Episode 59: The special sound rule, the katakana rule, and syllables (Read supplementary note!)
Added 2019-03-28 08:20:50 +0000 UTCMay 25, 2021 Supplementary note: At approximately 1:05 in this video, I say "the special sounds always shift the downstep back (to the left) one mora," and this is certainly the standard, mainstream rule, but it seems that there are at least some instances in which they may shift the downstep forward, rather than backwards.
For example, in this lesson I talk about how in スーパー the downstep is on the ス, because the third mora from the end of the word is a ー, so the downstep therefore shifts backwards (to the left), to the initial ス. However, in the word 野蛮人 (やばんじん), or barbarian, the downstep occurs on the じ, as in yaBANJIn, rather than on the BA, as in yaBAnjin. Note that this is true for the word 日本人, or Japanese people, as well, which is pronounced as niHONJIn, rather than niHOnjin.
Again, these words certainly seem to be exceptions to the rule. It's worth knowing that though limited in number, exceptions do exist.
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Japanese Phonetics Index Page
Bibliography
Good afternoon, Patrons!
In this lesson we look at the 'special sound rule' and the 'katakana loan word rule', as well as introduce syllables into our phonetic studies.
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!
Dōgen
Comments
Hi, Ryan. JP here, Dōgen's business partner. I'm helping manage the messages here on Patreon. You might be looking for lesson 37, especially the section starting around 2:28. There are also a few back and forth discussions in the comments that touch on えい. I hope this helps!
Dogen
2025-02-27 01:43:11 +0000 UTCRyan
2025-02-27 00:55:56 +0000 UTCI just realized why so many words' downstep tends to occur on the mora before a vowel extension, this was eye-opening
Landyn DeForest
2023-06-02 13:40:38 +0000 UTCGenerally speaking yes, as it is a trailing vowel!
Dogen
2020-10-27 01:07:10 +0000 UTCDoes the え in an あ・え combination count as a special sound?
kusterdu
2020-10-27 01:06:30 +0000 UTCYeah! Awesome to see!
Dogen
2019-04-03 05:18:55 +0000 UTCThanks everyone for the positive response around the dashboard :)
Yalgie
2019-04-02 08:56:01 +0000 UTCHi Grey! It really is nice, isn't it? Props again to Yalgie! Also glad to hear that you found the -3 rule useful—we'll be returning to it again in the near future!
Dogen
2019-04-01 14:01:17 +0000 UTCJust want to give a big thanks to Yalgie for creating that wonderful dashboard. Had been hoping for a better way of finding individual videos rather than scrolling through Patreon which can be rather buggy (in my experience). And very nice of you to cover the server costs for him! And thank you for introducing this amazing -3 rule. I'm surprised I've never heard of it, even though it seems like an incredibly useful tool for improving your pronunciation!
vzwGrey
2019-04-01 09:30:46 +0000 UTCHappy that you're finding the new resource useful Simon!
Dogen
2019-03-30 04:41:52 +0000 UTCHi Patrick! Glad to hear that you're finding it so useful. Actually a special sound can never occur at the beginning of a word, so you don't need to worry about this! Cheers!
Dogen
2019-03-30 04:41:32 +0000 UTCyalgie that's awesome, I've been thinking a bit of review would be good and now I have the perfect place to do that. Thanks!
tensaimon
2019-03-29 20:13:38 +0000 UTCHey Dogen, your series is seriously amazing! I have a question, will a word with a special sound at the first mora typically have a downstep at the second mora or be 平板?
Patrick Innerlohinger
2019-03-29 12:13:02 +0000 UTCHi Christopher. Very glad to hear you're so pleased with Yalgie's page!
Dogen
2019-03-29 04:50:50 +0000 UTCHi Vegan! Indeed the Katakana rule is very simple, and we'll see similar rules going forward when it comes to things like names. Haha it would be great if there was a bump in subs, I hadn't even thought of that until now!
Dogen
2019-03-29 04:50:28 +0000 UTCThanks again Yalgie—looks like everyone is already enjoying it!
Dogen
2019-03-29 04:48:20 +0000 UTCHi Volodymyr, I noticed that as well haha. Glad to hear you like the new page!
Dogen
2019-03-29 04:48:02 +0000 UTCYalgie thank you so so much! I love this dashboard. I was actually honestly debating on creating my own YouTube playlist to make it a little easier to navigate. This is much more efficient, thank you!
Christopher J Bowman
2019-03-29 04:20:19 +0000 UTCThis is fantastic! I love that the katakana rule is so simple you can guess its correct pitch accent with high probability. Also, that somebody commissioned you to make a private video public is so cool! I hope the additional video will convince more people to subscribe to your Patreon.
JKVeganAbroad
2019-03-29 01:38:22 +0000 UTCSure thing! Might just add a link back to the original videos patron page with the comment thread.
Yalgie
2019-03-29 00:43:17 +0000 UTCLOL Voldymyr... now I'm staring at Dogen's hair. At any rate, this dashboard is amazing!! Thank you Yalgie. The only improvement I can think of is if I could see on the sidebar some of the original post and comments (or at least a link to them). Sometimes what people asked Dogen at the time of the post ends up being very helpful supplementary material to the video. I like skimming it as I work my way through older videos.
Christina Jones
2019-03-28 19:37:31 +0000 UTCHey Peeps. Yalgie here (made the dashboard). Hit me up if you can think of any improvements for the dashboard! Hope you enjoy it :D
Yalgie
2019-03-28 09:04:17 +0000 UTCNeat display of your hair regrowing after cuts -- I already like the dashboard. (Seriously though, Patreon is a bit slow, which made navigation through lessons slightly annoying. Having it all on a single page is great.)
Volodymyr
2019-03-28 08:31:27 +0000 UTC
