Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T19:25:14.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Phonology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Bjarke Frellesvig
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

The Christian sources in alphabet writing provide extremely valuable information about the phonology at the end of the LMJ period, including a number of features of pronunciation which were not reflected in writing in Japanese script. In addition to the system as it may be inferred from the transcription in the texts and dictionaries, the grammars (Rodrigues's Arte and Arte breve and Collado's Ars grammaticae) have notes on pronunciation. Table 11.1 shows the sound inventory at the end of the period and includes also the transcription used in Vocabulario (the transcriptions used in the various Christian sources differ on points of detail, but they reflect the same phonological system). Unless otherwise noted, LMJ forms cited in this section are from the Christian sources, mostly Vocabulario, in the transcription used therein followed by a phonemic transcription if that is significantly different, e.g. chôzzu /tyoodu/ ‘washing’.

Table 11.1 shows both free moras (/CV, CyV, CwV/) and long syllables with a long vowel, which in the Christian sources were noted by a single vowel with a diacritic (/CVV, CyVV, CwVV/); see (11.5) about the phonemic analysis of long vowels. Table 11.1 does not include long syllables whose second mora was a consonant or a high front vowel (which formed a long diphthong with the preceding nuclear vowel), as these were noted by individual segments in the Christian sources.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Phonology
  • Bjarke Frellesvig, University of Oxford
  • Book: A History of the Japanese Language
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778322.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Phonology
  • Bjarke Frellesvig, University of Oxford
  • Book: A History of the Japanese Language
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778322.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Phonology
  • Bjarke Frellesvig, University of Oxford
  • Book: A History of the Japanese Language
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778322.012
Available formats
×