Re: Plurals via reduplication in Japanese (was Re: Adopting a plural)

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:07:47 -0600, Muke Tever <hotblack@...> wrote:
>
> Voicing (in Japanese, "rendaku").  "Hitobito" looks anomalous
> because the original singular *pito underwent both rendaku in
> reduplication and the general Japanese shift of p -> h.  (In kana
> spelling the relationship is more straightforward, as "bi" is just
> "hi" with a voicing mark.)
Similarly with "shimajima", which is "simazima" in kana (and in
Kunreisiki/Nihonsiki romanisation). (NB [dZ] can also be the voiced
form of [tS], in which case it's spelled with |d|, e.g. "hanaji"
|hanadi| "nosebleed" from |hana| "nose" + |ti| [tSi] "blood".)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
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