This book gives true characters of Japanese speech sounds in reference to European speech sounds. When it was first published in 1931, it was the first book of its kind. There are only 5 Japanese vowel elements as opposed to 18 in English, 13 in French and 8 in German. There are 15 Japanese consonants, 26 in English, 22 in French & 23 in German. Because of the lesser number of elements, it follows that the wider range in vowels and consonants is heard by Japanese ears, so this volume gives average sounds uttered by Japanese in the twentieth century in relation to the English sounds.

This volume is the first comprehensive handbook of Japanese phonetics and phonology describing the basic phonetic and phonological structures of modern Japanese with main focus on standard Tokyo Japanese. Its primary goal is to provide a comprehensive overview and descriptive generalizations of major phonetic and phonological phenomena in modern Japanese by reviewing important studies in the fields over the past century. It also presents a summary of interesting questions that remain unsolved in the literature. The volume consists of eighteen chapters in addition to an introduction to the whole volume. In addition to providing descriptive generalizations of empirical phonetic/phonological facts, this volume also aims to give an overview of major phonological theories including, but not restricted to, traditional generative phonology, lexical phonology, prosodic morphology, intonational phonology, and the more recent Optimality Theory. It also touches on theories of speech perception and production. This book serves as a comprehensive guide to Japanese phonetics and phonology for all interested in linguistics and speech sciences.

This account of the phonology of Japanese and its major dialects presents original analyses of every aspect of the Japanese sound system, including its segment inventory, prosodic units, mora and syllable, prosody, and accent.

This book gives true characters of Japanese speech sounds in reference to European speech sounds. When it was first published in 1931, it was the first book of its kind. There are only 5 Japanese vowel elements as opposed to 18 in English, 13 in French and 8 in German. There are 15 Japanese consonants, 26 in English, 22 in French & 23 in German. Because of the lesser number of elements, it follows that the wider range in vowels and consonants is heard by Japanese ears, so this volume gives average sounds uttered by Japanese in the twentieth century in relation to the English sounds.

This introduction to the sounds of Japanese is designed for English-speaking students with no prior knowledge of the language, and includes an audio CD which demonstrates the sounds and pronunciation described. An invaluable resource for students of Japanese wishing to improve their pronunciation, as well as those studying Japanese linguistics.

Bjarke Frellesvig describes the development of the Japanese language from its recorded beginnings until the present day as reflected by the written sources and historical record. Beginning with a description of the oldest attested stage of the language, Old Japanese (approximately the eighth century AD), and then tracing the changes which occurred through the Early Middle Japanese (800–1200), Late Middle Japanese (1200–1600) and the Modern Japanese (1600–onwards) periods, a complete internal history of the language is examined and discussed. This account provides a comprehensive study of how the Japanese language has developed and adapted, providing a much needed resource for scholars. A History of the Japanese Language is invaluable to all those interested in the Japanese language and also students of language change generally.

"This book provides a clear account of the temporal organization of Japanese phonology, especially the phonetic and phonological nature of moras, feet, and geminate consonants in Japanese. The topics covered include pre-nasal shortening, Japanese perception of rhymes, the occurrence of geminate consonants in Japanese compounds and English loanwords, sequential voicing called rendaku, and the bilabialization of /h/ in counting words which are preceded by the numerals san (three) and yon (four)." "The underlying theme is to provide empirical evidence of whether or not the mora controls isochrony in Japanese rhythm by analyzing the results of more than twenty production and perception experiments which were conducted with a total of 960 native Japanese and English speakers. This book is suitable not only for professional linguists, but also for people who are learning Japanese as a foreign language and wish to explore various theoretical issues of Japanese phonology."--BOOK JACKET.