Re: Plurals via reduplication in Japanese (was Re: Adopting a plural)
| From: | Muke Tever <hotblack@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, October 12, 2004, 0:08 |
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On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 00:08:25 +0200, Roberto Suarez Soto <ask4it@...> wrote:
> On Oct/08/2004, Tim May wrote:
>
>> Hito (person) > hitobito (people)
>> Shima (island) > shimajima (islands)
>
> One question related to this (and excuse me if it's been asked before
> on the thread): do the changes in words when reduplicating ("hito" -> "bito")
> follow any general rule, or is just a case of euphonics?
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.)
*Muke!
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