Abstract
This study tackles sequential voicing in Old Japanese with a focus on three matters: (a) the interaction of the eight vowels and aspirated consonants; (b) the association of the written system and sequential voicing; and (c) the interaction between the combinationality of each constituent and sequential voicing. Four hundred and seventy-two compound nouns of Old Japanese were collected from the corpus ‘The Japanese Lexicon: A Rendaku Encyclopedia’ by NINJAL. The findings reveal that (i) /k/ has the largest token number of sequential voicing and /p/ has the second largest token number, followed by /s/ and /t/; (ii) regarding the eight vowels /a/, /e1/, /e2/, /i1/, /i2/, /o1/, /o2/ and /u/, /a/ is most likely to form a [N1-N2] whose initial consonant is /k/, /p/ and /t/. It is not likely for the vowel /a/ to invite a voiced ‘/s/-initial’ N1’; /o1/ and /o2/ are both likely to combine with a voiced consonant /k/; /t/ and are less likely to yield a voiced /s/; /e1/ is more likely to invite a voiced consonant than /e2/, but /e1/ does not invite a voiced /p/; /e2/ does not yield a voiced /s/; and /i1/ is likely to take a voiced consonant than /i2/. /k/ and /t/ are the two consonants that are most likely to be voiced when forming a N-N with N1 ends with /i1/. /i2/ does not invite a voiced /p/, /s/ or /t/; /u/ never results in a voiced /s/; (iii) there is a split in the characters that renders a voiced phoneme or an unvoiced phoneme; and (iv) the semantic relationship of N1 and N2 in [N1-N2] that bears sequential voicing is of six types, of which the most frequent relationship of N1 and N2 is [Modifier - N2]. The [prefix-N2] construction is not subject to sequential voicing.
Highlights
In Modern Japanese, nominal compounds [N1 - N2] fall into seven subtypes regarding the semantic relation between N1 and N2, as follows:(1) a
(a) The vowel /a/ is most likely to form a compound noun for which N2 begins with the consonant /k/, /p/ or /t/
2020, Vol 12, No 5 (c) For /e1/ and /e2/, the compound nouns for which N1 ends with the vowel /e1/ are likely to have a voiced consonant; the compound nouns for which N1 ends with the vowel /e2/ are not likely to. /e1/ does not invite sequential voicing when forming a compound noun when N1 begins with the consonant /p/. /e2/ does not yield sequential voicing when forming a compound noun when N2 begins with the consonant /s/
Summary
In Modern Japanese, nominal compounds [N1 - N2] fall into seven subtypes regarding the semantic relation between N1 and N2, as follows:. Many scholars from different backgrounds have dedicated works to the constraints on sequential voicing, e.g. Motoori, Lyman (1894), Sakurai (1972), Kindaichi (1976), Akinaga (1977), Morita (1977), Okumura (1980), Yamaguchi (1988), Ohta (1998), etc This line of research tackles the phenomenon from a phonological perspective. Further diachronic work includes Lv (2014), who carried out an investigation on the sequential voicing regarding Sino-Japanese: ‘~san’, ‘~sei’, ‘~hon’ Another line of research bears relevance to the present study, arguing in favour of semantic factors, i.e. the semantic relationships between N1 and N2. This study wishes to confirm whether there is a patterning of the consonant alternation, such as when the serial noun combination is assigned to [[N1-N2]-N3]: as Ohtsu (1980) put it, it is likely to have sequential voicing
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