# How to pronounce 繁栄 han'ei?



## Fumiko Take

How to pronounce 繁栄 han'ei? Is there a glottal stop between the two syllables? Is it /haɴʔeː/, /haɴeː/, /haŋʔeː/ or /haŋeː/?


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## Flaminius

No glottal stop there.  The syllabic N is realised by doubling the uvular nasal:  /haɴɴeː/


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## M Mira

Flaminius said:


> No glottal stop there.  The syllabic N is realised by doubling the uvular nasal:  /haɴɴeː/


What if the subsequent mora also begins with a nasal? For example, what's the difference between 天恩 and 天皇？ Is the latter /teɴnoː/ or /teɴɴɴoː/ or something else?


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## SoLaTiDoberman

天皇＝てんのう　（notてんおう）
検温＝けんおん　（not けんのん）
繁栄＝はんえい (not はんねい）

It seems very clear to me...


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## Flaminius

M Mira said:


> For example, what's the difference between 天恩 and 天皇？ Is the latter /teɴnoː/ or /teɴɴɴoː/ or something else?


It is pronounced with the alveolar nasal: /tennoː/
For the sake of phonetic analysis, ん is often regarded as an archephoneme (N), a nasal consonant whose actual phonetic value depends upon the phoneme that immediately follows it (tentatively called S).  If Ｓ is another nasal, N has the same value as S as a result of backward assimilation.

Edit
The above explains how to pronounce the character string <てんのう>, where ん is followed by a syllabary for /nV/.  You might also wonder how _ten_ (天) + _ō_ (皇) becomes <てんのう>.

The etymology of 天皇 is very difficult and we even don't know for sure when it came into existence.  皇 is read _kō_ in Sino-Japanese.  The source of this pronunciation is probably 王, but we are not going into the historical details here.  Suffice it to say that a change occurred that combined _ten_ and _ō _into _tennō_ some time in history.

This is a result of a process called sandhi or 連声 (_renjō_).  It is a type of forward assimilation that involves two Sino-Japanese morphemes.  When the first component ends with either _-n_, _-m_ or _-t_, and the second component begins with either _V-_, _yV-_ or _wV-_ (where _V_ is a vowel), the latter is replaced by either _nV_, _mV- _or _tV-_.  A similar example for 天皇 is 反応, where the two morphemes before derivation are pronounced _han_ and _ō_.


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## M Mira

Flaminius said:


> It is pronounced with the alveolar nasal: /tennoː/
> For the sake of phonetic analysis, ん is often regarded as an archephoneme (N), a nasal consonant whose actual phonetic value depends upon the phoneme that immediately follows it (tentatively called S).  If Ｓ is another nasal, N has the same value as S as a result of backward assimilation.


So if I get it correctly, it's an uvular/alveolar MoA contrast, not a nasal length contrast?


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## Fumiko Take

Flaminius said:


> No glottal stop there. The syllabic N is realised by doubling the uvular nasal: /haɴɴeː/


So basically the onset consonant of the second syllable is /ɴ/, and the word is pronounced with no abruptness, no glottal stop, no pause, no nothing between the two syllbales, right?


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## Flaminius

M Mira said:


> So if I get it correctly, it's an uvular/alveolar MoA contrast, not a nasal length contrast?


What do you contrast /tennoː/ with? What is MoA?



Fumiko Take said:


> So basically the onset consonant of the second syllable is /ɴ/, and the word is pronounced with no abruptness, no glottal stop, no pause, no nothing between the two syllbales, right?


Right. The second vowel can be slightly nasalised but I don't observe myself nasalising it till the end of the vowel.


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## M Mira

Flaminius said:


> What do you contrast /tennoː/ with? What is MoA?


天恩, as I have said. But it seems that the second ん prevents the お from becoming a の, so nevermind.
MoA is manner of articulation, but I should have said place of articulation instead, but never mind, that was a brain fart.


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## Flaminius

Oh, I missed that part.  Although these words are usually spelled _ten'on_, _ken'on_, the apostrophe does not mean disjunction but a nasal sequence /ɴɴ/.  So there is an opposition between /ɴɴ/ and /nn/.

The sense of abruptness is felt, if any, it is due to a noticeable pause before the latter vowel is uttered.  I suspect that listeners would hardly hardly tell the difference if the speaker changes the positions in the mouth from those for pronouncing the uvular nasal to the neutral positions or to those for pronouncing the glottal stop, and then pronounce the latter vowel.


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## M Mira

Flaminius said:


> Oh, I missed that part.  Although these words are usually spelled _ten'on_, _ken'on_, the apostrophe does not mean disjunction but a nasal sequence /ɴɴ/.  So there is an opposition between /ɴɴ/ and /nn/.


Thanks for the clarification


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