Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 311
ed to prefer either diphthong [au] or the two-vowel sequence [a]
and [u], which orthographically are transcribed ‘アゥ’and ‘アウ’.
Either choice will yield essentially the same result, as Japanese
people normally pronounce both as a sequence of two vowels
rather than as a diphthong. It should be noted, however, a name,
Ál frún, showed a different result from this general trend. This is
probably due to the fact that the diphthong [au] is pronounced
shorter in Álfrún than in Ágúst.
For 4), lateral release, both Japanese and Icelandic speakers
opted for the insertion of [to], /Q/ or both, geminate /Q/ being the
most popular choice among Japanese speakers and Icelandic first-
year students. It is difficult to decide which of the three options is
most appropriately used in transliteration. The preference of the
subjects seemed to vary with the names, and more names should be
tested.
For 5), long vowel /r/, a slight tendency appeared for both
Japan ese and Icelandic speakers to prefer a long vowel /Vr/ (/VV/),
i.e. to have an extra mora with the lengthened vowel. although the
overall tendency is not striking, trends for each individual name
showed up clearly and were similar for all three subject groups. In
order to transliterate the original sound most accurately, the vowel
in an accented syllable should be lengthened so as to add one mora,
with some exceptions.
For 6), unaspirated plosives in Icelandic, a voiced pronunciation
in Japanese proved more popular than an unvoiced alternative
among both Japanese and Icelandic subjects, even though VOT in
a voiceless plosive in Japanese is closest to VOT in Icelandic
unaspirated plosives. The tendency varied considerably with indi-
vidual names. The three subject groups tended to make the same
choices for each individual name. This implies that subjects had
consistent criteria with which to determine their choice. Perceptual
cues for VOT in both Icelandic words and their Japanese translit-
erations should be studied in more detail.
For 7), dental fricatives [T], [ð], the general tendency for both
Japanese and Icelandic subjects was towards alveolar fricatives [s]
and [z], rather than plosives [t] and [d], although again, the trend
varied according to the environment. In general, [s] and [z] were
preferred in word-final position (_#), when the sound was followed
KaOru uMEZaWa
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