally, /i/ and /u/ are devoiced following a downstep and a voiceless consonant at the end of a prosodic unit
This devoicing is not restricted to only fast speech, though consecutive voicing may occur in fast speech.
To a lesser extent /o/ may devoice with the further requirement that there be two or more adjacent moras containing /o/:
The common sentence-ending copula desu and polite suffix masu are typically pronounced [dess̥] and [mass̥].
Gender roles also play a part: it is regarded as effeminate to pronounce devoiced vowels as voiced, particularly the terminal "u" as in "arimasu". Some nonstandard varieties of Japanese can be recognized by their hyper-devoicing, while in some Western dialects and some registers of formal speech, every vowel is voiced.
option is ryugakusee, with the primary u reported for longer than one unit of time. You do not emphasize any of 'usahere, that is usually on account that u in Japanese and English are reported in a different way, or in different occasions on account that a speaker particularly makes silent sound. So, in the event you desire a whole blown thick 'u,' then you definately cross, you're proper, it has a silent u. Also, in much less instances individuals pronounce it as ryugakusei with i on the finish, on account that it does not sound fluent Japanese anymore. Don't feel Hiragana which should not be well instructions for pronunciation. By the best way, ryugakusei continues to be higher than taiiku, on account that you do not get as a lot a repute of being an fool as you might get via studying ?? as ???? or hanging semicolon earlier than 'on account that,' which rule I marvel what number of dumb English majors in Japan recognize. I do not consider the devout element of ones lifestyles performs into one's exact features of wording terms a lot in Japan in assessment to the leisure of the arena. So, figuring out one's faith from his/her writings in Japanese is not as a lot an convenient undertaking as detecting Jewishness from English writings.
These sounds are not truly "silent" in Japanese. They are simply very faint, almost "whispered." They are always there art least potentially. The more careful a speaker enunciates, the more likely you are to hear them; in singing and poetry reciting, for example, you will always hear them. If you've ever studied French, they are very similar to the "mute e" in French. If the speaker is enunciating carefully, you will hear them.