Re: Phoneme winnowing continues

En réponse à Mark J. Reed :


>There's also a diacritic that turns e.g. fa -> pa, but IIRC it's not a
>general fricative->stop converter (e.g. you can't use it to turn su into
>tu).
Indeed.


>In Hiragana that's true.  Katakana usually uses a generic "make the
>last vowel long" marker.  But aren't long vowels really considered
>to be two syllables anyway?
Not two syllables: two morae.

>   I mean, "kaa" is really just "ka"
>followed by "a", not a separate syllable that would add to the
>inventory.
Not exactly. "kaa" *is* a single syllable in Japanese (in normal connected
speech it sounds like [ka:], not [ka.a]). However, for most purposes (i.e.
pitch-accent, singing, etc...), Japanese is mora-based rather than
syllable-based.


>But again, the nasal is phonemically - and sometimes phonetically
>- a separate syllable.
No, a separate mora, which makes it sound like a separate syllable in slow
speech and singing.

>    For instance, in the first stanza of the
>theme song to "Uchyuu Senkan Yamato", the name of the ship is sung
>with each syllable on its own beat,
Mora. Japanese rhythm is mora-based.

>  including the 'N's:  u-chyu-u
>se-n-ka-n ya-ma-to [utSjuusEn=kAn=jamato].  The final N in
>"senkan" is held for a good bit, too.
Indeed. In songs, final Ns often nearly syllabic to me ;))) . Still, try
not to confuse syllables and morae. Japanese, being mora-based rather than
syllable-based, provokes a great deal of confusion.

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.

Replies