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Re: Pronunciation of Japanese "j"

From:Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>
Date:Thursday, December 4, 2003, 18:44
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

Replies

Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Garth Wallace <gwalla@...>