On Vowel Devoicing in Japanese

概要

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This paper reports on research into High Vowel Devoicing in Standard Modern Japanese. The data discussed support an analysis both phonological and phonetic: phonological devoicing involving the feature [+spread glottis] to explain devoicing at very slow speech rates, and phonetic devoicing involving gestural overlap of the vowel's voicing gesture by glottal spreading gestures to explain observed speech rate effects. In addition, the following conclusions can be drawn from the current data set: 1st mora vowels devoiced significantly more often than 2nd mora vowels. Males devoiced more often than the females. SR had a smaller but still significant effect; devoicing environment had less influence still. Many instances of consecutive devoicing were observed. Finally, the extreme individual variation observed warrants caution extending the conclusions of any small-sample study to any wider population.