Monday, December 4, 2017

Compound Kana - ひゃ, しょ, ちゅ

In English, compound kana refers to when a kana 仮名 is followed by a small kana (sutegana 捨て仮名) to represent a single syllable that takes only one mora of time to pronounce, for example: kya きゃ.

Such syllables represent diphthongs—they have two vowels. In Japanese, this is called called youon 拗音, "distorted sound." For example: ki き has one vowel, while kya きゃ has two, and kiya きや has two vowels, too, but takes twice as long to pronounce.(福居誠二, 2017:68)

Normally, the normal-sized kana ends in the ~i vowel, such as ki, ni, chi, shi きにちし, followed by a small ya, yu or yo ゃゅょ. This is called kai-youon 開拗音 and found in native words. Besides these, there are compounds used in loan words, like kuwa くゎ, guwa ぐゎ, called gou-youon 合拗音, and others, like fa ファ, va ヴァ.(福居誠二, 2017:p67, n21, p69)

There are also compounds formed of two small kana, such as tyie ティェ:

Chart

For reference, a chart of the compound kana found in native words:

kya
きゃ
キャ
kyu
きゅ
キュ
kyo
きょ
キョ
gya
ぎゃ
ギャ
gyu
ぎゅ
ギュ
gyo
ぎょ
ギョ
sha
しゃ
シャ
shu
しゅ
シュ
sho
しょ
ショ
ja
じゃ
ジャ
ju
じゅ
ジュ
jo
じょ
ジョ
cha
ちゃ
チャ
chu
ちゅ
チュ
cho
ちょ
チョ
dya
ぢゃ
ヂャ
dyu
ぢゅ
ヂュ
dyo
ぢょ
ヂョ
nya
にゃ
ニャ
nyu
にゅ
ニュ
nyo
にょ
ニョ
hya
ひゃ
ヒャ
hyu
ひゅ
ヒュ
hyo
ひょ
ヒョ
bya
びゃ
ビャ
byu
びゅ
ビュ
byo
びょ
ビョ
pya
ぴゃ
ピャ
pyu
ぴゅ
ピュ
pyo
ぴょ
ピョ
mya
みゃ
ミャ
myu
みゅ
ミュ
myo
みょ
ミョ
rya
りゃ
リャ
ryu
りゅ
リュ
ryo
りょ
リョ

As image:

The common compound kana.

Different Words

The small kana used in a compound kana are not equivalent to their normal-sized kana. This means that a word with small ゃ is not the same as a word with big や. For example:

  • kyou
    きょう (kanji: 今日)
    Today.
  • kiyou
    きよう (器用)
    Skillful.
  • hyou
    ヒョウ (雹)
    Hail. (the raining kind)
  • hiyou
    ヒヨウ (費用)
    Cost.

Sometimes, the small kana is used instead of a prolonged sound mark to mark a long vowel, which is longer than one mora. This, too, would be a different thing:

  • waaa!!!
    わぁー!!!.
    Wahh!!! (a startled shriek.)

Mora

A compound kana takes one mora of time to pronounce.

A mora is an unit of time used in pronunciation: each kana takes exactly one mora to pronounce, and this is the same no matter how fast or slow your normally speak.

The idea is that if there's a 4 kana word, with 4 mora, it should take twice as long to pronounce than a 2 kana word with 2 mora. The compound kana break this rule.

With compound kana, you have a syllable that takes only one single mora to pronounce but is written with more than a single kana.

This means, for example, that kyakya きゃきゃ takes as much time to pronounce as kiya きや, even though it's written longer, since kya きゃ is one mora, ki き is one mora, and ya や is one mora, both kyakya and kiya take two mora of time to pronounce.

References

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