I’ve been reading about sound change in Japanese and I keep coming across the
phrase ‘発音上の’ as in

> 発音上の相違に支えられて開合の仮名遣いに区別がありました.

In the above example, what purpose does ‘上’ serve? Should I read ‘発音上’ or
発音‘上の...’？
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2018-09-02T20:43:09.817
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question
syntax suffixes
I need help analyzing the phrase 発音上の
This is the suffix
[上【じょう】](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%8A-33718#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88):

> ### じょう 【上】
>
> [一] ...
>
> [二] （接尾）  
>  名詞に付いて、…に関して、…の面で、…の上でなどの意を表す。 「一身－の都合」 「道義－の責任」 「行きがかり－しかたがない」

Since 発音上 is not a single word and you can identify 発音 as a word from the
context, the trick would be to look in a monolingual dictionary for
definitions of 上 as a suffix. There are only 上【じょう】 and 上【うえ】 and context
tells you it would not be the suffix 上【うえ】 (as in 父上).
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2018-09-02T21:17:42.547
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answer
It is a suffix pronounced as じょう.  
[https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/en/上/#je-35203](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/en/%E4%B8%8A/#je-35203)  
[https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/107334/meaning/m1u/上/](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/107334/meaning/m1u/%E4%B8%8A/)

According to "A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar", page 76:

> 上: a suffix which indicates the idea of "from the viewpoint of", "for the
> sake of", "for the reason", or "in terms of"

Example:  

> この映画は教育上よくない。  
>  This film is not good from an educational point of view.
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answer