Ok, so I mostly understand how vowel devoicing works in Japanese, but there's
something that's making me a bit confused. On all the sources I've found, most
say that vowel devoicing usually occurs in a vowel sound in-between two
voiceless consonants - specifically k, s, sh, t, ch, h, f and on rare
occasions, apparently b, and p. However, there are a few times where I've seen
a voiceless vowel occur with "d" as the second consonant, and at one point, I
believe I've heard an "r" as the second consonant as well ( Examples: しだ、知らず
). Now, is it that maybe these are unique cases, or that I'm just not hearing
them correctly? Or is there some other rule I'm missing?
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2016-01-07T16:38:34.677
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2016-01-07T22:52:41.507
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question
pronunciation phonology phonetics
Rule on vowel devoicing?
The phonological rules of vowel devoicing in Japanese are as follows: high
vowels (that is, in the case of Japanese, i and u), become unvoiced when
surrounded by other unvoiced sounds. This is how it works on paper, and
usually these rules are followed, but sometimes when people speak very
quickly, these vowels become unvoiced even if one of the sounds surrounding it
is voiced. It is also notable that typically males devoice vowel more
frequently than females. Most of this information can also be found on
Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing>
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2016-01-07T22:52:41.507
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