Phonology III: 連濁
Of all the phonological ‘rules’ to Japanese that gives learners and natives alike headaches the most, 連濁 is at the top of the list. For one, while 連濁 itself simply describes when the first mora of the second element of a compound becomes voiced, the phonological ‘rules’ governing it seem to be riddled with exceptions, leading many to question their existence.
In pre-Old Japanese, it is believed that 連濁 likely did not exist, but that it quickly emerged due to nasal syllables being contracted, leading to voicing of the following consonant in the word, which in turn preserves the voicing which the nasal syllable had provided to the word.
An example of this, 山路（やまぢ） is the contraction of 山道 but also exemplary of the precursor to 連濁. The greatest source of 連濁, however, appears to be the particle の being reduced to pre-nasalization, much like how it is still often contracted to ん, fusing with the following word element – ex. 川辺（かわべ）> 川の辺 (riverside).
Voicing in Compounding
When two morphemes1 are joined in Japanese, the first mora of the second element often gets voiced. This voicing phenomenon (有声音化) is incredibly abundant.
| 赤紙 | あかがみ | Draft papers | 白酒 | しろざけ | Sweet white sake |
| 小皿 | こざら | Small plate | 板金 | いたがね | Sheet metal |
| 生え際 | はえぎわ | (Receding) hairline | 堀端 | ほりばた | Side of a moat |
| 青白い | あおじろい | Pale; bluish-white | 笑顔 | えがお | Smiling face |
| 白髪 | しらが | White/grey hair | 和毛 | にこげ | Downy hair |
Yet, for every successful instance of 連濁, it seems as though there is an equally valid counterexample. For example, consider how ～玉 may seemingly be read as either ～たま or ～だま with an equal probability.
| 替玉 | かえだま | Scapegoat | 焼玉 | やきだま | Hot-bulb |
| 白玉 | しらたま | White gem | 金玉 | きんたま | Balls (male anatomy) |
| 勾玉 | まがたま | Magatama | 水玉 | みずたま | Polka-dot |
| 数珠玉 | ずずだま | Rosary bead | 赤玉葱 | あかたまねぎ | Red onion |
Word Notes:
①Because 赤玉葱 is a combination of 赤＋玉葱, 玉 still functions as if it were still the first element of the compound.
②Usually, when the last mora of the first element of the compound is voiced, 連濁 may not occur in the second element, but there are some exceptions such as 数珠玉.
Initial Element w/ Voiced Sound = NO 連濁
There are rules of thumb which seem to hold true most of the time as to when 連濁 is not possible, which assume that 連濁 is the norm. One such rule of thumb is as follows:
If the final mora in the first element of a compound that 連濁 should not occur in the second element.
Of course, there are exceptions. In the words below, those which seem to break this rule are all in bold.
| 萩原 | はぎはら | Reedy field | 風邪引き | かぜひき | Catching a cold |
| 禍事 | まがこと まがごと | Ominous word | 風邪声 | かぜごえ | Hoarse voice |
| 風邪気味 | かぜぎみ | Slight cold | 風邪薬 | かぜぐすり | Cold medicine |
| 水子 | みずご | Stillborn fetus | 筆箱 | ふでばこ | Pencil box |
| 腕時計 | うでどけい | Arm watch | 袖口 | そでぐち | Cuff |
| 帯紐 | おびひも | Obi strap | 革紐 | かわひも | Leather strap |
Another rule of thumb to explain these exceptions away is if the voiced consonant of the second element could be rephrased with the particle の preceding it. For example, 筆の箱 would still mean “a box for pencils/brushes.”
Sometimes voicing is obligatory because the second element is used as a suffix and the reading is fixed. This is the case for 風邪気味, with ～気味 being the suffix.
上清めば下濁る
The title of this section is an old Classical Japanese expression that states that if the top is not voiced that the bottom is, which is in clear reference to 連濁 being the norm. This saying also implies the following rule of thumb:
The initial consonant of a latter element of a compound word ought to be voiced if no voiced consonant2 appears in the first element.
| 手品 | てじな | Magic trick | 星空 | ほしぞら | Starry sky |
| 夜空 | よぞら | Night sky | 青空 | あおぞら | Blue sky |
| 手紙 | てがみ | Letter | 手助け | てだすけ | Help |
| 人々 | ひとびと | People | 手袋 | てぶくろ | Glove(s) |
| 丸顔 | まるがお | Round face | 中底 | なかぞこ | Insole |
| 道端 | みちばた | Road side | 居所 | いどころ | Whereabouts |
| 炭火 | すみび | Charcoal fire | 秋口 | あきぐち | Start of fall |
| 根絶やし | ねだやし | Extermination | 引け時 | ひけどき | Closing time |
| 湯豆腐 | ゆどうふ | Boiled tofu | 本棚 | ほんだな | Bookshelf |
連濁 usually only involves native phrases, but there are instances such as 湯豆腐 and 本棚 which exhibit it nonetheless, with the Sino-Japanese element being 豆腐 and 本 respectively. In these instances, it is believed that these Sino-Japanese morphemes are completely nativized.
There are times when 連濁 ends up producing an adverbial phrase, and these tend to be bizarre. Examples of this include 返す返す (repeatedly) and 代わる代わる (alternately). involving doubling a verbal expression. These are set expressions, but it’s interesting how 連濁 shows up in them.
Notable exceptions to this rule of thumb include the particles だけ, ばかり, and ぐらい, which all derive from nouns but which are always voiced regardless of the presence of voicing in the nouns which they attach to.
Lyman’s Law
Lyman’s Law (本居宣長の法則) tries to explain why 連濁 does not occur when there is a voiced sound in the second element, stating:
There can be no more than one voiced obstruent within a morpheme.
| 秋風 | あきかぜ | Autumn breeze | 神風 | かみかぜ | Divine wind |
| 鳥籠 | とりかご | Bird cage | 紙芝居 | かみしばい | Storytelling with pictures |
| 狐蕎麦 | きつねそば | Kitsune soba | 一人旅 | ひとりたび | Traveling alone |
| 山火事 | やまかじ | Forest fire | 着物姿 | きものすがた | Dressed in a kimono |
Linguistically speaking, the consonants /n/, /m/m /r/, /y/, /w/, and /N/ are all voiced consonants, but for the sake of 連濁, they are not believed to hinder it, as they lack non-voiced counterparts. Yet, the following words all appear to violate Lyman’s Law.
| 風車 | かざぐるま | Windmill | 乱れ髪 | みだれがみ | Unraveled hair |
Loanwords: NO 連濁
Loan words (外来語), specifically those from modern languages, typically do not display 連濁 or appear to be governed by Lyman’s Law.
| 和風ステーキ | Japanese-style steak | 和風トイレ | Japanese-style toilet |
| カラーテレビ | Color TV | レンタカー | Rental car |
| 肉カレー | Curry with meat | パトカー | Patrol car |
As for Sino-Japanese vocabulary, as has been shown in a few examples already, examples of 連濁 can be found. In such instances, the element exhibiting 連濁 has become completely nativized. If the preceding element is not nativized, Lyman’s Law appears to be inactive, but this does not prevent it from applying to the second, nativized element.
| 株式会社（かぶしきがいしゃ） | Corporation |
| 角砂糖（かくざとう） | Cube sugar |
～ん Triggering 連濁
When ～ん ends the first element of a Sino-Japanese compound, 連濁 can be found to occur with particular morphemes. However, these instances can also be explained by the morphemes themselves being nativized.
| 三千 | さんぜん | Three thousands | 三階 | さんがい | Three stories |
| 三軒 | さんげん | Three houses | 何階 | なんがい | What floor? |
In speaking of Sino-Japanese words, there are times when certain affixes like ～所 may exhibit 連濁 but not in every word in which they appear.
| 案内所 | あんないじょ | Information desk | 停留所 | ていりゅうじょ | Tram stop |
| 裁判所 | さいばんしょ | Courthouse | 発電所 | はつでんしょ | Power plant |
Branching of a Compound
When a word has 2(+) parts, voicing occurs depending on the branching constraint of the word. Branching essentially refers to where the main meaning of a compound lies. In other words, branching explains where the semantic weight of an expressions falls on.
When a word is left-branched, 連濁 may occur, but when a word is right-branched, 連濁 may not occur. Of course, there are exceptions to this.
| Phrase | Reading | Definition | Branching |
| 目覚まし時計 | めざましどけい | Alarm clock | Left |
| 株式会社 | かぶしきがいしゃ | Corporation | Left |
| 着物虱 | きものじらみ | Body lice | Left |
| 紋白蝶 | もんしろちょう | Cabbage butterfly | Right |
| 物差し | ものさし | Ruler | Right |
| 早口 | はやくち | Fast-talking | Right |
| 砂原 | すなはら | Sandy plain | Right |
| 草原 | くさはら | Grassland(s) | Right |
| 絵描き | えかき | Artist | Right |
| 後腐れ | あとくされ | Future trouble | Right |
| 雨降り | あめふり | Rainfall | Right |
| 小鳥 | ことり | Small bird | Right |
| 尾白鷲 | おじろわし | White-tailed eagle | Right (Exception) |
| 紋切り型 | もんきりがた | Hackneyed phrase | Right then left |
1. Though both 小玉 and 小鳥 have the prefix 小-, because “bead” is already something that is usually of relatively small size, 小- becomes the most important detail in the word and thus makes the word a left-branching word. This also explains why 小部屋 is read as こべや.
2. 偽薬箱 has two possible readings: にせぐすりばこ and にせくすりばこ. However, they are not synonymous due to branching. にせぐすりばこ, which is left-branching, means “a box with fake medicine,” whereas にせくすりばこ, which is right-branching, means “fake medicine-box.”
How branching works may also explain 連濁 in compound verb expressions. However, inconsistencies such as 着替える (きかえる vs きがえる3) exist. As another example, the affix ～そこなう, though standardized as not exhibiting 連濁, in other dialects, does produce 連濁 depending on the speaker and how that person has internalized the branching of the resultant phrase.
修一の大いびきは間もなくやんだけれども、信吾は眠りぞこなった。
Shuichi’s loud snoring stopped before long, but Shingo missed out on sleep.
From 山の音 by 川端康成.
When the branching of a phrase seems to be split 50-50, 連濁 becomes ambiguous.
| 親木 | おやき・おやぎ | Stock (tree) | 根方 | ねかた・ねがた | Root |
Even for ～頃 (rough time frame) which is almost always voiced, there are rare occasions of it not being voiced. Albeit old-fashioned, this would still be a case of ambiguous branching.
「さっき、谷崎さんが来ました。八時半ころです。」と夏子は不器用に言った。
Natsuko then awkwardly said, “Tanizaki-san came a while ago. It was around 8:30.”
From 山の音 by 川端康成.
Dvandva
Dvandva is a fancy word from Sanskrit that refers to two things being conjoined together to represent an “and” relationship. Though the compound results in one word, the meaning of the phrase remains on the lines of “X and Y”. When this is the case for a Japanese compound, 連濁 does not occur.
| 山川 | やまかわ | Mountains and rivers | 足腰 | あしこし | Legs and loins |
| 枝葉 | えだは | Branches and leaves | 雲霧 | くもきり | Clouds and mist |
Onomatopoeia
連濁 does not occur in onomatopoeia, and when voiced consonants do appear in such words, their repetition is not the same phenomenon as 連濁.
| さくさく | Crispy; crunchy | ざくざく | Cutting up roughly; lots of coins |
| かさかさ | Rustle; dryness | がさがさ | Rummaging; rough feeling |
連濁 in Names
Names, whether they be personal or place names, are especially difficult to ascertain their correct readings.
Sometimes voicing helps distinguish place names with the same spelling. Names that are abbreviations of [X｛の・ノ・乃・之｝Y] are read with Y unvoiced, but you would have to know the history of the place name in question.
In short, 連濁 in names is random, which is why even native speakers struggle.
| 高田 | たかだ たかた | Surname | 大田 | おおた おおだ | Surname |
| 豊橋 | とよはし とよばし | Place name/surname | 旭川 | あさひかわ あさひがわ | Place name |
| 京橋 | きょうばし | Place name | 鶴橋 | つるはし | Place name |
- As is borne out by the example words shown in this lesson, 連濁 is not restricted to two nouns being joined together. ↩︎
- Consonants which are nasal or approximants are treated as if they were non-voiced as far as how 連濁 is governed. Meaning, only the consonants which use the ゛ are meant by “voiced consonants.” In other words, voiced consonants which have a non-voiced counterpart. ↩︎
- きがえる is the predominant reading despite being irregular. ↩︎