Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word 子音. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word 子音, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say 子音 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word 子音 you have here. The definition of the word 子音 will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of子音, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
子(“child”) + 音(“sound”). From the notion of a mothering vowel mating with a fathering consonant and giving birth to an onsetted mora, according to Meiji-era linguists, as in father /k/ + mother あ(/a/) = child か(/ka/).
(obsolete,phonology) any of the morae with an onsetconsonant listed on the 五十音図(gojūonzu, literally “chart of the fifty sounds”), such as か(ka) or し(shi), but not あ(a) or い(i), and not が(ga), じ(ji) or ぱ(pa)
Shion to wa, gojūon no naka yori, goko no boon o nozoki taru, hoka no shijūgoon o iu. Kowa, fubo ryōon no haigō shite nareru mono nare ba, sono onsei tanjun narazu. Yue ni, (ka……a), (ki……i) no gotoku, koe o nagaku hiku toki wa, sono in kanarazu boon ni kisuru nari. Ima, koko ni fuon to boon to haigō shite, shion o shōzuru junjo o shimesamu.
Excluding the five mother sounds from the fifty sounds, the forty-five remaining sounds are called ‘child sounds’. Since they result from combining father and mother sounds, their quality is not simple. Thus, if the voicing is prolonged, as in (ka……a) or (ki……i), the rhymes always turn back into mother sounds. Now, I shall demonstrate the order in which father sounds and mother sounds combine and bear child sounds.
Gojūonchū, boongai no shijūgoon o, SHION to iu. Shion wa, boon to, hoka no isshu yūbi naru on to no, haigō shite shōji taru mono ni shite, sono on jun narazu. Yue ni, kore o nagaku hikite yobe ba, mina, boon ni kaeramu. Sunawachi, ka—a, ki—i no gotoshi.
Among the fifty sounds, the forty-five ones other than the mother sounds are called child sounds. Child sounds are born by mother sounds combined with a sort of subtle sound, and their quality is not pure. That is, if you prolong them, they should turn back into mother sounds, as in, for example ka—a or ki—i.
Yue ni, kono shijūgoon o, shion to shōshi, sono ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru wu no gotoki kuon o, fuon to shōsu. Kono fuon wa, kiwamete inbi naru mono ni te, saya ni koe ni hassuru nō wa zaredo, yaya, korera ni ni taru ni, kono kuko no on no moji ni te, kore o shimeseru nari.
Thus, the forty-five sounds are called ‘child sounds’, and the nine sounds such as ku, su, tsu, nu, fu, mu, yu, ru and wu are called ‘father sounds’. The father sounds are highly obscure, and even though they can be clearly uttered, they can only be approximated by these nine phonetic characters that sound close to them.
Shion to iu mono fa kagyō no ki ku ke ko, sagyō no shi su se so no yō na mono de arimasu. Shion ga fuon to boon to no tame ni umareru to iu koto wa sude ni toite oita tōri de arimasu ga, sa no hō ni yotte akiraka ni naru de arau to omoimasu. Tadashi hō wa boon no a dake wa habukimasu.
‘Child sounds’ are letters such as ki, ku, ke and ko of the ka-row or shi, su, se and so of the sa-row. Child sounds are said to be born by father sounds and mother sounds, which I have already explained, so I assume the demonstration on the left chart should be easily understood. Note that the mother sound a is left out of the chart.