Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 307
results
On the whole, both Japanese and Icelandic subjects preferred to have
vowels /i/ or /u/ inserted after /h/. In Japanese, the phoneme /h/ has
allophones [h], [ç], [Φ]: [h] before /a/, /e/, /o/, [ç] before /i/, and Φ
before /u/. When an Icelandic word with /h/ followed by a consonant
is transliterated into Japanese, a vowel has to be inserted. Depending
on which vowel is used, the consonant /h/ itself will have to change,
e.g. [h] →[ç]/_i, and [h]→[Φ]/_u. Even if inserting /i/ or /u/ led to
more sound changes, they were still the preferred choice of vowels.
Table 8.a Choice of pronunciation for names that contain consonant clus-
ters /hl/ or /hr/.
In looking at individual names, further tendencies may be
observed. The vowel /i/ is inserted by preference when /h/ is fol-
lowed by /l/ (Hlín, Hlynur, Hlíf), and when /h/ is followed by /r/
(Hrönn, Hrannar, Hrafnhildur). /u/ is the second most popular
choice, followed by /a/ and /o/. With the name Hlíf, however, /i/
and /u/ are given almost equal preference. The Japanese subjects
made similar choices for each name as the Icelandic ones, except
for Hlíf, where none of the Japanese subjects chose /hu/, the most
popular choice for Icelandic subjects. Instead, Japanese subjects
preferred /ho/, or even /hi/ and /he/.
In this experiment, /hl/ and /hr/ are treated as consonant clusters.
However, those are usually pronounced as unvoiced trills/laterals,
although a short [h] is sometimes pronounced in the initial
position. Therefore, in the future experiment, we should include the
variables such as [ ri n] for Hlín, [ro n] for Hrönn and [ra na ru]
for Hrannar as well.
KaOru uMEZaWa
307
1st year 2nd year 1st & 2nd year Japanese
[ha] 8 (3) 2 (11) 10 3
[ i] 29 7 36 13
[ u] 28 (31) 30 (59) 58 25
[he] 4 3 7 6
[ho] 7 4 11 6
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