David:
> Are you sure that they disappear? They're devoiced
> between two voiceless consonants, or between a
> voiceless consonant and a pause, but even in those
> positions they still make for separate syllables,
> do they not?
That's right. A word like 'desu', meaning "to be",
has two syllables or 'morae'. It may be pronounced
either with a devoiced "u" or with a long s-sound
through compensatory lengthening. Newbie Anglophone
Japanese students, not understanding the importance
of morae, will either pronounce /desu/ as /'dEsu/
(eek!!!) or as /dEs/ (double eek!!!).
Either way, the word is understood to be two morae by
native speakers. Each syllable is pronounced with
equal duration, as in French.
Surprisingly for English speakers, 'san' is also
considered two morae: sa-n.
= gLeN
____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs