Rendaku

is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology which governs the voicing of the initial consonant of the non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word. "Rendaku" is a common but unpredictable phenomenon in modern Japanese. The "voicing" is not a strict change from voiceless to voiced sounds, but rather the action of adding a dakuten to the first kana of the portion being altered. It is also known as "sequential voicing".

"Rendaku" can be seen in the following:: [hito] + [hito] > [hitobito] ("person" + "person" → "people"): [te] + [kami] > [tegami] ("hand" + "paper" → "letter")

Properties blocking "rendaku"

Research into defining the range of situations affected by "rendaku" has largely been limited to finding circumstances which cause the phenomenon not to manifest itself.

Lyman's Law

The most famous of the conditions affecting "rendaku" is known as Lyman's Law, which stated that "rendaku" does not occur if the second consonant of the second element is a voiced obstruent. This was later modified to state that "rendaku" does not occur when the second element of the compound contains a voiced obstruent in any position (see third example below). This is considered to be one of the most fundamental of the rules governing "rendaku".

: [yama] + [kaji] > [yamakaji] , not * [yamagaji] ("mountain" + "fire" > "forest fire") (* indicates an unacceptable form): [hitori] + [tabi] > [hitoritabi] , not * [hitoridabi] ("one person" + "travel" > "alone"): [tsuno] + [tokage] > [tsunotokage] , not * [tsunodokage] ("horn" + "lizard" > "horned lizard")

While this law is named after Benjamin Smith Lyman, who independently discovered it in 1894, it is really a re-discovery. The Edo period linguists Kamo no Mabuchi Itō, 1928] Suzuki, 2004] (1765) and Motoori Norinaga Endō, 1981] Yamaguchi, 1988] (1767-1798) separately and independently discovered the law during the 18th century.

Lexical properties

Similar to Lyman's Law, it has been found that for some lexical items, "rendaku" does not manifest itself if there is a voiced obstruent near the morphemic boundary, including preceding the boundary.

Some lexical items tend to resist "rendaku" voicing regardless of other conditions, while some tend to accept it.

"Rendaku" also occurs infrequently in Sino-Japanese words (Japanese words of Chinese origin) - although see the first example below where the second element is well integrated ('vulgarized') - and hardly ever in foreign lexical items:

: [kabushiki] + [kaisha] > [kabushikigaisha] ("stock" + "company" > "corporation"): [aisu] + [kōhī] > [aisukōhī] , not * [aisugōhī] ("ice" + "coffee" > "iced coffee")

emantics

"Rendaku" also tends not to manifest itself in compounds which have the semantic value of "X and Y" (so-called dvandva or copulative compounds):

: [yama] + [kawa] > [yamakawa] "mountains and rivers"

Compare this to [yama] + [kawa] > [yamagawa] "mountain river."

Branching constraint

Finally, "rendaku" is also blocked by what is called a "branching constraint". The process is blocked in the second element of a right-branching compound:

: [mon] + ( [shiro + chō] ) > [monshirochō] , not * [monjirochō] ("family crest" + {"white" + "butterfly"} > "cabbage butterfly")but:( [o] + [shiro] ) + [washi] > [ojirowashi] ({"tail" + "white"} + "eagle" > "white-tailed eagle")

Further considerations

Despite a number of rules which "have" been formulated to help explain the distribution of the effect of "rendaku", there still remain many examples of words in which "rendaku" manifests in ways currently unpredictable. Some instances are linked with a lexical property as noted above but others may obey laws yet to be discovered. "Rendaku" thus remains partially unpredictable, sometimes presenting a problem even to native speakers, particularly in Japanese names, where "rendaku" occurs or fails to occur often without obvious cause. In many cases, an identically written name may either have or not have "rendaku", depending on the person. For example, 中田 may be read in a number of ways, including both Nakata and Nakada.

Notes

References

*Irwin, Mark. [http://www.springerlink.com/content/q0710520171r/?p=448e32a0078947e3b080ebfe81f1a892&pi=7 "Rendaku-based Lexical Hierarchies in Japanese".]
*Kubozono, Haruo. [http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/ulcl/faculty/vdweijer/jvoice/kubozono.pdf "Rendaku: Its domain and linguistic conditions"] , "Voicing in Japanese". (52.1 KB PDF)
*Martin, Samuel. " [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300037295 The Japanese Language Through Time"] .
*Shibatani, Masayoshi. " [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521369185 The Languages of Japan] ", pp. 173-175.
*Vance, Timothy. [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887063616 "An Introduction to Japanese Phonology"] .
*van de Weijer, Nanjo & Nishihara (eds.) [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/3110186004 "Voicing in Japanese"] .
* cite book
last = Endō
first = Kunimoto
title = Hirendaku no Hōzoku no Shōchō to Sono Imi: Dakushion to Bion to no Kankei kara
date = 1981
* cite book
last = Itō
first = Shingo
title = Kinsei Kokugoshi
date = 1928
publisher = Tachikawa Bunmeidō
location = Ōsaka
* cite book
last = Suzuki
first = Yutaka
title = "Rendaku" no Koshō ga Kakuritsu suru made: Rendaku Kenkyūshi
date = 2004
* cite book
last = Yamaguchi
first = Yoshinori
title = Kodaigo no Fukugō ni Kansuru: Kōsatsu, Rendaku o Megutte
date = 1988

ee also

*consonant mutation
*lenition
*sandhi

External links

* [http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/ulcl/faculty/vdweijer/jvoice/ "Voicing in Japanese"]