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In this [this post's
comments](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4708/why-does-the-g-
tends-to-sound-more-like-a-m-or-n?lq=1), Zhen Lin said that the rules
surrounding the nasal allophones in compound words are 'complicated', but
couldn't remember them. I'd like to know what these complex rules are.
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2015-08-06T16:11:15.983
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question
pronunciation phonology
The nasal allophones of /g/
Here is what I know. If, by "complex rules", you refer to more complex ones
than these below, I wish one of the experts here would post an answer.

By the way, the nasal sound we are discussing here is called 「鼻濁音{びだくおん}」 in
case someone did not know. "Nose-muddy-sound", literally. Since you know the
word now, you can hear how it actually sounds on Youtube. It has quite a few
videos on the subject.

The other sound, I do not even know what it is called. It is the "g" sound
used in English words such as " **g** ame", "for **g** et", "su **g** ar",
etc. I will call it the non-nasal here.

### The Big Basic Rules

  1. Use the **_non-nasal_** when the ガ行{ぎょう} syllable comes at the beginning of a word.

> 「 **が** っこう」、「 **が** んばる」、「 **ぎ** んこう」, etc.

  2. Use the **_nasal_** for the particle 「 **が** 」. **_No exceptions!_**

  3. Use the **_nasal_** for basically all non-word-starting ガ行{ぎょう} syllables. (Exceptions will be discussed below.)

> 「にん **げ** ん」、「おん **がく** 」、「に **げ** る」, etc.

## Exceptions

  1. Use the **_non-nasal_** for all of the ガ行 syllables in **_onomatopoeias_**.

> 「 **ギ** リ **ギ** リ」、「 **ゴ** ロ **ゴ** ロ」、「 **ガ** リ **ガ** リ」, etc.

  2. Use the **_non-nasal_** for ガ行 syllables in **_non-Sino loanwords_**.

> 「ポイント **ゲ** ッター」、「オル **ガ** ン」、「エ **ゴ** 」, etc.

  3. Use the **non-nasal** for number "5" (「五」).

> 「25日{にち}」（にじゅう **ご** にち）

「5月(ごがつ)」 will truly test your ability as the 「ご」 is non-nasal while 「が」 is
nasal.

  4. When a ガ行 syllable is preceded by the honorific 「お」, it is a **_non-nasal_**.

> 「お **げ** んき」、「お **ぐ** あい」, etc.

  5. Compound words can be rather complex when the latter parts start in ガ行 syllables because, unlike everything else we have discussed above, "personal judgement" is invloved. 

In 「音楽学校(おん **が** く **が** っこう)」, for instance, the first 「が」 is 100% nasal,
but the second 「が」 is pronounced with a non-nasal by the majority of us native
speakers (including professional announcers, voice actors, etc.). This is
because the part 「学校」 in the second half of the compound word " ** _feels_** "
more like an independent word to many of us than like just a part of the
longer word 「音楽学校」.

  6. When an originally **カ** 行 syllable becomes a **ガ** 行 syllable by **_rendaku_** , that **ガ** 行 syllable is pronounced as a **_nasal_**.

> 「飛行機雲（ひこうき **ぐ** も）」、「天然氷（てんねん **ご** おり）」, etc.

There should be a couple of more, I think, but this is all I can recall right
now.

Here is a good video about 鼻濁音 by the National Institutute for Japanese
Language and Linguistics.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amscTH7z3iM>
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answer