Most of the phonological terms unique to Japanese were coined sometime during the Meiji era, based on Chinese phonology. Some of them are purely phonological, but many are influenced by the kana spelling as well.
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* 音 *on* “sound”: a sound, a mora, or a kana.
* 単音 *tan’on* “simple sound” or 母音 *boon* “mother sound”: a vocalic mora, such as /a, i, ɯ, e, o/, or the kana that spells it, such as あいうえお
* 母音 *boin*: a vowel, from the original meaning above
* 父音 *fuon* “father sound”: a consonant, such as /k, s, t, n/
* 子音 *shion* “child sound”: one of the combinations of 父音 and 母音, a mora beginning in a consonant, such as /ka, ki, sa, su, te, no/, or the kana that spells it, such as かきさすての
* 子音 *shiin*: a consonant, from the original meaning above, displacing 父音
* 濁点 *dakuten* “muddy mark”: the diacritic ゛
* 半濁点 *handakuten* “semi-muddy mark”: the diacritic ゜ , invented by Portuguese missionaries
* 清音 *seion* “clear sound”:
* In Middle Chinese, a voiceless consonant, including voiceless obstruents (/p, pʰ, ʔ, s, t͡s/), but excluding voiced sonorant (/m, n, l, w, j/)
* In Japanese, any kana without a (半)濁点, including the voiced vowels and voiced sonorants, such as the 母音 (あいうえお) and the 子音 (かきさすての)
* 濁音 *dakuon* “muddy sound”:
* In Middle Chinese, a voiced consonant, including voiced obstruents (/b, d, z, d͡z/) and voiced sonorants (/m, n, l, w, j/)
* In Japanese, any kana with a 濁点, including the voiced obstruents, such as がぎざずで, but excluding the voiced sonorants
* 次清音 *jiseion* “partly clear sound”:
* In Middle Chinese, a voiceless aspirated obstruent (/pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/)
* In Japanese, the obsolete term for 半濁音
* 半濁音 *handakuon* “semi-muddy sound”: any kana with a 半濁点, such as ぱぴぷぺぽ
* 熟音 *jukuon* “complex sound”: a 子音, 濁音 or 半濁音
* 拗音 *yōon* “bendy sound”: a mora that historically contained a semivowel (/j, w/), or the kana or kana sequence that spells it, such as わ, ゑ, を, きゃ, しゅ, くゎ
* 直音 *chokuon* “straight sound”: a non-拗音 mora, or the kana that spells it, such as か, が, し
* 直音化 *chokuonka*: the tendency to simplify a 拗音 into a 直音, for example in words like 本所 ほんじょ > ほんぞ
* 促音 *sokuon* “choked sound”: a moraic obstruent, the so-called “double consonant”, spelt with the small kana っ
* 撥音 *hatsuon* “leaping sound” (perhaps from the upward strokes of the kana ん and ン): a moraic nasal, spelt with the kana ん
* 音便 *onbin* “sound easing”: the historical simplification of certain difficult sounds
* 促音便 *sokuonbin*: the simplification of a historical mora into a 促音, such as 言ひて > 言って
* 撥音便 *hatsuonbin*: the simplification of a historical mora into a 撥音, such as 読みて > 読んで
* イ音便 *i-onbin*: the simplification of a historical mora into the vowel /i/, such as 書きて > 書いて
* ウ音便 *u-onbin*: the simplification of a historical mora into the vowel /ɯ/, such as 問ふて > 問うて
* 連濁 *rendaku* “compound muddying”: the systematic process of turning a 清音 in certain words into a 濁音 in compounds, such as 布団 ふとん > 客布団 きゃくぶとん, カッパ > 雨ガッパ
* 連声 *renjō* “compound voicing”*:* the rare process of adding an extra /m, n, t/ to a morpheme beginning in a vowel in a compound, such as 観音 かんおん > かんのん, 陰陽師 おんようじ > おんみょうじ, 雪隠 せついん > せっちん
1 comment
A few of these terms go back to Edo period linguistics or earlier — 濁 and 清 were used for voiced/unvoiced for a long time (I think that goes back to Heian poetry criticism or earlier with phrases like 濁りて読む). Although perhaps the specific terms 濁音 and 清音 were Meiji coinages.
I believe that 音便 is also an Edo-period term.
Most of the others are Meiji, though.