is a pronunciation change seen in the middle of some compound words in Japanese. It replaces a voiceless consonant, such as , with a voiced consonant, such as . Rendaku modifies the consonant at the start of the second (or later) part of the compound. For example, the morpheme starts with the voiceless consonant , which is replaced with the corresponding voiced consonant in the compound word , from + .
Rendaku is common, but it does not occur in all compound words. A rule known as Lyman's law blocks rendaku when the second element already contains one of the consonants , as in the compound word . Because the second element contains , its initial consonant remains voiceless. Rendaku is also blocked almost always when the second element of a compound is a recent loan into Japanese. Furthermore, rendaku may fail to occur even in contexts where no definite blocking factor is present.
In the Japanese writing system, rendaku affects how a morpheme is spelled when using one of the kana syllabaries: it causes the dakuten ("voicing mark", written as ) to be added to the upper right corner of the kana character that represents the first consonant and vowel in the second element of the compound. This is seen when comparing the hiragana spelling of () to that of (): the kana character () in the first word is replaced with (), with the dakuten, in the second. Rendaku is not marked in writing when a morpheme is spelled using kanji (logographs taken from Chinese characters). For example, is written with the kanji character , which is unchanged when used in the spelling of .
Linguistically, rendaku involves aspects of both pronunciation (phonology) and word structure (morphology); therefore, it is categorized as a morphophonological phenomenon.
Effects Consonants (in Hepburn) undergoing rendakuUnvoiced Voiced k → g s, sh → z, j t, ch, ts → d, j, z h, f → b Rendaku replaces a voiceless obstruent consonant with a voiced consonant sound. For example, the voiceless alveolar plosive becomes the voiced alveolar plosive in the context of rendaku. In this case, the new consonant retains the same manner and place of articulation as the original consonant. However, rendaku can also cause additional changes depending on the sounds involved.
Pronunciation
In the context of Japanese phonology, some consonant sounds that seem distinct to English speakers, and that have distinct spellings in Hepburn romanization, are analyzed as allophones (contextual variants of a phoneme). The following table describes the effects of rendaku in the standard variety of Japanese, using both phonemic transcriptions (marked by slashes, such as ) and phonetic transcriptions (marked by square brackets, such as ).
Consonants eligible for rendaku Original consonant Consonant after rendaku Phoneme Allophones Romanization Phoneme Allophones Romanization or or or or or or
Depending on the accent and age of a speaker, the voiced velar nasal may be used in Japanese as an alternative to the voiced velar stop , mainly in cases where the consonant occurs in the middle of a word. For speakers who use in the middle of words, is replaced with in the context of rendaku. The sounds and are typically analyzed as allophones of a single phoneme (although some phonologists have argued they are distinct phonemes for the minority of speakers who consistently distinguish them).
The voiceless affricates are commonly analyzed as allophones of . Originally, corresponded to voiced affricate sounds , whereas corresponded to voiced fricative sounds . However, the historical distinction between and has been lost in the Tokyo-based standard (though not in all regional varieties of Japanese). The merged sounds may be pronounced either as voiced affricates or voiced fricatives, regardless of etymology (see yotsugana). Therefore, historical and have merged as phonetic , and historical and have merged as phonetic . In the context of rendaku, dialects with the merger may be analyzed as possessing an underlying phonemic distinction between and that becomes neutralized on the phonetic level as . Alternatively, treats rendaku as replacing the phoneme with before . A third approach is taken by , who rejects the identification of as allophones of , and instead postulates five voiceless phonemes and three voiced phonemes , with rendaku turning into , into , and into , respectively.
Rendaku turns the voiceless glottal fricative into the voiced bilabial plosive . This is because Japanese descends originally from a voiceless bilabial plosive *. Before the end of the 16th century, * developed into a bilabial fricative or labiodental fricative . Then, during the 17-18th centuries, this or developed into glottal before and palatal before or , remaining only before the vowel phoneme (which is currently pronounced ). As a result, in modern Japanese, rendaku replaces with .
Spelling
It is possible to characterize rendaku in terms of its effect on a morpheme's Japanese kana spelling: it adds the dakuten (voicing mark) to the first kana of the affected morpheme. The relevant graphemes are shown in the tables below (excluding yōon digraphs, which are formed by taking an i-column kana and placing a small ya, yu, or yo kana after it).
When morphemes that begin with the morae chi (/) and tsu (/) undergo rendaku, the resulting morae ji and zu are generally spelled with the kana / and /, rather than the identically pronounced / and /. This is not a strict rule, however, and is relaxed in certain older compounds or names, especially those that are not easily recognized as compounds.
+Hiragana characters affected by rendakuBefore rendaku a i u e oKか ka き ki く ku け ke こ ko Sさ sa し shi す su せ se そ so Tた ta ち chi つ tsu て te と to Hは ha ひ hi ふ fu へ he ほ ho After rendaku (with dakuten) a i u e oGが ga ぎ gi ぐ gu げ ge ご go Zざ za じ ji ず zu ぜ ze ぞ zo Dだ da ぢ ji づ zu で de ど do Bば ba び bi ぶ bu べ be ぼ bo +Katakana characters affected by rendakuBefore rendaku a i u e oKカ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ ko Sサ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ so Tタ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト to Hハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ ho After rendaku (with dakuten) a i u e oGガ ga ギ gi グ gu ゲ ge ゴ go Zザ za ジ ji ズ zu ゼ ze ゾ zo Dダ da ヂ ji ヅ zu デ de ド do Bバ ba ビ bi ブ bu ベ be ボ bo
Examples The following table shows an example of rendaku for each major allophone of the eligible consonant sounds:
Rendaku examples Change Example → + → → + → → + → → + → → + → → + → → + → → + → → + →
Historical origin
The voiced obstruent consonants of modern Japanese come from the prenasalized obstruents of Old Japanese. Rendaku may have originated from the fusion of consonants with preceding nasal sounds derived from reduction of either the genitive postposition or the dative postposition . For example, may be derived from "mountain- bird", by means of fusing with the following to form prenasalized in Old Japanese. This hypothesis helps explain why rendaku is not found in all compound words. If some compounds were originally formed with or , but others were formed through simple juxtaposition of roots, then rendaku would develop regularly only in the first category.
By the Old Japanese period, rendaku had already become grammatically distinct from constructions with or . This is shown by the use of forms such as "your bird": a corresponding phrase with would be ungrammatical, since the genitive of the pronoun "you" was formed exclusively with the postposition .
Conditions Rendaku occurs most frequently in compounds where the second element is a single morpheme of native Japanese origin that does not already contain a voiced obstruent phoneme. However, even though rendaku is usual in this context, it does not invariably occur: there are numerous exceptions pronounced without rendaku. Some compound words are pronounced with rendaku by some speakers, but without it by other speakers.
Rendaku is blocked when a voiced obstruent phoneme is already present in the second element of the compound. This rule, called Lyman's law, is highly reliable, with only a small number of exceptions.
Rendaku is also blocked if the second element is a recent loanword from a language other than Chinese (gairaigo). This rule likewise has few exceptions.
Rendaku does not affect most Sino-Japanese elements, but this tendency is less consistent. A substantial minority do undergo rendaku as the second element of a compound. It has been speculated that Sino-Japanese elements that can undergo rendaku might have become "vulgarized", that is, adopted into the same category of vocabulary as native Japanese morphemes.
Other rules have been proposed regarding circumstances where rendaku is either blocked or favored, but often, it is only possible to identify tendencies rather than inviolable rules.
Lyman's law
Lyman's law is a fundamental constraint on rendaku that prohibits voicing when the second element of a compound already contains a voiced obstruent phoneme (, , , or , including allophones such as and ). These phonemes are all written with the dakuten and called in Japanese. For example: + → (surname) ("mountain" + "gate" → place name). Rendaku does not occur because already contains a voiced obstruent consonant phoneme . Therefore, its initial consonant remains voiceless, and the form *Yamagado やまがど does not exist (* indicates a non-existent form). + → ("one person" + "travel" → "traveling alone"), not *. Rendaku does not occur because already contains a voiced obstruent consonant phoneme . + → ("mountain" + "fire" → "mountain fire"), not *. Rendaku does not occur because already contains a voiced obstruent consonant phoneme (in the form of its allophone ).
The precise formulation of Lyman's law varies between analysts. In particular, there are conflicting viewpoints on the size of the phonological domain in which it applies. One formulation states that rendaku is blocked by the presence of a voiced obstruent consonant "within a morpheme"; this may be interpreted as a consequence of a more general constraint that applies also to the underived form of native Japanese morphemes, which do not generally contain more than one voiced obstruent phoneme. An alternative view is that Lyman's law applies whenever a voiced obstruent consonant occurs anywhere within the second element of a compound, and so might also include cases where this element is composed of more than one morpheme. Rendaku occasionally (although relatively infrequently) causes voicing of the initial consonant of a Sino-Japanese () lexeme that is written with two kanji, and is in etymological terms composed of two Sino-Japanese roots; it is debatable whether such lexemes count as one morpheme or two from a synchronic perspective.
In modern Japanese, the presence of a voiced obstruent phoneme in the first element does not normally block rendaku, as demonstrated by examples such as + → . Nevertheless, it has been proposed that in certain circumstances, Lyman's law might be (or might once have been) sensitive to the presence of a voiced obstruent in the first element of a compound. Compound personal names ending in the element 'rice field' seem to usually show rendaku when the final mora of the first element contains (e.g. ), but never show rendaku when the final mora of the first element contains (e.g. ) (and usually do not show rendaku when it contains ). The pattern of voicing seen in compounds like these may in part be a residue of an older version of the law that operated in Old Japanese. Examination of Old Japanese compounds suggests that Old Japanese had a constraint against two consecutive syllables starting with a prenasalized consonant (the source of modern Japanese /voiced obstruent phonemes), but over time, this constraint came to be replaced with the modern tendency for a consonant to block rendaku only when it occurs in the second element of the compound.