Why the Palatal Glide Is Not a Consonant in Japanese

要旨

This chapter challenges the view that the palatal glide j in Japanese is an onset segment and is the only consonant that may appear in the second position of an initial CC sequence. The phonological behavior of j reveals a strong correlation with the following vowel rather than with the preceding consonant: j appears if and only if the following vowel is non-front. The chapter argues that an initial j glide also forms part of the following vowel, making jV a light diphthong rather than a CV sequence. It discusses the standard representation of the palatal glide j in Japanese, and addresses some points of dispute. In the context of the full-dependency model of element theory, the chapter concludes that Japanese has a vowel system which is larger than the one generally assumed.

主題