学校 consists of the following kanji:
学 Go-on: がく (gaku)
校 Kan-on: こう (kou)
But 学校 is not read as gakukou, but as gakkou. And I’m trying to find out why.
Here is what I think is going on:
The first u becomes silent, because it’s between two voiceless consonants (k).
So in this case, 学 is actually being read as がっ, not がく.
Is that correct? If so, is there a term for this phenomenon? I find it difficult to look up the issue in search machines, because I don’t know the correct terminology. Thanks in advance.
11 comments
Yes, this sound change is called 音便 (おんびん) in Japanese. The final sound in some syllables is assimilated into the initial consonant of the next, particularly in Chinese borrowings.
Well as a linguist, the reason would be vowel licensing and governance of consonants combined with the theory that u is an empty element in Japanese.
[https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/rendaku/](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/rendaku/)
[https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/sokuonbin.html](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/12/sokuonbin.html)
look up “rendaku” and “sokuonbin” to get more info on sounds that change as a result of being juxtaposed next to each other in japanese
My take on this topic will be more rooted in some comparative linguistics, so please pardon my references to other CJK(V) languages.
One thing to keep in mind is that the CJKV languages are all pretty okay with syllable-final consonants with the exception of Japanese (and many syllable-final consonants disappeared in Mandarin too). Most of the kango 漢語 that were borrowed into Japanese were borrowed from Chinese dialects that were not Mandarin, and many of those dialects had syllable-final consonants.
There are two ways Japanese allows for syllables ending in consonants, in praxis: ん and っ. Even then, it’s important to remember that ん and む were interchangeable until relatively recently.
Regarding 学校 in particular (學校 in Traditional Chinese), the first character is pronounced hak in Korean and Min Nan, hok in Cantonese and Hakka. When the on’yomi (Chinese reading) was being borrowed into Japanese, the specific time period and dialect would have likely sounded like “gak” or “hak,” but there is no way to notate that using kana–so it’s often notated as がく (gaku).
When く clashes with か行 (ka-row letters), く becomes っ for the reasons mentioned above. Interestingly, this process makes the word closer to its Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese counterparts. Compare:
* 學校 – Japanese: gaku + **k**ou = gakkou; Korean: hakgyo; Vietnamese: học hiệu; Cantonese: hok6 haau6
* 国旗 – Japanese: koku + **k**i = kokki; Korean: gukgi; Vietnamese: quốc kì; Cantonese: gwok3 kei4
* 作家 – Japanese: saku + **k**a = sakka; Korean: jakga; Cantonese: zok3 gaa1
This also happens more broadly, though, I think at least when the second character begins with an unvoiced consonant. Observe:
* 日記 – Japanese: nichi + **k**i = nikki; cf. Korean: ilgi; Vietnamese: nhật kí; Cantonese: jat6 gei3
* 鐵板 – Japanese: tetsu + **p**an = teppan; cf. Cantonese: tit3 baan2
* 卒する – Japanese: sotsu + **s**uru = sossuru
In the above cases, the Chinese/Vietnamese syllables end in -t, and the Korean syllables end in -l. Because there’s no “nitki” or “tetpan” in Japanese, we use っ to elongate k, p.
Note that, when the second Chinese character begins with a voiced vowel, there is no elision in Japanese:
* 鐵道 – tetsu + **d**ou = tetsudou; cf. Korean cheoldo, Cantonese tit3 dou6
* 國民 – koku + **m**in = kokumin; cf. Korean gukmin/gungmin, Vietnamese quốc dân, Cantonese gwok3 man4 or gok2 min3
* 卒業 – sotsu + **g**you = sotsugyou; cf. Korean jor-eop, Vietnamese tốt nghiệp, Cantonese zeot1 jip6
Imho, it all comes down to how Japanese handles consonant-final syllables.
Bad news: there a lot more of this.
Good news: it gets easier.
Yes
学校 is spelt がっこう in hiragana.
The っ doubles the following consonant and puts it on the previous syllable. Remember that Japanese uses alphasyllabaries instead of individual consonants and vowels. In this case the doubling happens to the こ, and adding the extra “k” sound to the end of が as one syllable. Spelling it out romanized it’d be pronounced gak•kō.
The double consonant or “geminate” consonant is called sokuon (促音).
There are much more complex and thoughtful answers, but for you, as a beginner, I’d just say that, in a Sino-Japanese word, if you see a consonant, _i_ or _u_, and the same consonant in the next syllable, it probably doubles up in this way. _Tsu_ behaves similarly, which I imagine is why the doubled consonant is written っ (e.g., 発表 is actually はつ + ひょう — the voicing part is a separate change but ignore that for now).
Its not that uncommon. For instance, たくさん means “many”. Yet i heard a lot of people speak both ways, takusan or just taksan
Totally not scientific reason: People are lazy.
If you compare saying がくこう and がっこうthe latter is way easier to say and still close enough to be understood. So people just omit the u.
The new kana usage is more related to the actual pronunciation than the old one. Pronouncing 学校 as Gakkou is easier. And in old kana usage, the word was written as “Gakukau”.
Sorry if I am late. I think your talking about “devoicing”. Looks like you have the gist of it, but it also applies to “i” when sandwiched between voiceless consonants as in ました.
Dogen has a very good video on it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQM7BhJJns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQM7BhJJns)