Standard US English Dialect?

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Apr 14 02:00:27 UTC 2008


To the best of my both meager and antiquated knowledge, it's only the
pronunciation of "gogo" as "gong-o" that's peculiar to Tokyo. Whether
there are other such words, I haven't the foggiest.

-Wilson

On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 4:09 AM, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
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>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>
> Subject:      Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Current Tokyo practice doers not seem to match the "standard"
>  suggestions, in which initial /g is [g] and intervocalic /g/ is [N]
>  (the velar nasal, oft written "ng," but only one sound). The
>  important exceptions even in the standard duggestions are:
>
>  1) Compounds (e.g., Sekaiginko "World bank")
>  2) After prefixes (e.g., o [honorific prefix] + genki = "ogenki" (with [g])
>  3) The number 5 (go), no mater how it is combined, is always
>  pronounced with [g]
>  4) Reduplicative or onomatopoetic words (e.g., gara-gara "rattle") have [g]
>
>  But Hibiya (2005) shows that Tokyo speakers born between 1965 and 79
>  (for which we have a large spoken corpus) range from 30 to 95%
>  [g]-users in those positions where the "rule" would require [N].
>
>  dInIs
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>  >-----------------------
>  >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  >Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>  >Subject:      Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>  >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  >
>  >I what you're referring to is the nasalization of the second "g",
>  >which is listed in my standard Japanese accent dictionary. AFAIK, this
>  >is a part of NHK Japanese and may or may not be followed by Tokyoites.
>  >I'm not very familiar with Tokyo speech, though, so it might be that
>  >it's widespread there.
>  >
>  >Very good memory. Gogo means afternoon, with the first "go" being noon
>  >and the second being after. BB
>  >
>  >On Apr 12, 2008, at 3:56 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>  >
>  >>
>  >>  I don't know what NHK Japanese sounds like, but the Tokyo dialect is
>  >>  certainly different. E.g., the word usually transliterated "gogo" and
>  >>  pronounced more-or-less as transliterated, is pronounced approximately
>  >>  "gong-o" in the Tokyo dialect.
>  >>
>  >>  I think that the word means "noon," but it was a while ago, the
>  >>  1968-69 school year, that I took Japanese. However, the
>  >>  native-Japanese girlfriend of a roommate confirmed, ca.1987, the
>  >>  presence of the [N] in the Tokyo-dialect version.
>  >>
>  >>  -Wilson
>  >>
>  >>  On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 6:14 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com
>  >>  > wrote:
>  >>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>  >>>  -----------------------
>  >>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  >>>  Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>  >>>  Subject:      Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>  >>>
>  >>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  >>>
>  >>>  FWIW, NHK Japanese, not Tokyo Japanese is considered the standard.
>  >>>  There is a difference. BB
>  >>>
>  >>>
>  >
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>
>  --
>  Dennis R. Preston
>  University Distinguished Professor
>  Department of English
>  Morrill Hall 15-C
>  Michigan State University
>  East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
>
>
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>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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