33857
I often hear 全員 pronounced as ”ぜいいん”. I also read online that 雰囲気 can
sometimes be heard as "ふいんき” although I have personally never heard that. I
have a few questions about this phenomenon:

  1. Is there a name for this?
  2. Are there any more common examples of this that I should look out for in speech?
  3. Does it carry some nuance(e.g. street talk, old man, etc), possibly similar to what ないー＞ねえ carries?
  4. And finally, where am I most likely going to hear this(if at all)? Or in other words - is this a regional thing?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-29T00:43:08.843
33855
2016-05-06T06:06:47.057
11176
question
phonology
What is this い sound change?
全員 surely sounds like ぜいいん [ z ẽ ĩ ] but it's still different from pure ぜいいん [
z e: ĩ ]. It's a normal phenomenon called assimilation and a natural
consequence when you pronounce it without being particularly enunciated as [ z
e ɴ i ɴ ]. [ e ɴ ] turning into [ ẽ ] is parallel to [ t j ] as in "hit you"
turning into [ tʃ ]

It's not considered accent or slur, and not unique to a certain region.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-29T01:45:39.197
33857
2016-04-29T08:21:52.147
2016-04-29T08:21:52.147
4092
4092
33855
answer