Linguist Forum
General Linguistics => Linguist's Lounge => Topic started by: Fervin on August 10, 2017, 03:13:09 AM
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Hi guys, I am new here and already in need of some help/inspiration ^^
I am a B.A. in linguistics and interested in the Japanese Language. I wanted to write a seminar paper on it. I especially like phonology and thought about writing about characteristics of the Japanese language or phonology. Anybody has a good idea?
I am not the best when it comes to concretize on one special subject...
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I'd start by explaining what's a syllable structure and basic phonotactics. What do you think? Japanese phonology is a good example of restrictive phonotactics and syllable structure.
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There are a lot of topics to consider of course. If you want to get into a somewhat complicated topic you could look at prosodic properties of particles in Japanese to argue for an analysis as either postpositions or case suffixes. It's an interesting problem without a clear single answer but you could make an argument from the perspective of phonology if possible.
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You say you're interested in it... well what are you interested about!? Write about that!
I tend to get fascinated on exotic things that my language lacks, so for me the cool parts about Japanese phonology include:
pitch accent
biblial fricatives!
devoicing
The ɯ̟ᵝ vowel; a close near-back vowel with lip compression - super exotic!