Re: Pronunciation of Japanese "j"

Andreas wrote:

>I was rereading Mark Rosenfelder's article on chance ressemblances between
>words in different languages, and was suprise to see Japanese "j" (in
>_gaijin_, specifically) described as a "dental affricate" - presumeably [dz_d]
>or [dD]. Other sources give postalveolar [dZ] or even palatal [J\j\]. Anyone
>nipponically enlightened out there feeling like telling me what's right?
For my money, it's palatal, akin, but not identical, to Mandarin "j"
(in pinyin). Dunno how that Sampa-izes. Voiced counterpart of
Japanese "ch", which to my ear sounds like /tC/, Mandarin-esque "q".
Likewise, Japanese "sh" is /C/-ish, Madarin "x".

Kou

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