Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 288
brIdZ] > [ke n bM 4i d dʑi] (C is mainly [p,t,k,s,S,tS] but can be
voiced). The ambisyllabic consonants (post-stress consonants),
where the preceding vowel is lax, in loan words be come geminat-
ed. e.g. shopping [SQp IN] > [ɕop pi n gM], essence [es @ns] > [e
s se n sM], discussion [dIskVS@n] > [di sM ka ɕ ɕo n], kitchen
[kItS@n] > [ki t tɕi n]. Therefore, it can be predicted that when pre-
sented with the Icelandic names pronounced by Icelandic speakers,
Japanese subjects may choose the transliteration pattern with the
geminate.
We can expect a similar process with Icelandic names such as
Diðrik and Friðrik, i.e. that they will also be pronounced with a gem-
inate. Whether an Icelandic native speaker will perceive it in this
way or not is a different question. Perception of the difference
between a singleton and a geminate stop consonant does not depend
solely on the difference in length of the stop consonant in question.
apart from this primary cue, there are co-variants that affect the
hearer’s perception, especially in normal speech, where measuring
the duration of the consonant is no straightforward matter. These co-
variants include the length of the preceding vowel, its intensity, /F0/
as well as the voice quality of the vowel that follows the conso-
nant(s). There is also a cross-linguistisc difference. For example, in
languages such as Icelandic, the duration of the vowel preceding the
geminate stop is said to be shorter than that of the vowel preceding
the singleton stop. However, in Japanese, the opposite seems to be
the case.11 Due to these cross-linguistic differences in the perception
of geminate vs. singleton consonants, it would be plausible to think
that Icelandic speakers may perceive the presence of a geminate in
names differently from Japanese speakers.
results
From Table 1.a. below, it appears that the general tendency for
Japanese speakers was to insert geminate /Q/ and pronounce the
name /di zu ri Q ku/ ([di zu ri k ku]), /fu ri zu ri Q ku/ ([fu ri zu ri
TranSLITEraTIng ICELanDIC naMES InTO JaPanESE …
288
11 Kaori Idemaru and Susan g. guion, “acoustic Covariants of Length Contrast in Japanese
Stops”, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38(2)/2008, pp. 167–186, here pp.
167–170.
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