母音

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Chinese

female; mother sound; noise; news
simp. and trad.
(母音)

Etymology

Wasei kango (和製漢語), orthographically borrowed from Japanese ()(おん) (bōn, vowel)

Pronunciation


Noun

母音

  1. vowel

Synonyms

Derived terms

Japanese

Kanji in this term

Grade: 2
おん
Grade: 1
kan'yōon goon
Kanji in this term

Grade: 2
いん
Grade: 1
kan'yōon kan'on
 母音 on Japanese Wikipedia

Etymology

(mother) +‎ (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 (/a/) = child (/ka/). Compare 字母 (jibo, letter, literally character mother), 声母 (seibo, onset, literally sound mother) and 韻母 (inbo, rhyme, literally rime mother), all of which compare the process of generating words, syllables, etc. from a basic set of segments to motherhood.

Pronunciation

Noun

()(いん) or ()(おん) (boin or boon

  1. (obsolete, phonology) one of the five morae of the あ行 (agyō, a-row), that consists solely of a vowel
    Holonym: 子音 (shion)
    Coordinate term: 父音 (fuon)
    • 1893 March, 宗司 大宮, “第二章  母音 父音 子音 [Chapter 2: Mother Sounds, Father Sounds and Child Sounds]”, in 日本辭林 [A Japanese Dictionary], Tokyo: Hakubunkan, pages 5–6:
      五十音阿行五音母音といふこは單純なるにしていかに延長して發音する、(あ……ア)、(い……イ)の如くその音聲變ずることなきものなり
      Gojūon no naka, agyō no goon o boon to iu. Kowa, tanjun naru on ni shite, ika ni enchō shite hatsuon suru mo, (a……a), (i……i) no gotoku, sono onsei no henzuru koto naki mono nari.
      Among the fifty sounds, the five sounds of the a-row are called ‘mother sounds’. They are simple sounds, and however long they are pronounced, as in (a……a) or (i……i), their quality does not change.
    • 1897 March, “〇母音 [〇Mother Sounds]”, in 日本文典 [A Japanese Grammar], 中等學科敎授法硏究會:
      五十音分ち母音子音とのなす母音單純なる喉音にしてそのあり、アイウエオなり
      Gojūon o wakachite, BOON to, SHION to no ni to nasu. Boon wa, tanjun naru kōon ni shite, sono kazu go ari, a i u e o kore nari.
      Dividing the fifty sounds into two groups, there are mother sounds and child sounds. Mother sounds are simple guttural sounds, and there are five of them, namely a, i, u, e and o.
    • 1897 November, Shioi, Ukō, “第一  母音 [Number 1: Mother Sounds]”, in 中學日本文典 [A Middle-School Japanese Grammar], 六盟館, pages 2–3:
      この五音最も單一なる淸める音にてこれ母音稱す
      Kono goon wa, motto mo tan'itsu kiyomeru on ni te, kore o boon to shōsu.
      These five sounds are the simplest clear sounds, and they are called ‘mother sounds’.
    • 1902, Hirano, Hidekichi, “第十二章  母 音 [Chapter 12: Vowels]”, in 國語聲音學 [The Phonetics of the National Language], 國光社, pages 53–54:
      母音吾國語音では唯一なる喉音である聲門規律ある顫動受けたる共鳴せられ吾人聞ゆるもの母音と云ふ母音は、種々音色得るために口腔に共鳴されるが、決して或る局部に於て吾等聽き得られ、感じ得られる摩擦生ずる如きこと無い若し有つならば母音では無く父音である。此の區別は、極めて重大おる要件である。ヤ行ワ行が、頗る母音近い音であるけれども、父音たることを免れないのはである。
      Boon wa, waga kuni goon de wa, yuiitsu naru kōon de aru. Seimontai de kiritsu aru sendō o uke taru on ga, fukukanbu ni kyōmei serarete, gojin no mimi ni kikoyuru mono o boon to iu. Boon wa, shuju no onshoku o eru tame ni, kōkōnai ni kyōmei sareru ga, kesshite aru kyokubu ni oite, warera no kikierare, kanjierareru yō no masatsu o shōzuru ga gotoki koto wa nai. Moshi, atta nara ba, sore wa boon de wa nakute fuon de aru. Kono kubetsuhō wa, kiwamete jūdai oru yōken de aru. Ato no yagyō wagyō ga, sukoburu boon ni chikai on de aru kere do mo, fuon taru koto o manukarenai no wa kore ga tame de aru.
      Vowels are the only guttural sounds among the sounds of our language. What are known as vowels are sounds that undergo systematic vibrations at the vocal folds, resonate in the vocal tract, and wind up being heard by our ears. A vowel resonates in the oral cavity in order to achieve its diverse tonal quality, but there must be no such thing as friction that can be heard or felt by us at certain places of articulation. Otherwise, it will not be a vowel, but a consonant. This distinction is of utmost importance. Later when we discuss the ya-row and wa-row, which sound very similar to vowels, this point must be noticed in order to explain the fact that they still contain consonants.
    • 1905 June, 黃山 片岡, “母音 [Mother Sounds]”, in 黃山著作集, Saitama: Suharaya, page 14:
      ア、イ、ウ、エ、オ文字母音と云ふ
      A, i, u, e, o no gomoji o, boon to iu,
      The five letters a, i, u, e and o are called ‘mother sounds’
    • 1912, 淸 榊原, “⑵ 母音と半母音 [⑵ Mother Sounds and Semi-Mother Sounds]”, in 自習速記術 [Self-Taught Stenography], 以文館, pages 11–12:
      ()(おん)()ものアイウエオ()(はん)()(おん)()ふものはワヰウヱヲの五()()であります
      Boon to iu mono wa a i u e o no goji, hanboon to iu mono wa wa wi u we wo no goji o iu no de arimasu.
      ‘Mother sounds’ are the five letters a, i, u, e and o. ‘Semi-mother sounds’ are the five letters wa, wi, u, we and wo.
  2. (phonetics, phonology) a vowel
    Synonym: 母韻 (boin)
    Coordinate term: 子音 (shiin)

Antonyms

Descendants

  • Chinese: 母音 (mǔyīn)
  • Korean: 모음 (mo'eum)
  • Vietnamese: mẫu âm

References

  1. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  2. 2.0 2.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

Korean

Hanja in this term

Noun

母音 (mo'eum) (hangeul 모음)

  1. hanja form? of 모음 (vowel)

Vietnamese

chữ Hán Nôm in this term

Noun

母音

  1. chữ Hán form of mẫu âm (vowel).