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

From:Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 12, 2004, 6:35
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@...> Watch the Reply-To!