'kimono' pronun & use

[Benjamin Barrett]

I was really surpised at the post claiming the final "o" in kimono isn't
pronounced like /o/ as well.

I doubt a strong claim that kimona is modeled after pajama, etc. I recall
one of my grandmothers (but not the other) simply unable to pronounce it as
an /o/. It just didn't seem to be allowed in her native Seattle
pronunciation system.

I think it's rules like that or else nativization that determines the
pronounciation of a final "o" regardless of the length in Japanese. Compare:
igo, maiko (short o pronounced /o/ in English). The Random House/Shogakukan
E-J Dictionary claims an /o/ sound at the end of "surimono" and "emakimono".
Though I wonder to what extent those are actual pronunciations, it's
probably the case that the only people saying such words are familiar enough
with Japanese phonology that they indeed use a final /o/.

I could not find any listings of attested three-syllable Japanese words in
English ending in -mono, which would best indicate what's going on with
"kimono", but possibilities to try out include himono (dried fish), oumono
(king) (four moras), and amaimono (sweets). Three-syllable words ending in
-mono just aren't common.

(Also, the claim that the "i" is /I/ rather than /i/ seemed interesting. I
can see someone saying it's unvoiced, but /I/ seems out of character for a
Japanese "i".)

Benjamin Barrett
Baking the World a Better Place
www.hiroki.us

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Douglas G. Wilson

> http://physics.uwyo.edu/~brent/jal/no.wav

> Japanese "o" doesn't sound like a schwa to my naive ear. It
> sounds about like Spanish /o/ to me. Something like /O/ or
> "aw" in English maybe.

> Note that the "o" in "kimono" is different from the "long
> 'o'" ("oo"/"ou") found in "Shinto", "judo", "Tokyo", etc. ...
> which MAY account for the lack of reduction of final
> orthographic "o" in such words in contrast to schwa in
> English "kimono" (or sometimes "kakemono" etc.). OTOH I
> casually wonder whether "kimona" was to some degree modeled
> on "pajama" or "camisa" or something like that.