PRASASTI: Journal of Linguistics
Vol 10, No 1 (2025)

Phonological Interference of Japanese Uvular [ɴ] in the pronunciation of English Alveolar /n/ at Ending Distribution

Fajri, Anisah Durrotul (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
27 May 2025

Abstract

English has been widely used all around the world, either as the first, second, or foreign languages. As foreign language of Japan, English is not daily used, however, since immigration to English speaking countries for educational or business purposes has been common in Japan, more and more people used English within those contexts. A case on the use of English by Japanese is a vlogger Rion Ishida whose speech frequently used uvular [ɴ] for English alveolar /n/. This study examined the interference of Japanese uvular [ɴ] which is not common in English in the speech production of English alveolar /n/. The finding shows that at ending distribution, English alveolar /n/ has been pronounced as uvular [ɴ] in more-than-one-syllable words. In this case, actual phoneme substitution occurs as a result of phonological interference. This is partly caused by the position of the words containing /n/ in the speech and another is caused by the interference of Japanese phonological system which regulates alveolar /n/ to be realized as uvular [ɴ] at final or ending distribution. Thus, three factors causing phonological interferences consisting (1) the competing phonemic categories, (2) their allophonic membership, and (3) their distributions are all evident in this study.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

pjl

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

The Prasasti: Journal of Linguistics (PJL) is devoted to the problems of general linguistics. Its aim is to present work of current interest in all areas of linguistics. Contributions are required to contain such general theoretical implications as to be of interest to any linguist, whatever their ...