Nihongo Notes

Phonetic changes in rapid speech - the dropping of the ‘i’ sound

Miss Yoshida was talking with a young women colleague yesterday afternoon; she talked about a photo and said
    Ja, ato de motte ku wa.
    (Then I will bring it to later.)
Mr. Lerner realized that the i sound is dropped not only in iru but also in iku.
In rapid speech, the i sound is often left out. The most common case is in the expression …te iru, as in
    Ashita matte masu.
    (I will be waiting for you tomorrow.)

    Ima ocha o nonde ru tokoro desu.
    (I am having some tea now.)

The i sound is also dropped in iku when it is used with other verbs; the i in itta (said went) is also dropped in rapid speech.
    Dare ga motte ku no.
    (Who is going to take it there?)

    Dan dan atsuku natte ku deshoo ne.
    (It’ll get warmer and warmer)

    Kino motte tta hazu da.
    (I’m sure I took it there yesterday.)

    Kare, nante tta no.
    (What did he say?)

The i sound is also dropped in irassharu as in
    Itte rasshai
    (Good-buy, said to someone leaving the house.)

    Asoko de matte rasshaimasu yo.
    (He is waiting over there.)

In very rapid, familiar speech, the i sound is also left out in the phrase …ni naru, as in
    Sanji n nattara oshiete.
    (Tell me when it’s 3 o’clock.)

    Muri o suru to byooki n naru yo.
    (If you overwork, you’ll become sick.)

When the I sound is dropped several times in one sentence, it is difficult to understand the meaning.
    Sanji n nattara motte ku tte tta yo.
    (He said he would take it at 3.)
is a contracted version of
    Sanji ni nattara motte iku to itta yo.
Follow this link for an index of Nihongo Notes
Nihongo Notes is taken from a series of columns that appeared in The Japan Times
written by Osamu and Nobuko Mizutani They are not designed to teach Japanese, so much
as they are to better one's Japanese.

[Home] [Photos] [Nihongo Notes] [Weather]
[Travel] [School] [Work] [Geocities]
Email Richard_Elieson@Notes.AMRCorp.com.