Q; pronouncing "Fukushima"

[Herb Stahlke]

I've listened to Japanese speakers on the news saying that place name,
and I hear a voiceless vowel in the second syllable.  If the second
syllable is unaccented, then a high vowel between voiceless consonants
would be devoiced.

Herb

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 3:08 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Q;  pronouncing "Fukushima"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is it FOO-koo-SHEE-mah (large accent on SHEE) or foo-Koo-shih-MAH
> (small or no accent on Koo, larger but still slight on MAH)?  I had
> heard only the former until once hearing a Brit (perhaps from BBC,
> perhaps only CNN international) use the latter.
>
> (My presumption is that the latter is correct, given what I think I
> was told once about hi-Roh-shih-MAH.)
>
> Joel
>
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