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| Japonic | Japanese |  Japan ,  Palau |
Kanji Hiragana Katakana |
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Euphony (In Japanese : 音便おんびん), as defined by Wiktionary, is a "pronunciation of letters and syllables which is pleasing to the ear; Good phonetic quality of certain words". In Japanese, these harmonising sound changes are apparent in four areas of the language: formation of structures like -te form or plain past tense, contractions of words or constructions and the spelling reforms of the 1800's in Japanese from what was effectively classical Japanese into the modern form, and the formation of compound nouns.
Euphony in grammar
The euphonic patterns in grammar are present in the forms: -te form and plain simple past tense of the Japanese language. Both of these grammatical features are the affixing of a suffix beginning with a voiceless plosive (<t> /t/). Because of this, the last kana of a stem of a verb changes to make the transition easier and more pleasant to their ears. The major changes are illustrated below showing the rules for transition from -masu form to plain simple past tense.
| い | り | ち | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 会 | い | ます | 知 | り | ます | 勝 | ち | ます | ||
| っ | た | っ | た | っ | た | |||||
| び | に | み | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 遊 | び | ます | 死 | に | ます | 読 | み | ます | ||
| ん | だ1 | ん | だ1 | ん | だ1 | |||||
| ぎ | き | し | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 泳 | ぎ | ます | 書 | き | ます | 話 | し2 | ます | ||
| い | だ1 | い | た | た | ||||||
Note 1: The suffix た / ta also euphonises by voicing itself to だ / da.
Note 2: The し / shi doesn't euphonise like the rest.
Euphony in contractions
Contractions are an important part of most colloquial languages. Japanese is no different. It euphonises many constructs or particles colloquially to make them easier to pronounce. These are normally the smushing of separate sounds together to create new sounds or constructs.
Some common examples are given below in sentences.
Examples:
- やばい！車をこわれてしまった！
やばい！車をこわれちゃった！
今、幸せなのですが。
今、幸せなんですが。
たくさんチョコレットを食べては、太るかもね。
たくさんチョコレットを食べちゃ、ふとるかもね。
明日までに宿題を終わらなければなりませんよ。
明日までに宿題を終わらなきゃ（なんない）よ。
There is many many more euphonised contractions, but they are some of the common ones.
| Japanese pages
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| Introduction · Adjectives （形容詞） · Auxiliaries （助辞） · Emphatics （語尾） · Euphony （音便） · Kana （仮名） · Kanji （漢字）: Comparisons (漢字の比べ） · Loanwords （伝来語） · Numbers （数詞） · Te Form （テ形） · Time (時間） · Particles （助詞） · Verbs （動詞）: Example （動詞の例） · Lexicon |
