30666
About nine years ago I had a Japanese teacher from Osaka, and I'm pretty sure
she pronounced 教室【きょうしつ】 as "kyoshtsu", i.e. dropping the "i" in しつ. The
reason I remember is that I had trouble learning to say it. But my current
teacher, from Niigata, distinctly says the "i". Is this a regional difference,
something that varies from person to person, or am I just not remembering it
properly?
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2016-01-23T12:53:39.547
30661
2016-01-23T22:09:30.223
7352
question
pronunciation
Pronunciation of ~しつ
As pointed out above, the issue here lies in devoicing. In Japanese, high
vowels (i and u) undergo devoicing when they are surrounded by other unvoiced
sounds. This is extremely common, but it does vary somewhat by region, and to
a lesser extent, by person. In standard Japanese, though, it's most common to
devoice them.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-23T22:09:30.223
30666
2016-01-23T22:09:30.223
9596
30661
answer