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There is an unsourced claim in the Wikipedia article on [Early Modern
Japanese](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_Japanese) that its
phonology admitted syllable-final /t/.

This seems unlikely, since to my knowledge all reconstructions going back to
OJ posit the same gross syllable structure as the modern language.

Does anyone know where this claim originated, and whether it's true?
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2012-12-07T08:44:24.623
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2012-12-07T10:12:50.123
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question
phonology
Syllable final -t in early modern Japanese?
I think it's fairly widely acknowledged that Middle Japanese introduced
syllable-final /m/, /n/ and /t/ because of Chinese loanwords, and that first
the /m/ and /n/ merged into /N/, later /t/ turned into /tu/.

I think you are right that syllable-final /t/ has never existed in _native_
Japanese vocabulary.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-07T10:12:50.123
9712
2012-12-07T10:12:50.123
1073
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answer