Understand the consonants and consonant combinations in Japanese

Understand the consonants and consonant combinations in Japanese Japanese language has twelve underlying consonants: p t s k h, b d dz g and m n r. Now in combination, the choice of /dz/ as the voiced counterpart of /s/ requires some comment. Most analyses posit /z/ with an accompanying statement that for most SJ speakers it is realized as [dz] initially and [z] intervocalically. Structurally, the /z/ analysis is more symmetrical and in terms of language universals it is usually true that languages with affricates have the corresponding fricatives as well. Nevertheless, from the point of view of NP it seems more natural to make the stronger form underlying and provide for the occurrence of the weaker 'allophone' by a lenition process. The NP analysis involves a context-sensitive fortition z → dz /.__ (. = syllable boundary) which governs the lexicon and a context-sensitive lenition dz → z / V-V ordered after it which governs derived structure. Han (1960) describes the distribution of the two variants as follows: [dz] and [z] do not contrast. They are in free variation with some speakers and with others they are in complementary distribution. In the speech of the author, a number of spectrographic experiments revealed that [dz] occurs initially as in [dzuibun] ( considerably) [ dzoo] ( elephant), whereas [z] occurs in non -initial position as in [suzus̆ii] ( is cool ) [ s̆izuka] (is quiet).

However, in slow careful speech [dz] may occur in non-initial position. (pp 4950). There is also data from non-standard dialects (cf. Iitoyo 1974) showing [dz] in all positions . Frequent substitutions in children 's speech of the sort [yowamus̆i] → [yowamuts̆i] 'sissy' suggest that the z → dzfortition may be part of a more general process s, z → ts, dz with the voiceless portion eventually suppressed by the child as he approximates mature speech.

The twelve consonants combine with the five simple vowels /a, i, u, e, o/ and the rising diphthongs /ya, yu, yo, wa/ (each of which constitutes a short syllable itself) to form 100 short syllables like a pa kaba da gasadza ha ma nara; i pi ki bi; gisidzi hi mi niri; u pukubugusudzuhu mu nu ru; e peke be de ge se dze he me ne re; o pokobo do go so dzohomo no ro; yapyakyabya; gyasyadzyahyamyanyarya; yupyukyubyu; gyusyudzyuhyumyunyuryu; yopyokyobyo; and gyosyodzyohyomyonyoryo. Learn all such combinations during your Japanese language learning phase.