>>>> "rendhalver" == rendhalver <(Peter
Brown)" <rendhalver(a)xemacs.org>> writes:
rendhalver> Lynn David Newton writes:
> What syllable receives the accent? Is it pronounced NAHM-a-zu,
> or na-MAH-zu? :-)
rendhalver> i am unsure as to the pronunciation of namazu
Japanese does not use stress accents to distinguish words. All
syllables get equal stress and equal time. It uses pitch accents (it
is not a toned language like Chinese; a syllable spoken with different
pitch accents is still the same syllable). A trailing "n" is
considered a separate syllable, as is the glottal stop. All other
syllables consist of an optional consonant (there are about 15)
followed by a vowel (one of 5). The consonant really is optional:
o-o-o-o-o-o is a meaningful (made-up) word meaning "big king" with an
obligatory (he's a king, after all!) honorific prefix, followed by a
suffix marking the so-honored big king as a direct object. :-)
Thus NA-MA-ZU.
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