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Re: PHONO: unvoiced schwa

From:Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Date:Monday, February 17, 2003, 3:32
Garth Wallace wrote:
> Japanese also has unvoiced vowels, AIUI, although it's not > phonemic...short /u/ and /i/ are unvoiced (sometimes called "silent", > but they're actually audible) and shortened between unvoiced consonants. > Unvoiced vowels are just whispered vowels.
As far as I know, there's no shortening. Also, the voicing is optional (altho with /u/ - especially /su/ - it's very rare not to devoice when possible). Devoicing can also occur at the end of a word following a voiceless consonant, like desu = [dEsM_0] -- "There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd, you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." - overheard ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42