The Languages of Japan and Korea by Tranter Nicolas

Author:Tranter, Nicolas.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-136-44658-0
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

9.2 PHONOLOGY

Throughout the description of LMJ phonology to follow, it may be assumed by the reader that the phonetic values of the various phonemes discussed is, unless specifically stated, the same, or approximately the same, as in ModJ. Furthermore, it is our belief that a chapter such as this, whose primary function is to offer the reader a solid overview of the language of the period, is not the place to put forward radical phonemicizations. The phonemic inventory proposed here thus represents, to a large extent, an orthodox viewpoint and also, as few phonemic inventories can remain constant throughout a period of four centuries, a panchronic ‘best fit’.

Before examining the consonantal (9.2.1) and vocalic (9.2.2) phonemes of LMJ, a brief look at the general phonological processes of liaison and sequential voicing (known as renjō and rendaku respectively in the Japanese tradition) is in order. The former, as the English translation suggests, was a phenomenon internal to the phonological word, whereby a closed syllable with an N coda transferred the nasal feature of its final consonant onto the beginning of a following vowel-initial syllable: e.g. kaN-oN > kaNnoN ‘Kannon (Buddhist goddess of mercy)’. The phenomenon occasionally occurred with t codas also: set-iN > settiN ‘toilet’. While the first attestations of liaison date from the tenth century and the phenomenon is now unproductive in ModJ, it would appear to have hit the peak of its productivity in LMJ when it became no longer confined to the Sino-Japanese (SJ) vocabulary stratum, but spread into the native vocabulary stratum also. Unlike liaison, sequential voicing, an allomorphic phenomenon whereby the non-initial element in a compound may undergo voicing under certain conditions, is still highly productive in ModJ. Some of the numerous examples from the Vocabulario include yamagawa ‘mountain stream’ and fanadi ‘nosebleed’.

9.2.1 Consonants

Table 9.1 shows the LMJ consonantal phonemic inventory. Although the palatal glide y represents [j], it represents a fricative or affricate when preceded by t d s z (e.g. sya = [∫a], tya = [t∫a]). No comment is required for either k or r and these phonemes will not be treated further.

In the well-documented series of sound changes known collectively as labial lenition (hagyō tenko-on), the behaviour of (pre-)Old Japanese (OJ) p differed depending on its position in the phonological word: by LMJ it had lenited to f word-initially, while word-internally it had lenited to w before a å o and elided completely elsewhere. Labial lenition did not effect all lexical strata identically, however. Although in LMJ the relative overall frequency of p is extremely low, its does occur in mimetic vocabulary (e.g. pONpON), as the quasi-mimetic geminate pp in native lexemes (e.g. mappira), as a geminate and after N in SJ lexemes, and in a few lexemes borrowed from Portuguese at the very end of the period (cf. 9.6).

Throughout the vast majority of the LMJ period there is general agreement that this lenited f was articulated [Φ]: the description in Shittan is unambiguous; the famous imperial riddle (answer: ‘lips’) in the 1516

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.