Abstract
Previous studies of aspiration and VOT in Japanese have led to /p/, /t/, and /k/ being inconsistently described as either unaspirated or moderately aspirated. The purpose of this paper is to resolve this issue. Assessing the productions of 13 monolingual Japanese talkers living in Japan, we repeated part of a VOT study that was based on 6 Japanese bilinguals living in the UK. For each talker we assessed the VOT in 44 voiceless stops, including 12 for /p/, 12 for /t/, and 20 for /k/. We found that Japanese VOT for /p/, /t/, and /k/ was 30.0, 28.5, and 56.7 ms, respectively, and longer than the VOT of two short lag comparison groups and shorter than the VOT of two long lag comparison groups. We conclude that Japanese voiceless stops have an intermediate degree of aspiration and constitute an exception to the short lag and long lag dichotomy of voiceless stops said to characterize many languages.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
