Re: THEORY: Voiceless vowels [was Re: Missing Parts]

"Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
> As I said in my previous post, this is not always true.  In some
> languages, vowels may be devoiced allophonically.  In Japanese,
> this occurs IIRC intervocalically between voiceless obstruents
> and word finally.
Word-final devoicing can only occur when the preceding consonant is
voiceless.  Kaku can be pronounced [kakM_0], but oyogu can only be
[ojogM] or [ojoNM] (/g/ is optionally [N] when non-word-initial).  And
also, the devoicing is optional.  As I understand it, _su_ in such cases
is often pronounced actually as a sort of moraic /s/, such that _desu_
is something like [des=]

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