Comments on: Japanese loan phonology

By: Russell

Russell — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:22:25 +0000

The reason behind the p/b/p thing in Japanese is due to sound change. Many (many) years ago, there were no h’s in Japanese, just p’s (or maybe f). The voiced counterpart to the p/f was, of course, b. Then, over time, the p’s became h’s – but the b stayed the same. Then, in some cases, the p’s didn’t go away either (like, after an n, or when there were two p’s in a row).

Josh: that’s interesting. Part of that, I’m sure, is that as you say there is no “hu” sound in Japanese – they have to write it (and pronounce it) as “fu” (actually, the “f” is not exactly an English “f” [look up "bilabial fricative"]).

By: Josh

Josh — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:32:24 +0000

Hello everyone! Avid reader here and I think I might be able to add some insight into this mishearing. I work at an English language school in Honolulu and as you can imagine there are many Japanese students (as well as Swiss- go figure). Many of the Japanese are interested in taking "Hula" lessons but they repeatedly spell it "Fula" and sometimes even confuse the two phonemes. Japanese does have both a /f/ and /h/ sound though not at sentence initial. This could be part of the explanation.

Thanks so much! Mahalo!

By: travis

travis — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:24:21 +0000

I paven’t ever peard any heople hronouncing p’s for h’s before… though herhaps this is hossible. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. But seriously, I’m intrigued by the prospect. I’ve taken some Japanese and am aware of the h/p/b phenomenon… and wondered how H got mixed up with the other obvious pair of P/B. When you mention that you sometimes mishear those letters, it makes me wonder if I have too, but never paid attention to it. There must be something there, as the Japanese focus so much attention on this in their language.