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I noticed that the word 単位 is written as た **んい** in hiragana, not た **に**. Is
there a difference in the way んい and に are pronounced? If so, does the same
principle go for んあ and な, んえ and ね, etc.?
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2015-03-24T18:59:24.363
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2015-03-24T22:17:36.400
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question
pronunciation orthography spelling pitch-accent
Difference between んい and に
単{たん} is pronounced たん and 位{い} is pronounced い.

Together, they are pronounced たんい or _tan'i_. This is distinctly different
from に or _ni_.

For example, 谷{たに} is pronounced たに or _tani_. I don't know phonetic symbols
so I apologize but you can sound these two out to hear how they are different.
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2015-03-24T20:52:41.797
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answer
There are three differences

  * **rhythm**  
たんい has three morae ("syllables"), where as たに has only two.

  * **sound**  
たんい has a [uvular](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvular_nasal) ("nasal") /ɴ/,
i.e. [ta.ɴ.i], whereas たに has a "normal" /n/, i.e. [ta.ni].

  * **pitch**  
たんい【HLL】 drops in pitch after the first mora, [たに​]【LHL】 drops in pitch after
the second mora.

Try to listen for all three differences, they're all important.

* * *

The sound and rhythm of んあ んう んえ んお are analogous. (Pitch, of course, depends
on the word.)

However, in some cases (e.g. 反応 はんのう from はんおう or 天皇 or 銀杏), the
"nasalization" has been lost "officially", so to speak. But /i/ following /ɴ/
it is usually preserved, 雰囲気 ふんいき, 原因 げんいん, 単位 たんい etc. That said, no one
likes the combination /ɴ.i/, so these words are often subject to
[metathesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis_%28linguistics%29), see
for example [this answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/3293/1628).
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answer