Pronunciation of Hiragana in words: view article

To fit the pronunciation of Urban Basanawa, certain kanas(仮名), especially those belonging to A-dan(あ段) and U-dan(う段), have the distinction of the full pronunciation and the reduced pronunciation:

仮名	Full Pronunciation	Reduced Pronunciation
か	[ka]	[kə]
く	[kʊ]	[k]
が	[ga]	[gə]
ぐ	[gʊ]	[x](after back vowels) [ç](after front vowels) [k](after consonants or in the combination of っぐ, also written as [g̥] in IPA)
さ	[sa]	[sə]
す	[sʊ]	[s]
ざ	[za]	[zə]
ず	[zʊ]	[s](also written as [z̥] in IPA)
しゃ	[ʃa]	[ʃə]
し	[ʃɪ]	[ʃ]
じゃ	[dʒa]	[dʒə]
じ	[dʒɪ]	[tʃ](also written as [dʒ̥] in IPA)
ちゃ	[tʃa]	[tʃə]
ち	[tʃɪ]	[tʃ]
た	[ta]	[tə]
と	[tɔ]	[t]
だ	[da]	[də]
ど	[dɔ]	[t](also written as [d̥] in IPA)
な	[na]	[nə]
ふぁ	[fa]	[fə]
ふ	[fʊ]	[f]
ぱ	[pa]	[pə]
ぷ	[pʊ]	[p]
ば	[ba]	[bə]
ぶ	[bʊ]	[p](also written as [b̥] in IPA)
ま	[ma]	[mə]
む	[mʊ]	[m]
ら	[ɾa]	[ɾə]
る	[ɾʊ]	[r]
るﾟ	[la]	[lə]
るﾟ	[lʊ]	[ɫ]
や	[ja]	[jə]
わ	[wa]	[wə]
わﾟ	[va]	[və]
うﾟ	[vʊ]	[f](also written as [v̥] in IPA)

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Like Japanese, Urban Basanawa also uses 送仮名 to indicate inflectional endings, and in Urban Basanawa, the stem vowel and anything after the stem vowel of a strong verb and a irregular verb is represented with 送仮名 in writing.

Usually, in a strong verb or an irregular verb, the あ行仮名 immediately follow the 漢字 part is the stem vowel, and all 仮名 following the stem vowel are pronounced with the reduced pronunciation; and in weak verbs, andjectives and nouns, all 仮名 following the 漢字 part are pronounced with the reduced pronunciation.

For example:

作かん "to make"(weak verb) is pronunced as ['mɑ:kən], not *['mɑ:kan] or anything else, and its 2nd person singular present form 作くすと "(you) make(singular)" is pronunced as ['mɑ:kst], not *[mɑ:kʊsʊto] or anything else.

泳いんまん "to swim"(class III strong verb) is pronunced as ['swɪmmən], not *['swɪmman], and its 1st/3nd singular past form 泳あむ is pronunced as ['swam], not *['swamʊ] or anything else. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article

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