English and Japanese Rhythm
BY
FUMIKO TAKIGUCHI
A FIVE PAGE PAPER
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE OF
SEMINAR 1 (World Englishes)
Kumamoto Gakuen University Foreign Language Department
English Course
SUPERVISOR: Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Oe 2-5-1 Kumamoto
Japan
December 20, 2002
This paper consists of approximately 1450 words
Ⅰ. Introduction
Many people will imagine music if they hear the word “rhythm” but
language has also fixed rhythm. Rhythm makes a pleasant sound by
repeating regularly the syllables with stress and it depends on the syllable is
pronounced strongly or weakly.
The foundation of the rhythm of language is the syllable. It is also the
unit of stress. In Japanese, one syllable includes one vowel, e.g. a i u e o and
one consonant, kana ; the Japanese system of syllabic writing is one syllable
because all the sounds includes one vowel. In English, one syllable is the
portion including one vowel and it is possible that a short word on the
surface has lots of syllables or against that, a long word doesn’t have many
syllables. Below is a sample of one of these words.
“Spring” is one syllable because it has one vowel. “Summer” is divided
sum- -mer, and it consists of two parts including sound each vowel, -u-, -e-,
so “summer” is a word of two syllables. A word with more than one syllable
has one a syllable that is pronounced more strongly than any other
syllable.
Ⅱ .
Difference
between
English
and
Japanese
Stress-timed
and
Syllable-timed rhythm
English has the tendency to pronounce words between each stress at
equal intervals. It is thought that English rhythm is influenced by Japanese
when Japanese people pronounce or hear English since the rhythm is
different. As contrasted with English, Japanese is pronounced by syllable (=
mora). The great difference between English and Japanese rhythm is
Stress-timing or Syllable-timing.
According to rhythm, languages are classified as Syllable-timed or
Stress-timed. Although Japanese is probably the most perfect example of a
syllable-timed language, French and Brazilian Portuguese also have
syllable-timed rhythm, and English is clearly a Stress-timed language.
In Syllable timed languages, the rhythm of speech is based on the
syllable, each syllable taking a similar amount of time to be pronounced.
Therefore, the amount of time to say a given sentence depends on the
number of syllables. The more syllables in the rhythm unit, the more
compressed these syllables are pronounced. These are examples:
(1)
The cat in the
hat
The cat in the yellow
hat.
The cat in the bright yellow hat.
(2)
Dogs
bite
bones.
The dogs will
bite the
bones.
The dogs will have bitten the bones.
((2) from Eigo Onseigaku Nyumon (Introduction to English Phonetics) 1998)
The elements constituting the English rhythm are stress and
intonation. As for the stress of words and phrases, the position of stress
changes with the meaning of a word, the kinds of part of speech, etc. The
isochronic stress-timed rhythm may collapse because of sentence stress.
From the syllable with stress to the next syllable with stress is a
rhyme or rhythmic unit. It takes about same time. This is not physically
quite the same time but it we feel it psychologically. These rhythmic units
occurring repeatedly at the same time is called isochronism. English is a
language of the stress-timed rhythm because it’s stress patterns keep
isochronism. In other words, the stress repeatedly appears to leave about the
same space.
People whose native tongue is English tend to stuff their unstressed
syllables together between the stressed ones in such a way that the stresses
occur at more or less regular time intervals. This is that the time taken to
say a phrase in English does not depend on the number of syllables but on
how many stressed syllables it contains.
Native speakers of Japanese need to realize the special character of
English to speak in English because the rhythm is in the strength and
weakness of stress, and rhyme without regard to the number of syllables.
The vowel of the syllable with stress has a clear quality of the sound.
However, unstressed syllables are compressed and pronounced rapidly. The
English that Japanese speak is pronounced in a monotone and the difference
in stress is poor. Japanese is a language of the syllable, with a timed rhythm
unlike English. Japanese apply a Japanese rhythm to English. It takes
Japanese about the same time for each syllable and the rhythm can be
timed.
English rhythm is a stress-timed rhythm but the Japanese rhythm
style is Syllable-timed rhythm. Another element that constitutes the English
rhythm is intonation. It gives words some spices. Intonation works to
emphasize a word, reverse the meaning, or to be lively, cheerfully, bored
because the intonation helps express.
Ⅲ. Japanese syllable-timed rhythm
A good example of Japanese rhythm can be seen in Haiku composed of
three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Many traffic catchwords in
Japan are also in 5-7-5 pattern. On the other hand, English poetry has
rhyme or alliteration. The same or similar pronunciation is brought the end
or head of the line, and the poetic effect is heightened because of the
repeating sounds.
Japanese rhythm is Haiku Rhythm. It is concretely the five-seven, or
seven-five syllable meter. Japanese realize the words depend on five or seven
sounds-rhythm. The difficulty of Japanese is that it is not easy to read and
speak if Japanese people unify into five or seven sounds. It is possible that
this impression is out of date, theatrical, and emphasized too much. As for
Haiku, it is ideal that Japanese rhythm with the rule of five-seven sounds as
a whole is followed but not too strictly.
Ⅳ. Syllable and mora
Because of the above, native speakers of Japanese feel that syllable is
the smallest unit to pronounce but there is a difference in interpretation as
to how many syllables are in words with so-called weak morae ((ん), a nasal
at the end or middle of a Japanese word, Sokuon (っ), doubled consonant, or
Chouon (―), a long vowel). This depends on the independence as a syllable of
the weak morae. For example:
ニッ・ポン(Japan)
セン・セイ(teacher)
In principle, these special sounds combine just before syllable into a
part of the syllable and as a whole constitute one syllable. In addition, a gap
of the syllable is regarded right after that. Nevertheless, Japanese people
also can split the sounds and pronounce them closely and very slowly. For
example,
ニ・ッ・ポ・ン
セ・ン・セ・イ
This each of sounds are pronounced as about same length. Let’s
see the next samples:
1,
2,
3,
4,
コセキ
コーキ
コンキ
コッキ
[koseki] (hestric spot)
[ko:ki] (opportunity)
[konki] (patience)
[kokki] (national flag)
(from Nihongo No Onin To Akusento (Japanese phoneme and accent), 1989 p.37)
1st word is three syllables and 2nd, 3rd and 4th are two syllables,
but they all have same times and they consist of three units. Moreover,
although the long syllables with special sounds (コー), (コン), (コッ) are one
as syllable, the length of the sound consists of two units. The unit to express
the length of this sound is called beat (mora). Syllable is pause, “the unity of
sound”, but beat (mora) is a unit of the time counted a length of this sound.
Beat (mora) is pronounced about the same time (Isochronism of beat).
The difference between syllable and mora is their unit.
Specifically, it shows a tendency that syllable as a unit of phonetic pause is
used, but mora as a unit of time is used.
Ⅴ. Conclusion
As the above, there are many fundamental differences between
English and Japanese rhythm. English rhythm is expressed by stress and
Japanese rhythm is expressed by syllables. In addition Japanese syllables
strictly are mora.
When we truly understand them, for example, it is possible to take
Mother Goose or haiku as this object of study. If it is carried out, we may
realize the difference between English and Japanese unique and exquisite
rhythms.
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