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Episode 59: The special sound rule, the katakana rule, and syllables (Read supplementary note!)
🕑 Added 2019-03-28 08:20:50 +0000 UTCMay 25, 2021 Supplementary note: At approximately 1:05 in this video, I say "the special sounds always shift the downstep back (to the left) one mora," and this is certainly the standard, mainstream rule, but it seems that there are at least some instances in which they may shift the downstep forward, rather than backwards.
For example, in this lesson I talk about how in スーパー the downstep is on the ス, because the third mora from the end of the word is a ー, so the downstep therefore shifts backwards (to the left), to the initial ス. However, in the word 野蛮人 (やばんじん), or barbarian, the downstep occurs on the じ, as in yaBANJIn, rather than on the BA, as in yaBAnjin. Note that this is true for the word 日本人, or Japanese people, as well, which is pronounced as niHONJIn, rather than niHOnjin.
Again, these words certainly seem to be exceptions to the rule. It's worth knowing that though limited in number, exceptions do exist.
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Japanese Phonetics Index Page
Bibliography
Good afternoon, Patrons!
In this lesson we look at the 'special sound rule' and the 'katakana loan word rule', as well as introduce syllables into our phonetic studies.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns with regards to this lesson, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Thank you very much for your continued support, and good luck with your Japanese studies!
Dōgen
Comments
Dogen
Hi, Ryan. JP here, Dōgen's business partner. I'm helping manage the messages here on Patreon. You might be looking for lesson 37, especially the section starting around 2:28. There are also a few back and forth discussions in the comments that touch on えい. I hope this helps!
Ryan
Landyn DeForest
I just realized why so many words' downstep tends to occur on the mora before a vowel extension, this was eye-opening
Dogen
Generally speaking yes, as it is a trailing vowel!
kusterdu
Does the え in an あ・え combination count as a special sound?
Dogen
Yeah! Awesome to see!
Yalgie
Thanks everyone for the positive response around the dashboard :)
Dogen
Hi Grey! It really is nice, isn't it? Props again to Yalgie! Also glad to hear that you found the -3 rule useful—we'll be returning to it again in the near future!
vzwGrey
Just want to give a big thanks to Yalgie for creating that wonderful dashboard. Had been hoping for a better way of finding individual videos rather than scrolling through Patreon which can be rather buggy (in my experience). And very nice of you to cover the server costs for him! And thank you for introducing this amazing -3 rule. I'm surprised I've never heard of it, even though it seems like an incredibly useful tool for improving your pronunciation!
Dogen
Happy that you're finding the new resource useful Simon!
Dogen
Hi Patrick! Glad to hear that you're finding it so useful. Actually a special sound can never occur at the beginning of a word, so you don't need to worry about this! Cheers!
tensaimon
yalgie that's awesome, I've been thinking a bit of review would be good and now I have the perfect place to do that. Thanks!
Patrick Innerlohinger
Hey Dogen, your series is seriously amazing! I have a question, will a word with a special sound at the first mora typically have a downstep at the second mora or be 平板?
Dogen
Hi Christopher. Very glad to hear you're so pleased with Yalgie's page!
Dogen
Hi Vegan! Indeed the Katakana rule is very simple, and we'll see similar rules going forward when it comes to things like names. Haha it would be great if there was a bump in subs, I hadn't even thought of that until now!
Dogen
Thanks again Yalgie—looks like everyone is already enjoying it!
Dogen
Hi Volodymyr, I noticed that as well haha. Glad to hear you like the new page!
Christopher J Bowman
Yalgie thank you so so much! I love this dashboard. I was actually honestly debating on creating my own YouTube playlist to make it a little easier to navigate. This is much more efficient, thank you!
JKVeganAbroad
This is fantastic! I love that the katakana rule is so simple you can guess its correct pitch accent with high probability. Also, that somebody commissioned you to make a private video public is so cool! I hope the additional video will convince more people to subscribe to your Patreon.
Yalgie
Sure thing! Might just add a link back to the original videos patron page with the comment thread.
Christina Jones
LOL Voldymyr... now I'm staring at Dogen's hair. At any rate, this dashboard is amazing!! Thank you Yalgie. The only improvement I can think of is if I could see on the sidebar some of the original post and comments (or at least a link to them). Sometimes what people asked Dogen at the time of the post ends up being very helpful supplementary material to the video. I like skimming it as I work my way through older videos.
Yalgie
Hey Peeps. Yalgie here (made the dashboard). Hit me up if you can think of any improvements for the dashboard! Hope you enjoy it :D
Volodymyr
Neat display of your hair regrowing after cuts -- I already like the dashboard. (Seriously though, Patreon is a bit slow, which made navigation through lessons slightly annoying. Having it all on a single page is great.)
