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Question to Teacher: Can you further explain the "whispered sounds"?
Course 2 Lesson 7: Noboru's Family (New Words)

Ray_San

Post Date: 2008-07-30 22:18:37

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2007 Nov 03

Questions: 55
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When I tried reading the following words

むすこ

I have read it just as it would be written in Romaji: MUSUKO

However, when I have clicked on the sound file : the speaker used S (like Moscow) instead of saying the Full SU. However, the word むすめ gets the share of (SU) sound in it.

likewise く;

おくさん

so is there any rule to it? or is it a a matter of intuition?

thanks :)

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JFZ_George

Post Date: 2008-08-12 08:46:50

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1997 Aug 25

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Well there are a few rules on the "whispered sounds" but they aren't always true.

The most common whispered sound is "SU" as is used in DESU and MUSUKO. It's very easy for SU to sound more like S then SU. But it isn't always the case as you pointed out in MUSUME. I think it's just easier to do it in MUSUKO than it is in MUSUME.

There is no real science behind it but you can get more information on an oldie but goodie George and Keiko Show.

http://www.yesjapan.com/online/pages/index.php?&page=videos&var1=16

Hope this helps!

kemushichan

Post Date: 2008-08-15 12:59:40

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2008 Jul 12

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Their is a linguistic rule as far as japanese phonetics go, but unfortunately I forgot it. Something about the tendency for the 'u' sound to go unvoiced when its word final (at the end of a word) and before the consonant 'k' .... there's more but that's all I can remember for now. Good thing to know is, people don't speak languages perfectly alongside of the rules, it changes constantly, so its ok if you don't know the exact rule. Your best bet, I would think, would be to keep your ears open and just follow what you hear native speakers doing.

Ray_San

Post Date: 2008-08-16 11:10:59

member since
2007 Nov 03

Questions: 55
Comments: 25

thanks. I remember watching the show earlier and your right George San, it did help I just thought that it was exclusive to certain characters not all. I guess I will have to keep my ears open just like what kemushichan said :)

Thanks