Phonetics and Phonology of Moras, Feet and Geminate Consonants in Japanese

by Hiromi Otaka

Overview

This book provides a clear account of the temporal organization of Japanese phonology, especially the phonetic and phonological nature of moras, feet, and geminate consonants in Japanese. The topics covered include pre-nasal shortening, Japanese perception of rhymes, the occurrence of geminate consonants in Japanese compounds and English loanwords, sequential voicing called rendaku, and the bilabialization of /h/ in counting words which are preceded by the numerals san (three) and yon (four).
The underlying theme is to provide empirical evidence of whether or not the mora controls isochrony in Japanese rhythm by analyzing the results of more than 20 production and perception experiments which were conducted with a total of 960 native Japanese and English speakers. This book is suitable not only for professional linguists, but also for people who are learning Japanese as a foreign language and wish to explore various theoretical issues of Japanese phonology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761844112
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/04/2008
Series:	Language and Culture Studies
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Hiromi Otaka has been teaching Phonetics and Phonology at the graduate school of Language, Culture, and Communication, Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Japan since 2001.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: An Overview of Past Studies of Moras, Feet, and Geminate Consonants in Japanese
Chapter 2: An exploration of the psychological reality of isochrony in Japanese rhythm
Chapter 3: The phonological reality of the bimoraic foot and its influence on pre-nasal shortening in Japanese
Chapter 4: Effects of the bimoraic foot on Japanese perception of rhymes from Japanese and English sequences
Chapter 5: An acoustic investigation of Q duration in Japanese
Chapter 6: An acoustic investigation of RDV in relation to vowel height and of the importance of VOT in determining geminate consonant duration in Japanese
Chapter 7: An investigation of the occurence of geminate consonants in English loanwords in Japanese
Chapter 8: An acoustic investigation of Japanese geminate consonant perception from English loanword (C)VC(V)(C) sequences
Chapter 9: The effect of speaking rate on Japanese geminate consonant perception from Japanese CVCV and English CVC sequences
Chapter 10: A comparative study of geminate consonants in Japanese and Italian
Chapter 11: Structure and interpretation of Japanese rhythm
Chapter 12: The geminicity of the nasal sequence [nn] in Japanese
Chapter 13: A study of consonant gemination in Japanese compound words composed of Sino-Japanese disyllabic morphemes
Chapter 14: The bilabialization of /h/ preceded by N in Japanese counting words beginning with /h/