Home
Creators
Search Recent Missing Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Japanese Phonetics Episode 45—LIVE (now with native recordings!) (Patreon)

Published:
2018-07-14 14:40:21
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Content

Bibliography
Japanese Phonetics Index Page

Good evening Patrons! The forty-fifth episode of Japanese Phonetics, updated with native recordings, is live! In this lesson we look at the small 'tsu', also known as the sokuon (促音), in detail, covering topics such as double-voiced-consonant devoicing, and the emphatic glottal stop.

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!

Best from Beppu,

Dōgen

Files

Previews only

Japanese Phonetics #45: The small 'tsu' AKA the sokuon

The forty-fifth episode of Japanese Phonetics, my series dedicated to Japanese pitch-accent and pronunciation. In this lesson we look at the the small 'tsu', also known as the sokuon. If you have any questions leave a comment below, and thank you all for your continued support! Bibliography: https://www.patreon.com/posts/17345632

Comments

TheHighDinosaur

Hi Dogen, I appreciate this series but while it’s helpful, I strongly believe the pitch accent stuff is far more useful in terms of improving the sound and flow of my Japanese, and there is so much more to learn there. Could you give me an approximate time frame for when you’ll be returning to pitch accent videos?

Newchurch

Definitely not shadowing that very last adjective...

Sascha Baer

When you said いやっ I could only hear やっ. Is this intentional?

N

Oh yeah, I've heard those adjectives clipped in this way many times. Like when someone is racing by on a bicycle and a bystander yells はやっ！

Dogen
>>13839846

Hi Sascha. This isn't intentional, but it happens quite a bit in everyday conversation (with this particular word, that is). Thank you for the catch—will try to be more mindful of this going forward.

tensaimon

So THAT'S why ベッド always sounds like ベット, I'd been wondering about that for years ...another mystery solved, keep up the good work!

Abhi Ilindra

Waiting for the tweet cancelling Dogen for the clip where he says 苦っ :p

RedAgent14

2 quick questions: 1. Because "z" is always an affricate after 促音, are there spelling variations for words like グッズ in regions of Japan which still distinguish between the よつがな 「づ」and 「ず」? 2. Occasionally, I'll be listening to a Japanese song where sokuon words with an 〜あった structure (かった、なった、etc.) are seemingly pronounced closer to 〜あーた or 〜あぁた when sung. Is this just a quirk of Japanese when sung, and/or is there a phonetic reason for this perceived change in sound?

Dogen
>>38631211

Hi Red! 1. I can't say for certainty as this topic is a bit hard to look up, but if I recall correctly づ only occurs in the middle of words, and never at the beginning, so that's one thing to be aware of. That said, I do believe that I've seen some instances where some speakers or business used づ and ず, though I don't think they've ever been in the circumstances you're referring too—sorry for not being able to help more in this regard! 2. Yes, I believe that this is just a quirk of Japanese being sung. Naturally, っ sounds are often silent, as they essentially are just 'holds' for the upcoming sound, but a silent 'sound' can't hold a melody, so it's natural that speakers would actually sing them in order to fit a melody. Hope this helps!

Julian Bentham

Do you think the the shortening of those verbs has any relation to the removal of the last vowel sound in 関西弁 (いこか, etc) or would they have developed independently of each other?

Dogen
>>39216966

Hi Julian, I unfortunately don't know too much about 関西弁、so it's difficult for me to give any kind of opinion on either theory—apologies for not being able to help more!

Strange Guy

I like you right eyebrow making へ symbol while you pronounce えっ

switz mka

In the bit where you did the “何っ？！", it seemed like you reversed the pitch accent pattern from normal? Am I hearing things, or is it because it's an exclamation that it's pitched differently?

Dogen
>>51665876

Hi Mka! That's a really good catch, and yes this can sometimes happen. This is an example of how certain inflection patterns in very emotional or intentional speech can influence the different pitch-accent patterns. It's still important to study pitch-accent, however, such that we know what the rules are before we try to break them. That is to say, in some circumstances, intonation can change the standard pitch-accent pattern of a word, but it's still very important, I believe, to study pitch-accent such that we have a general foundation to work from when speaking in a calm, non-emotional manner. Unfortunately I'm not yet qualified in talking about how intonation can affect pitch-accent in detail (I cover this a bit in the sentence-level pitch-accent sub-series, around lesson 25-29, I believe), but this would make an interesting topic to cover in the future. Cheers!