Journal of Japanese Linguistics 25 (2009)

Effects of first-element phonological-length and etymological-type features
on sequential voicing (rendaku) of second elements∗
Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim
Nagoya University, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kyushu Institute of Technology,
Yamaguchi Prefectural University

Using a questionnaire comprising voiced-or-voiceless choices by native Japanese speakers, the present
study investigated the influence of the phonological-length and etymological-type of first elements on
sequential voicing or rendaku of the initial consonant of the CVCVCV-structured Wago-like nonwords/hukari/ and /hasuri/. Experiment 1 revealed an overall trend where voicing determination (i.e., voicing
power) from one mora to three morae was observed to have a descending order of strength. After
controlling for printed-frequency, script type, and free-standing single kanji, Experiment 2 showed thatsingle-mora Wago first-elements had stronger voicing power on second elements than those consistingof two and three morae. Considering the combined results of Experiments 1 and 2, it may be concluded
that a single CV mora Wago of first elements had greater voicing power than two or three morae cases.
Experiment 3 demonstrated that first element Wago exerted stronger voicing power upon second
elements than either Kango or Gairaigo, which exerted equally influence. However, after controllingfor printed-frequency and script type, Experiment 4 indicated that the first element Wago and Kango
resulted in rendaku on second elements with greater voicing power than Gairaigo. Thus, the present
study demonstrated that both the first-element phonological-length and etymological-type appear toinfluence rendaku of the voiceless consonants of second elements.
Areas of interest: rendaku, psycholinguistics

1. Purpose of the present study
In the Japanese language, when two words or morphemes, such as the first element of /naga(i)/ (‘long’) andthe second element of /hanasi/ (‘talk’) are compounded, the initial consonant of the second element /h/ isvoiced to /b/, as in /naga-banasi/ (‘a long talk’).1 This is called sequential voicing in English, or rendaku inJapanese (hereafter, rendaku). As this example indicates, rendaku refers to the voicing of the initialvoiceless obstruent of a second element in the case of two-element nominal compounds (Vance, 1979).
However, rendaku does not occur with consistency. For example, when the above example of /naga/ is
combined with /sikaku/ (‘square’), the first consonant /s/ of the second element is not voiced as /z/, butrather remains voiceless in being sounded as /naga-sikaku/ (‘rectangle’). Similarly, in the case that thefirst element /ko/ (‘small’) is combined with the second element /tori/ (‘bird’), the initial consonant /t/ ofthe second element ‘bird’ is not voiced to be /d/, but remains /ko-tori/ (‘a small bird’). In contrast, when
the same morpheme /ko/ is combined with /hako/ (‘box’), the initial consonant /h/ is voiced as /b/ to
produce /ko-bako/ (‘a small box’). As these examples indicate, it seems difficult to identify consistent
rules for rendaku.
∗

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the JJL Editor-in-Chief, Mineharu Nakayama, and two anonymous
reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments to complete the present paper.
1
Through historical change, the modern Japanese /h/ was derived from /p/ via a voiceless bilabial fricative. In rendaku, /h/ isvoiced to be /b/. The phoneme /h/ behaves in Japanese like an obstruent whose voiced counterpart is /b/. See Hashimoto (1950),
Komatsu (1981) and Vance (1979), among others, for further details of the transition of /h/.

18 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

Although various studies (e.g., Haraguchi, 2001; Itô & Mester, 1986, 2003; McCawley, 1968; Otsu,
1980; Rosen, 2001; Vance, 1979, 1987, 2006) have investigated rendaku extensively, the effect ofindividual differences on rendaku have not received much attention. Itô and Mester (2003) claimed that“the class membership of the first member plays no role in the realization of linking morphemes” (p. 147).
They provided three different examples of etymological types for first-elements: ume-dayori (/ume/ +/tayori/) for a Wago (words of Japanese origin) first element (they used the term Yamato for words ofJapanese origin), kankyoo-banasi (/kankyoo/ + /hanasi/) for a Kango (Sino-Japanese) first element, andsupootsu-dayori (/supootu/ + /tayori/) for a Gairaigo (foreign Japanese) first element (see more details in
Itô & Mester, 2003, p.147). Based on these examples, they concluded that characteristics of first elements
have no influence on the rendaku of a second element. However, ‘a spirit distilled from barley’ can bepronounced as either mugi-shoochuu /mugi-syoRtyuR/ (‘R’ refers to a long vowel) with the voicelesssound or mugi-joochuu /mugi-zyoRtyuR/ with voiced sound depending upon the preference of the speaker.
Likewise, native Japanese speakers pronounce a combination of kome (‘rice’) and shoochuu as either
kome-shoochuu /kome-syoRtyuR/ or kome-joochuu /kome-zyoRtyuR/ (‘a spirit distilled from rice’).
Tamaoka and Ikeda (2008, in press) indicated that the rendaku frequency of the second element shoochuu
depended on whether the first ingredient was mugi (‘buckwheat’), kome (‘rice’) or imo (‘sweet potato’). It
is quite possible that both first and second elements could be important factors in determining theoccurrence of rendaku, which fluctuates even with the same words among native Japanese speakers. As
observed in these examples, because individual preferences are likely to affect the determination of
rendaku, linguistic arguments become somewhat more complex when psychological aspects of individual
differences become implicated.
The present study investigated how the nature of first-element phonological-length andetymological-type affects rendaku (i.e., ‘rendaku determination’) for second elements in compound words
from the perspective of individual preferences.
2. Questionnaire-based approach to individual differences influencing rendaku
The present research used a questionnaire-based approach to rendaku as was initiated by Vance (1979).
Instead of searching for existing rendaku examples, Vance used a data-driven questionnaire to determine
individuals’ determinations of rendaku in compound words. Using 14 native Japanese speakers with theTokyo Yamanote accent, Vance asked participants to determine whether or not 645 compound words
exhibited rendaku. This study showed clear differences in rendaku frequencies among compound words.
However, Vance did not employ a statistical approach to classify these compound words, such as a clusteror correspondence analysis. Furthermore, a statistical investigation into individual differences orpreferences determining rendaku cannot be practically run with such a small number of participants.
Taking this into consideration, Murata’s (1984) questionnaire-based approach expanded thesample size and employed carefully selected and elaborated test items exhibiting specific examples of
rendaku. He covered a wide range of rendaku occurrences such as effects of first elements on second
elements (e.g., comparing the non-words ko-hasuri and naga-hasuri), rendaku relation to Lyman’s Law(e.g., comparing the non-words naga-tagi and naga-haragi), and its variations related to the first element
etymological types (e.g., comparing Wago, Kango, and Gairaigo using naga-hashigo ‘long ladder’,tetusei-hashigo ‘steel ladder’, and sutenresu-hashigo ‘stainless ladder’ as respective examples andright-/left-branched sub-compounds (e.g., comparing [ko [sakura hako]] ‘small cherry-box’ and[ko-sakura [hako]] ‘small-cherry box’). Following an interval of 21 years, Ihara and Murata (2006)
repeated the same questions. The details of the related Murata (1984), and Ihara and Murata (2006)
experiments are explained in the following section of this study.

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 19

In the present study, adapting the questionnaire-based approach used in previous studies (Murata,
1984; Ihara & Murata, 2006; Vance, 1979), we focused upon the influence of first elements in causing
rendaku of second elements by using nonexistent compounds with a large number of participants.
3. Evidence of first-element influence on rendaku
The present study focused on the phonological length, the final /N/, and the etymological types of firstelements. /N/ denotes the so-called ‘moraic nasal’, which is also known as one of the three special morae(i.e., nasal /N/, geminate consonant /Q/ and long vowel /R/). The influence of the final /N/ is relevant toboth the phonological length and the etymological type of first elements as considered in this section.
The etymological types of modern Japanese are generally categorized into Wago, Kango, andGairaigo. Little attention has been focused on the effects of the phonological length of first elements on
rendaku so far. Some existing research refers to a correlation between the final nasal of first elements andrendaku in Kango. Using a corpus of Kango developed from the texts of 8th century Buddhist sutras,
Okumura (1952) counted 123 ‘new rendaku’ (shin-daku2) cases after the nasal /N/, as in /keN-go/ (‘solid’),to suggest that rendaku in Kango has a very strong tendency to occur after a nasal.3 Soon thereafter,
Okumura (1955) expanded on his earlier data-based findings to offer a more theoretical proposal that
rendaku is most likely to occur where the end of first elements is nasal. Later, Okumura (1964) examined
the relationship between rendaku and first element final nasals in modern Japanese using verbs comprisinga Kango morpheme (verb stem) plus suru (‘to do’), as in yuu-suru (‘to possess’) and sei-suru (‘tosuppress’). Okumura reported that the voiced form –zuru, as in mei-zuru (‘to order’) and sin-zuru (‘tobelieve’) is more likely to occur with Kango morphemes having a final nasal than in cases where theKango morpheme ends otherwise.
Likewise, Endo (1966) examined approximately 600 Kango examples of rendaku found in a
Japanese-Portuguese dictionary containing about 30,000 words published in Japan in the early 17th
century. Among the 600 examples, 95 cases fluctuated (co-existent cases with and without rendaku); of
this number, 52 were Kango and 43 Wago. Furthermore, excluding Kango words which sound differently
in Kan-on and Go-on (adopted pronunciations from different Chinese dialects), Endo (1966) analyzed 44
Kango and 43 Wago. Counting rendaku cases classified by the final sounds of first elements among thesecases, Endo (1966) found 25 rendaku cases out of 44 (56.82%) in Kango voiced after the nasal /N/, such as/aN-zyuR/ (‘inside hermitage’). Among 43 Wago rendaku cases, Endo (1966) counted only a single case/oN-dori/ (‘a rooster’) which showed rendaku after the nasal.
It should be noted that Wago are likely to show a great variety of rendaku forms. Therefore, thefinal nasal of first elements is a strong candidate for causing rendaku among Kango compounds. Yet, withrespect to both first element phonological length and etymological type, it is still an open question whether
or not the final /N/ of a first element causes rendaku to occur in a second element in modern Japanese.
2

A sinograph which originally includes voiced consonants adopted from the Chinese language is called hon-daku ‘originalvoicing’. When the voicing occurs after a sinograph is adopted into the Japanese language, it is called shin-daku ‘new voicing’.
Irwin (2005) provided an explanation with examples: The sinograph 地 (‘ground’) is probably read as both /ti/ and /zi/; /ti/
adapted from kan-on and /zi/ adapted from go-on. Thus, this sinograph can be voiceless 台地 /dai-ti/ (‘plateau’) and voiced 路
地 /ro-zi/ (‘alley’). However, since these two sounds of the sinograph exist in original Chinese readings, they are called
hon-daku. On the other hand, the sinograph 国 /koku/ (‘country’) has only one prescribed reading. This sinograph may undergo
sequential voicing when the second element is a Sino-Japanese binom (two-kanji compounds) as in 東国 /toR-goku/ (‘the east
country’). Since the reading /goku/ is not the original Chinese reading, this is called shin-daku.
3
On the other hand, Vance (1979) implies that there are no psychologically real tendencies such as those Okumura (1955)
mentions. Vance (1979) conducted a second experiment primarily designed for the purpose of examining the psychologicalstatus of Lyman’s Law. In a part of this experiment relating to the final /N/, however, the first element used in the test examples
was limited to only one kind of Sino-Japanese, ningen (‘human being’).

20 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

It has been well-documented and is uncontroversial that the etymological type of second elements
affects rendaku in compound words. Rendaku occurs more frequently in cases that the second element is
Wago, whereas it less frequently or hardly ever occurs where the second element is Kango or Gairaigo.
Vance (1979) and Itô and Mester (2003) note that the first element has no effect on rendaku in nominal
compounds based on observations of hybrid compounds exhibiting combinations of first and second
elements of each different etymological type. However, results of experiments conducted by Murata(1984) and Ihara and Murata (2006) suggest that the etymological type of first elements also affectrendaku.
Lyman’s Law (for details see Itô & Mester, 2003; Kubozono, 1999, 2005; Kubozono & Ota, 1998;
Otsu, 1980) stipulates that the existence of a voiced obstruent in a second element prohibits rendaku.
/Nawa-basigo/ (‘rope ladder’) is a well-known exception to Lyman’s Law (Kindaichi, 1987). Murata(1984) and Ihara and Murata (2006) conducted experiments connecting three first elements (one of each
etymological type) to a pair of second elements (i.e., /hasigo/, /basigo/), and asked participants to choose
one of the paired choices (e.g., /X-hasigo/, /X-basigo/, with ‘X’ representing any first element). In bothstudies, a series of Chi-square tests for goodness-of-fit revealed that a significantly larger proportion ofparticipants selected the voiced case X-basigo when the first element was Wago, while the voiced
proportion was significantly smaller than the voiceless proportion (X-hasigo) when the first element was
Kango or Gairaigo.
For instance, when the first element is the Wago /naga/ (‘long’), a Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit showed that a significantly larger proportion of participants selected the voiced case/naga-basigo/ (‘long ladder’) both in Murata (1984) and in Ihara and Murata (2006).4 In the case of the
Kango /tetusei/ (‘iron-made’) for the first element, the number of participants selecting the voiced
proportion /tetusei-basigo/ (‘an iron-made ladder’) was significantly smaller than those who chose thevoiceless proportion (/tetusei-hasigo/) both in Murata (1984) and in Ihara and Murata (2006).5 Also, whencombined with the Gairaigo /sutenresu/ (‘stainless-steel-made’), a Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit
revealed that a significantly larger proportion of participants selected the voiceless case /sutenresu-hasigo/(‘a stainless-steel-made ladder’) both in Murata (1984) and in Ihara and Murata (2006). Thus, examining
the proportion of choices between voiceless and voiced cases, the result when combining /hasigo/ with
Wago showed a reversed direction, compared to cases in which /hasigo/ was combined with Kango or
Gairaigo.
Many phonologists (e.g., Haraguchi, 2001; Itô & Mester, 2003; Kurisu, 2006) have focused
extensively on the nature of second elements for analyzing rendaku in the case of two-element compoundwords. However, as described above, Ihara and Murata (2006) clearly demonstrate a shift in percentage ofchoice between voiced and voiceless initial obstruents of second elements when the first element is alteredfrom Wago to Kango and Gairaigo. This contrasting result implies that first elements actually affectvoicing of initial obstruents of second elements.
The present study focused on the influence of first elements on rendaku. Using aquestionnaire-based approach similar to that taken in the previous studies of Murata (1984) and Ihara and
Murata (2006), we investigated the effects of first-element phonological-length. The length of the firstelement has not been empirically investigated from the perspective of individual differences. Thus,
Experiments 1 and 2 tentatively hypothesized that the shorter the phonological construction of the first4

It is astonishing that the percentage of participants who chose voiceless cases increased 28.36% between 1984 and 2005
[χ2(1)=56.883, p<.001; a Chi-square test of independence]. The exceptional case of /hasigo/ has therefore become increasingly
preferred as voiceless over the course of 21 years; these results are in close conformance to the tenets of Lyman’s Law.
5
Furthermore, this proportional change of 8.73% significantly increased over 21 years [χ2(1)=3.994, p<.05; a Chi-square testof independence]. This also reveals a tendency in close conformance to the tenets of Lyman’s Law.

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 21

element, the more frequently rendaku will occur. Experiments 3 and 4 investigated whether first-element
etymological-type and final /N/ affects rendaku in compound words. Although Itô and Mester (2003)
suggested null effects of first element etymological types on rendaku of second elements, the present study
hypothesized different rendaku frequencies varying by etymological type in the descending order of Wago,
Kango and Gairaigo.
4. Experiment 1: Effects of first-element phonological-length
Experiment 1 examined whether or not phonological-length of first elements affects voicing of second
elements in two-element compound words. Keeping second element CVCVCV-structured nonwords
which sound like real words of Japanese origin (i.e., Wago), the phonological length of first elements wasvaried from one to three morae.
4.1. Participants
A total of 224 undergraduate students (75 females, 149 males) at Hiroshima Shudo University participatedin Experiment 1. All were native Japanese speakers born and raised in the same accent area of the
Chugoku Region of Japan. A majority of the 184 participants (82.1%) were from Hiroshima Prefecture(26 participants or 11.6% from Yamaguchi, 8 participants or 3.6% from Shimane, 5 participants or 2.2%
from Okayama, 1 participant or 0.4% from Tottori). Ages ranged from 18 to 23 years, with the averageage being 18 years and 6 months on the day of Experiment 1.
4.2. Stimulus items
As shown in Table 1, three real words were chosen in each of the three phonological categories of CV-,
CVCV- and CVCVCV-structure as first elements. Two CVCVCV-structured Wago-like nonwords,/hukari/ and /hasuri/, were chosen as second elements to measure sequential voicing. This manipulation
was intended to keep the second element semantically neutral, negating semantic influence. Each question
consisted of two choices as the first element combined with a voiced or voiceless initial consonant as thesecond element. The first elements in Experiment 1 were selected from actual existing items with rendaku
of the second element. For example, the first element of /te-gokoro/ (‘to use one’s discretion’), /te/(‘hand’), is a frequently-used element in compound words which undergo rendaku. The word /te/ waspresented as a single kanji character 手, with the katakana symbol テ presented at the top of the kanji
character (furigana) to ensure that participants semantically understood the meaning as ‘hand’, was
combined with the second element, the nonword /hukari/, presented in three katakana symbols フカリ.
All participants were asked to choose between voiceless /te-hukari/ and voiced /te-bukari/ options aspresented below.
テ□ 手・フカリ (voiceless)テ□ 手・ブカリ (voiced)
Likewise, the same first element /te/ was combined with another nonword ‘ハスリ’ /hasuri/ as the second
element, with participants being asked to choose from either voiceless /te-hasuri/ or voiced /te-basuri/ as
presented below.
テ□ 手・ハスリ (voiceless)テ□ 手・バスリ (voiced)

22 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

In this way, three Wago words used as the first element in each of CV-, CVCV- and CVCVCV-structured
phonological categories were combined with the two nonwords /hukari/ and /hasuri/ as second elements (3real words as first element × 2 nonwords as second element × 3 phonological categories = 18 questions), sothat a total of 18 voiced-and-voiceless paired questions were used for Experiment 1. These
voiced-and-voiceless paired questions were randomly presented to participants in a single questionnaire.
All pairs were randomly mixed on the questionnaire form.
The semantic aspect of first elements might influence the results of rendaku frequencies. However,Wago stimulus items are strongly associated with their semantics, so that meanings attached to a kanji
script are unavoidable. Romanization of stimulus items might be one possible means to avoid this.
However, since many homophonic words exist in Japanese, Romanized presentation creates multiple
meanings, which may only serve to confuse participants when determining rendaku. Similarly, since theitems of the first element in Experiment 1 were selected from parts of already existing compounds
exhibiting rendaku, word/morpheme types were not exactly matched across three phonological-length
conditions. For example, the single kanji /sakura/ (‘cherry tree’) is frequently used as a single word,
whereas the single kanji /ko/ (‘small’) is often used as a part of compound words such as /ko-bito/ (‘adwarf’), or /ko-buta/ (‘a piglet’). All of these possible factors were considered in the next experiment(Experiment 2). According to the lexical database produced by Amano and Kondo (2000, and 2003 for the
CD-ROM version) from editions of the Asahi Newspaper printed from 1985 to 1998, containing a total
type frequency of 341,771 morphemic units and a total token frequency of 287,792,797 morphemic units,
all items of the first element in Experiment 1 were familiar, being token frequencies as a kanji unit used forcommon nouns (proper nouns excluded for counting) 5,413 times for /ko/, 50,737 times for /te/ and 981
times for /to/, 38,708 times for /simo/ (‘below’), 152,161 times for /naka/ (‘middle’), 10,189 times for/naga/, 3,198 times for /sakura/, 46,168 times for /tikara/ (‘power’) and 3003 times for /maturi/ (‘festival’).
4.3. Procedure
All participants responded to 18 sets of voiced-or-voiceless choices in the questionnaire. Participants were
given sufficient time to complete all questions at their own pace.
4.4. Item-by-item analyses and results
As shown in Table 1, compound words were examined by a series of Chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit
setting an expected value of equal frequency (50% random chance) for choice of a voiceless or voiced
initial consonant in the second element. Since three real words constructed with one to three morae as firstelements were repeatedly combined with a nonword second element to ask participants whether or not theyshould be voiced, this manipulation resulted in nine repetitions (3 real words × 3 mora types = 9 times).
Thus, to avoid an ‘error of the first kind’ (Type I Error), rejecting the null hypothesis when it is actuallytrue, the Bonferrorni adjustment for the number of tests being carried out was used to examine the level ofsignificance. In Experiment 1, the 0.05 level of significance was divided by the number of repetitions,
resulting in 0.0056. Thus, the significance level was set at 0.001.
As shown in the results of Chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit reported in Table 1, 15 out of the 18
cases were more frequently selected as having a voiced initial consonant in second elements of compoundwords. The results of all nine CV-, CVCV- and CVCVCV-structured Wago first-element compoundwords combined with the second element /hukari/ indicated that voiced compounds were selected more
frequently than voiceless compounds. The one exception was the first element was /sakura/ which was
still selected at the random chance level. Likewise, in the case of the second element /hasuri/, all results,
with two exceptions of the first element /sakura/ and /maturi/, also showed the same trend of being selected
as a voiced compound. The case of /sakura/ showed a random frequency of rendaku in both nonword

Sound

/te/

/to/

手 (テ)

戸 (ト)

/naka//naga/中 (ナカ)

長 (ナガ)
62

46

69/tikara//maturi/

力 (チカラ)祭り (マツリ)
75

53

87
149

171

136

161

178

155

175

193

191

66.52%

76.34%

60.99%

72.20%

79.46%

69.20%

78.13%

86.55%

85.27%

Rate2

χ (1)=24.446, p <.001χ (1)=62.161, p <.00122

χ (1)=10.767, n.s.

2

χ (1)=43.951, p <.001χ (1)=77.786, p <.00122

χ (1)=33.018, p <.0012χ (1)=70.875, p <.001χ (1)=119.144, p <.00122

χ (1)=111.446, p <.001

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

92

83

105

71

68

73

43

53

40

58.74%

62.78%

52.70%

68.30%

69.64%

67.26%

80.80%

76.34%

82.14%

Rate2

χ (1)=6.821, n.s.

χ (1)=14.570, p <.00122

χ (1)=0.649, n.s.

2

χ (1)=30.018, p <.001χ (1)=34.571, p <.00122

χ (1)=26.587, p <.0012χ (1)=85.018, p <.001χ (1)=62.161, p <.00122

χ (1)=92.571, p <.001

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

Note 3 : In accordance with Bonferrorni's adjustment, a significance level of 0.001 was used, since the first element is repeated nine times for each nonword.

Note 2 : 'Rate' in Table 1 refers to voiced rate out of total responses to each stimulus (50% is random).

131

140

117

153

156

150

181

171

184

VoicedSecond element hasuri
Voiceless

Note 1 : Due to missing values, the number of participants for first element stimulus varies from 222 to 224.

/sakura/桜 (サクラ)(3) Three morae CVCVCV-structured words/simo/下 (シモ)

49

30

33

VoicedSecond element hukari
Voiceless(2) Two morae CVCV-structured words

/ko/

小 (コ)

(1) One mora CV-structured words

ScriptFirst elements2χ (1)=2.885, n.s.

2

χ (1)=9.705, n.s.

2

χ (1)=3.112, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.811, n.s.

2

χ (1)=5.695, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.192, n.s .

2χ (1)=0.492, n.s .

2χ (1)=7.701, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.802, n.s.

Chi-square test of
independence

Table 1. Choice of voiceless or voiced second-element nonwords hukari and hasuri as influenced by the number of morae in first elements of Japanese-originated words

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 23

24 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

cases of /hukari/ and /hasuri/, while /maturi/ showed only a random frequency when combined with/hasuri/.
Furthermore, to compare voiced frequency between /hukari/ and /hasuri/, a series of Chi-square
tests of equality for two sets of frequencies (Chi-square tests of independence) were carried out for each of
the first nine elements. None of the set-cases of the first element was significant, suggesting that the ratios
of voiceless and voiced frequencies of all first-element real words combined with second elements wereequal between /hukari/ and /hasuri/. Thus, although the present study tested only two nonword cases, ageneral trend of higher voiced frequencies over voiceless frequencies is likely to be observed in the
majority of compound words (only three out of 18 compound words were randomly voiced) regardless ofthe second elements.

Table 2. Voicing power of mora difference in the first Wago elements on second elements
First Wago elements

Phonologicalstructure

Numberof morae

Voicing powerMSD

小 /ko/，手 /te/，戸 /to/

CV

1

4.88

1.43

下 /simo/，中 /naka/，長 /naga/

CVCV

2

4.24

1.55

桜 /sakura/，力 /tikara/，祭り/maturi/

CVCVCV

3

3.78

1.68

Results of pair-wise simple contrast comparisons

1>2>3

Note : Participants=217. M=Mean. SD=Standard deviation.

4.5 Analysis and results for examining effects of first-element phonological-length
In each CV-, CVCV- and CVCVCV-structured phonological-length category (6 compound words each),voiced items were recorded as 1 and voiceless items as 0, so that the voicing power of a first element on asecond element was defined by a single variable ranging from 0 to 6. The means and standard deviations
are shown in Table 2. The means of one CV mora to three CVCVCV morae in the first element seem tosuggest a tendency for voiced frequencies to decrease as the number of morae increases, as the data showsa mean of 4.88 for a CV mora, 4.24 for CVCV morae and 3.78 for CVCVCV morae (3 being consideredrandom). A one-way analysis of variance (3 phonological-lengths of one to three morae) with repeatedmeasures (the analysis being conducted with 217 participants due to 7 missing values) indicated that themain effect of phonological-length was significant [F(2,432)=54.938, p<.001]. Pair-wise simple contrast
comparisons indicated that (1) the single CV mora Wago as first element significantly differed from thetwo CVCV morae Wago [F(1,216)=46.684, p<.001], (2) the single mora Wago significantly differed fromthe three CVCVCV morae Wago [F(1,216)=102.65, p<.001], and (3) two CVCV morae Wago
significantly differed from the three CVCVCV morae Wago [F(1,216)=16.701, p<.001].
4.6. Findings of Experiment 1
Experiment 1 depicted a clear trend in which the greater the number of morae became, the lesser thevoicing power was observed (i.e., 1 mora > 2 morae > 3 morae), supporting the hypothesized effect of thephonological length of first elements on rendaku of second elements.

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 25

5. Experiment 2: Effects of first-element phonological-length when controlling frequencies of firstelements
First elements in Experiment 1 were selected from existing compound words exhibiting rendaku. Due tothe limited selection of possible candidates among rendaku compound words, printed-frequencies andscript types were not controlled. Therefore, Experiment 2 repeated the process of Experiment 1 withdifferent participants in order to examine the effects of phonological-length using the stimuli of the firstelement controlling for these characteristics, although the selected elements in Experiment 2 do notnecessarily exhibit rendaku in actual language use.
5.1. Participants
A total of 118 undergraduate students (50 females, 65 males, and 3 unidentified) enrolled at universities in
the Kanto Region in Japan participated in Experiment 2. All participants were native Japanese speakers.
Among them, 82 participants (69.49%) were born and raised in the same accent area of the Kanto Region,
33 were from Tokyo, 20 from Kanagawa, 10 from Chiba, 9 from Saitama, 6 from Ibaraki, 3 from Gunma
and 1 was from Tochigi. The remaining 36 participants came from various regions in Japan including 6
from Shizuoka, 5 from Fukushima, 2 from Niigata and 2 from Akita. Ages ranged from 18 to 32 years,
with the average age being 21 years and 2 months on the day of Experiment 2. Analyses were carried out
depending on the number of participants who responded to each item while making accommodations formissing values. None of these participants took part in any other experiments of the present study.
5.2. Stimulus items
Real Wago words, which can stand freely as a single kanji, were chosen as first elements in each of thethree phonological categories of one to three morae. Only free-standing single-kanji words were selected
in order to keep their meanings contained as a noun unit. For example, the CV-structured item /ha/ is used
as a single kanji meaning ‘tooth’. Likewise, the CVCVCV-structured item /minato/ is used as a single
kanji meaning ‘harbor’. As shown in Table 3, three sets of one to three morae were matched byprinted-frequencies, counted as a kanji unit which are used as general nouns in the Asahi Newspaper(Amano & Kondo, 2000, 2003). With this approach, the uncontrolled factors of script type (i.e., a single
kanji), printed-frequency, lexical category and, to some degree, semantic influence were controlled inExperiment 2. However, unlike Experiment 1, the items used for the first elements in Experiment 2 were
not necessarily found in existing compound words exhibiting rendaku.
Table 3. Stimuli of the first Wago elements
First elements

Sound

Phonological structure

Number of morae

Printed frequency

蚊

/ka/

CV

1

515

柿

/kaki/

CVCV

2

442

刀

/katana/

CVCVCV

3

588

歯

/ha/

CV

1

3,659

雲

/kumo/

CVCV

2

3,891

港

/minato/CVCVCV

3

3,170

火

/hi/

CV

1

11,441山/yama/

SVCV

2

11,469柱/hasira/

CVCVCV3

15,248

Sound

/ha/

歯 (ハ)

/minato//hasira/

港 (ミナト)柱 (ハシラ)
28

35

29
90

83

89
76.27%

70.34%

75.42%

80.51%

72.03%

71.19%

94.07%

93.22%

83.90%Rateχ (1)=32.576, p <.0012χ (1)=19.525, p <.0012χ (1)=30.508, p <.0012χ (1)=43.932, p <.0012χ (1)=22.915, p <.0012χ (1)=21.186, p <.0012χ (1)=91.661, p <.0012χ (1)=88.169, p <.00122

χ (1)=54.237, p <.001

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

96

76

79

71

78

90

112

113

107

81.36%

64.41%

66.95%

60.17%

66.10%

76.27%

94.92%

95.76%

90.68%Rateχ (1)=46.407, p <.00122

χ (1)=9.797, n.s.

2

χ (1)=13.559, p <.001χ (1)=4.881, n.s.

22

χ (1)=12.237, p <.0012χ (1)=32.576, p <.001χ (1)=95.220., p <.00122

χ (1)=98.847, p <.0012χ (1)=78.102, p <.001

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

Note 3 : In accordance with Bonferrorni's adjustment, a significance level of 0.001 was used, since the first element is repeated nine times for each nonword.

22

42

39

47

40

28

6

5

11

VoicedSecond element hasuri
Voiceless

Note 2 : 'Rate' in Table 4 refers to voiced rate out of total responses to each stimulus (50% is random).

Note 1 : The number of participants was 118.

/katana/

刀 (カタナ)95/yama/
23
山 (ヤマ)(3) Three morae CVCVCV-structured words

84
85/kumo/雲 (クモ)

34

111

110

99

33

/kaki/柿 (カキ)

7

8

19

VoicedSecond element hukari
Voiceless

/hi/
火 (ヒ)
(2) Two morae CVCV-structured words

/ka/

蚊 (カ)

(1) One mora CV-structured words

ScriptFirst elements2χ (1)=0.914, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.945, n.s.

2

χ (1)=2.066, n.s.

2

χ (1)=11.698, p <.0012χ (1)=0.972, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.788, n.s .

2χ (1)=0.081, n.s .

2χ (1)=0.733, n.s.

2

χ (1)=2.444, n.s.

Chi-square test of
independence

Table 4. Choice of voiceless or voiced second-element nonwords hukari and hasuri as influenced by the number of morae in first elements of Japanese origin words

26 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 27

5.3. Procedure
As in Experiment 1, all participants responded to 18 sets of voiceless-or-voiced choices in thequestionnaire. Participants were given sufficient time to complete all questions at their own pace.
5.4. Item-by-item analyses and results
As shown in Table 4, each compound word was examined using a Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit,
setting an expected value of equal frequency (50% random chance) for choice of a voiceless or voiced
initial consonant in the second element. As in Experiment 1, the significance level was set at 0.001
according to the Bonferrorni adjustment. As shown in the results of Chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit
reported in Table 4, second elements of compound words were more frequently selected as having a voiced
initial consonant in 16 out of the 18 cases. The results of all nine CV-, CVCV- and CVCVCV-structured
Wago first-element compound words combined with the second element /hukari/ indicated that voiced
compounds were selected more frequently than voiceless compounds. In the case of the second element/hasuri/, all results with two exceptions in which the first element /yama/ (‘mountain’) and /minato/
appeared, also showed the trend of being selected as a voiced compound.
As in Experiment 1, ratios of voiced and voiceless frequencies between /hukari/ and /hasuri/ were
examined using a series of Chi-square tests of equality (Chi-square test of independence) for each pair of
the first nine elements. With the exception of the single case /yama/, none of the paired-cases of the firstelement showed significance, suggesting that ratios of voiceless and voiced frequencies of all first-element
real words combined with second elements were almost equal between /hukari/ and /hasuri/. Thus, ageneral tendency of higher voiced frequencies over voiceless frequencies would likely be observed in the
majority of compound words regardless of the second elements.
Table 5. Voicing power of mora difference in the first Wago elements on second elements
First Wago elements

Phonologicalstructure

Numberof morae

Voicing powerMSD蚊 /ka/, 歯 /ha/, 火 /hi/

CV

1

5.53

1.02

柿 /kaki/, 雲 /kumo/, 山 /yama/

CVCV

2

4.26

1.60

3

4.35
1.66
1>2=3

CVCVCV刀 /katana/, 港 /minato/, 柱 /hasira/Results of pair-wise simple contrast comparisons
Note 1 : Participants=118. M=Mean. SD=Standard deviation.

Note 2 : /yama/ has a SVCV phonological structure, but it was included as one of the CVCV items.

5.5. Analysis and results for examining effects of first-element phonological-length
As in Experiment 1, voiced items were recorded as 1 and voiceless items as 0 in each CV-, CVCV- and
CVCVCV-structured phonological-length category (6 compound words each), so that the voicing powerof a first element on a second element was defined by a single variable ranging from 0 to 6. The means andstandard deviations are shown in Table 5. It should be noted that single mora Wago indicated a very highvoicing power of 5.53 out of the maximum of 6.00. A one-way analysis of variance (3phonological-lengths of one to three morae) with repeated measures conducted with 118 participants
indicated that the main effect of phonological-length was significant [F(2,234)=58.787, p<.001].
Pair-wise simple contrast comparisons indicated that (1) the single CV mora Wago as first element

28 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

significantly differed from the two CVCV morae Wago [F(1,117)=90.642, p<.001], and (2) the single
mora Wago significantly differed from the three CVCVCV morae Wago [F(1,117)=72.769, p<.001],
however (3) two CVCV morae Wago did not significantly differ from the three CVCVCV morae Wago
[F(1,117)=0.401, n.s.].
5.6. Findings of Experiment 2
Unlike the results of Experiment 1 (see Table 2), Experiment 2 (see Table 5) did not show a difference invoicing power between two and three morae first elements. Since the first element in Experiment 2 wer
real words, controlled for printed-frequency, script type, and free-standing single kanji, putting bothresults of Experiments 1 and 2 together, it would be safe to conclude that a single CV mora Wago firstelement had greater voicing power than two or three morae cases, even though all three phonologicalstructures showed strong voicing power over the initial consonants of the second elements.
6. Experiment 3: Effects of first-element etymological-type
Experiment 3 examined whether or not the etymological-type of the first elements affected the voicing of
the second elements. As with Experiments 1 and 2, the first element was controlled by varying CVN- and
CVCV-structured etymological types of Wago, Kango and Gairaigo while holding the second element as
CVCVCV-structured Wago-like nonwords,. All these first element stimuli were selected from realwords/morphemes actually existing as compound words exhibiting rendaku.
6.1. Participants
The participants were the same as in Experiment 1, but different from those in Experiments 2 and 4.
6.2. Stimulus items
First elements were chosen according to three different etymological-types, Wago, Kango6 and Gairaigo,
exhibiting phonological structures of CVN and CVCV. As shown in Table 6, three different words foreach etymological-type were combined with two Wago-like nonwords /hukari/ and /hasuri/, for both CVN
and CVCV phonological structures.
Thus, the stimulus items (questions) comprised 36
voiceless-and-voiced pairs (3 etymological types × 3 different words × 2 phonological structures × 2
second-element nonwords = 36 total questions). The same three CVCV-structured Wago first elements/simo/, /naka/ and /naga/ of Experiment 1 were also used in the data analyses of Experiment 3.
6.3. Procedure
The same as Experiments 1 and 2.
6.4. Item-by-item analyses and results
As shown in Table 6, each compound word was examined using a series of Chi-square tests ofgoodness-of-fit setting an expected value of equal frequency (50% random chance) for choice of avoiceless or voiced initial consonant of second elements. As in Experiments 1 and 2, to avoid a Type I
Error, a level of significance 0.001 was used in accordance with the Bonferrorni adjustment.

6

Many Japanese kanji have more than one way of being pronounced or read, which is called on. This on is classified into
different kinds, based upon the time period in which the kanji were borrowed from Chinese. These are go’on, kan’on, to’on, andso on. Chronologically go’on is the oldest and is said to exhibit rendaku systematically, while kan’on was adopted later thango’on and rarely exhibits rendaku. In Experiment 3 we conducted for the present paper, we limited Sino-Japanese items to thosewith kan’on.

Sound

huN

noN

kaN

siN

hoN

saN

noN

waN

踏ん (フん)飲ん (ノん)寒 (カン)

新 (シン)

本 (ホン)

サンノン

ワン
Gairaigo

Gairaigo

Gairaigo

Kango

Kango

Kango

Wago

Wago

Wago

71

72

77

38

63

43

44

37

33

153

152

146

186

161

181

179

187

191

68.30%

67.86%

65.47%

83.04%

71.88%

80.80%

80.27%

83.48%

85.27%

Second element hukari
Etymologicaltype
Voiceless VoicedRateχ (1)=30.018, p <.0012χ (1)=28.571, p <.0012χ (1)=21.350, p <.0012χ (1)=97.786, p <.0012χ (1)=42.875, p <.0012χ (1)=85.018, p <.0012χ (1)=81.726, p <.00122

χ (1)=100.446, p <.0012χ (1)=111.446, p <.001

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

riki

butu

mini

puro

pori

力 (リキ)

仏 (ブツ)

ミニプロ

ポリGairaigo

Gairaigo

Gairaigo

Kango

Kango

Kango

65

73

93

120

61

75

159

150

131

104

162

148

70.98%

67.26%

58.48%

46.43%

72.65%

66.37%

χ (1)=39.446, p <.0012χ (1)=26.587, p <.0012χ (1)=6.446, n.s.

2

χ (1)=1.143, n.s.

2

χ (1)=45.744, p <.00122

χ (1)=23.897, p <.001

54

80

73

118

71

80

76

76

61

49

64

44

61

35

64

169

144

151

105

153

144

148

147

163

173

160

179

162

188

160

Voiced75.78%

64.29%

67.41%

47.09%

68.30%

64.29%

66.07%

65.92%

72.77%

77.93%

71.43%

80.27%

72.65%

84.30%

71.43%

Rate

Second element hasuri
Voiceless2χ (1)=59.305, p <.001χ (1)=18.286, p <.0012χ (1)=27.161, p <.0012χ (1)=0.643, n.s2χ (1)=30.018, p <.00122

χ (1)=18.286, p <.001χ (1)=23.143, p <.0012χ (1)=22.605, p <.00122

χ (1)=46.446, p <.001χ (1)=69.261, p <.0012χ (1)=41.143, p <.0012χ (1)=81.726, p <.0012χ (1)=45.744, p <.00122

χ (1)=104.973, p <.0012χ (1)=41.143, p <.001

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

2χ (1)=1.319, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.440, n.s.

2

χ (1)=3.828, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.019, n.s.

2

χ (1)=1.012, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.214, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.253, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.189, n.s.

2

χ (1)=2.788, n.s.

2

χ (1)=1.853, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.011, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.020, n.s.

2

χ (1)=3.600, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.056, n.s.

2

χ (1)=12.645, p <.001

Chi-square test of
independence

Note 3 : In accordance with Bonferrorni's adjustment, a significance level of 0.001 was used, since the first element is repeated nine times for each nonword in both CVN- and CVCV-structure.

Note 2 : 'Rate' in Table 3 refers to voiced rate out of total responses to each stimulus (50% is random).

Note 1 : Due to missing values, the number of participants for first element stimulus varies from 222 to 224.

koku

国 (コク)

The following CVCV-structured Wago were the same as Experiment 1 - 下(シモ), 中(ナカ) and 長(ナガ)(2) CVCV-structured words

doN

どん

(1) CVN-structured words

ScriptFirst elements

Table 6. Choice of voiceless or voiced second-element nonwords hukari and hasuri as influenced by first elements of CVN- and CVCV-structured etymological-type

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 29

30 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

The results of all 18 compound words of the CVN- and CVCV-structured Wago, Kango andGairaigo first elements combined with the second element /hukari/, with the two exceptions of the
CVCV-structured Kango /butu/ meaning ‘Buddhism’ and the Gairaigo /mini/ meaning ‘mini’, indicatingthat voiced compounds were selected more often than voiceless compounds (see details of Chi-squarevalues in Table 6). This trend was also apparent in the case of the second element /hasuri/, with the single
exception of /butu/. All results for both /hukari/ and /hasuri/ showed that compound words with initialconsonants in second elements were more frequently selected as voiced in 33 out of the 36 compound word
choices.
To compare ratios of voiced and voiceless frequencies between /hukari/ and /hasuri/, Chi-square
tests of equality (Chi-square tests of independence) were carried out for each set-case of the 18 firstelements. Only the case of the Wago first element /doN/ was significant, suggesting that the ratio of voiced
and voiceless frequencies of this first element when combined with the second element /hukari/ weredissimilar to the same word combined with /hasuri/. In other words, when compounded with /doN/,/hukari/ was voiced as /bukari/ more frequently than was /hasuri/ voiced as /basuri/. Yet, the overall trendof higher voiced frequencies over voiceless frequencies remained consistent in the majority of the 33
compound words.
6.5. Analysis and results for examining effects of first-element etymological-type
Voicing power was calculated using the same method as Experiments 1 and 2. The means and standard
deviations of voicing power in Experiment 3 are reported in Table 7. A 3 (etymological-type) × 2(phonological structure) two-way analysis of variance (analysis was carried out with 213 participants due
to 11 missing values) with repeated measures was conducted on the voicing power of first elements upon
second elements for both of the nonwords /hukari/ and /hasuri/. Main effects were significant in variablesof phonological structure [F(1,212)=68.125, p<.001] and etymological-type [F(2,424)=14.815, p<.001].
In addition, the interaction of these two variables was significant [F(2,424)=24.521, p<.001]. The
CVN-structured first elements (M=4.50) influenced voicing of the second elements /hukari/ and /hasuri/
more than those of CVCV structure (M=4.00). As for etymological differences, pair-wise simple contrast
comparisons revealed that Wago first elements (M=4.52) had significantly stronger voicing power on
second elements than either Kango (M=4.16) [F(1,212)=19.250, p<.001] or Gairaigo (M=4.07) firstelements [F(1,212)=24.103, p<.001], but no difference was found between Kango and Gairaigo[F(1,212)=1.003, n.s.].
Since the interaction of phonological structure and etymological-type was significant, pair-wise
simple contrast comparisons were conducted on every combination of the six categories (see means of
voicing power in Table 7). Detailed results are shown in Table 6 as ‘A B > C D F > E’ (underlined
categories indicate similarity). In sum, all results of pair-wise comparisons indicate that: (1) The firstelement words of CVN-structured Wago and Kango had similar influence on the voicing of second
elements, but differed from the rest, (2) the first element CVN- and CVCV-structured Gairaigo and
CVCV-structured Wago had similar voicing power but differed from the rest, and (3) the
CVCV-structured Kango showed the weakest voicing power and was different from all others.7
7

F-values of pair-wise simple contrast comparisons were as follows: F(1,212)=1.540, p=.216, n.s. for A and B,
F(1,212)=43.879, p<.001 for A and C, F(1,212)=22.797, p<.001 for A and D, F(1,212)=103.664, p<.001 for A and E,
F(1,212)=37.452, p<.001 for A and F, F(1,212)=25.947, p<.001 for B and C, F(1,212)=10.483, p<.001 for B and D,
F(1,212)=94.688, p<.001 for B and E, F(1,212)=26.022, p<.001 for B and F, F(1,212)=2.788, p=.096, n.s. for C and D,
F(1,212)=14.017, p<.001 for C and E, F(1,212)=0.002, p=.961, n.s. for C and F, F(1,212)=27.382, p<.001 for D and E,
F(1,212)=2.569, p=.110, n.s. for D and F, and F(1,212)=12.450, p=<.001 for E and F.

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 31

Table 7. Voicing power of CVN- and CVCV-structured etymological-type on second elements
Etymologicaltype

Phonologicalstructure

Stimulus words

Voicing PowerM

SD(1) CVN structure
A

Wago

CVN

踏ん(huN)，飲ん(noN)，どん(doN)

4.78

1.53

B

Kango

CVN

寒(kaN)，新(siN)，本(hoN)

4.65

1.56

C

Gairaigo

CVN

サン(saN)，ノン(noN)，ワン(waN)

4.06

1.72

(2) CVCV structure
D

Wago

CVCV

下(simo)，中(naka)，長(naga)

4.27

1.53

E

Kango

CVCV

国(koku)，力(riki)，仏(butu)

3.66

1.65

F

Gairaigo

CVCV

ミニ(mini)，プロ(puro)，ポリ(pori)

4.07

1.74

Results of pair-wise simple contrast comparisons

Wago > Kango = Gairaigo
A B >C D F> E

Note : Participants=213. M=Mean. SD=Standard deviation.

6.6. Findings of Experiment 3
Experiment 3 indicated that Wago first elements showed stronger voicing power on second elements thanthose of either Kango or Gairaigo as indicated by ‘Wago > Kango = Gairaigo’. In addition,
CVN-structured first elements had greater voicing power than those of CVCV-structure. Pair-wisecomparisons further suggested that CVN-structured Wago and Kango showed greater voicing power thanothers.
7. Experiment 4: Effects of first-element etymological-type by controlling frequencies of firstelements
The first elements in Experiment 3 were selected from existing compound words exhibiting rendaku. Dueto the limited selection of possible candidates among rendaku compound words, printed-frequencies andscript types were not controlled. Therefore, Experiment 4 repeated the process of Experiment 3 withdifferent participants in order to examine the effects of etymological categories. This was done using thestimuli of first elements, controlling for their printed frequencies and limiting them to a CVCVC-structure(CVSVCV and CVØVCV were considered CVCVCV for this experiment). The selected elements inExperiment 4 do not necessarily exhibit rendaku in actual language use.
7.1. Participants
A total of 136 undergraduate students (35 females, 101 males) enrolled at universities in the Kanto Regionin Japan participated in Experiment 4. All participants were native Japanese speakers, and were born andraised in the same accent area of the Kanto Region, with 41 being from Tokyo, 41 from Kanagawa, 25
from Saitama, 14 from Chiba, 7 from Ibaraki, 6 from Gunma and 2 coming from Tochigi. Ages ranged
from 18 to 21 years, with the average age being 18 years and 9 months on the day of Experiment 4.
Analyses were carried out depending on the number of participants who responded to each item, and32 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

varying according to missing values. None of these participants were involved in any of the otherexperiments of the present study.
7.2. Stimulus items
Real Wago, Kango and Gairaigo words consisting of three morae were chosen as first elements. As
shown in Table 8, three etymological types were matched by printed-frequencies counted of use in the
Asahi Newspaper (Amano & Kondo, 2000, 2003). All of these items were chosen from commonly-usednouns which have clear meanings. However, unlike in Experiment 3, the items used for first elements inExperiment 4 were not necessarily found in existing compound words exhibiting rendaku.
Table 8. Stimuli of the first three-mora elements
First elements

Etymological typeSound

Phonological structure

Printed frequency

机

Wago

/tukue/CVCVØV

4,086

袋

Wago

/hukuro/CVCVCV

5,924

畑

Wago

/hatake/

CVCVCV

5,965

帰宅

Kango

/kitaku/

CVCVCV

5,172

麻薬

Kango

/mayaku/

CVSVCV

5,213

摩擦

Kango

/masatu/

CVCVCV

5,676

テニス

Gairaigo/tenisu/

CVCVCV

4,099

ピアノ

Gairaigo/piano/CVØVCV

5,447

リスク

Gairaigo/kisuku/

CVCVCV

4,511

7.3. Procedure
All participants responded to 18 sets of voiced-or-voiceless choices in the questionnaire. Participants were
given sufficient time to complete all questions at their own pace.
7.4. Item-by-item analyses and results
As shown in Table 9, each compound word was examined by a series of Chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit
set at an expected value of equal frequency (50% random chance) for choice of a voiceless or voiced initialconsonant in a second element. As in Experiments 1 to 3, the significance level was set at 0.001 due to theBonferrorni adjustment. As shown in the results of Chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit reported in Table 9,
all first Wago elements compounded with either /hukari/ or /hasuri/ were more frequently selected ashaving a voiced initial consonant in second elements of compound words. Likewise, all first Kango
elements compounded with either /hukari/ or /hasuri/ were more frequently selected as having a voiced
initial consonant in second elements with the exception of the single combined case of /mayaku/ (‘illegal
drug’) and /hasuri/. For the first Gairaigo elements, however, three of the six combinations showed
random selection of either voiced or voiceless. When counting compound cases exhibiting rendaku, thefirst Gairaigo elements appeared to be less frequently voiced than those of Wago and Kango.
As in Experiments 1 to 3, a series of Chi-square tests of equality (Chi-square tests of independence)for two sets of frequencies was carried out on ratios of voiceless and voiced frequencies between /hukari/and /hasuri/ for each of the first nine elements. None of the paired-cases of the first elements showedsignificance, suggesting that ratios of voiceless and voiced frequencies of all first-element real words

Wago

Wago

Kango

Kango

Kango

Gairaigo

Gairaigo

Gairaigo

袋

畑

帰宅

麻薬

摩擦

テニス

ピアノ

リスク
54

67

42

46

41

36

34

30

42

82

69

94

89

95

99

102

106

94

60.29%

50.74%

69.12%

65.93%

69.85%

73.33%

75.00%

77.94%

69.12%

χ (1)=5.765, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.029, n.s.

2

χ (1)=19.882, p <.0012χ (1)=13.696, p <.0012χ (1)=21.441, p <.0012χ (1)=29.400, p <.0012χ (1)=34.000, p <.0012χ (1)=42.471, p <.0012χ (1)=19.882, p <.001

2

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

44

51

49

40

53

44

43

45

45

Voiceless

67.65%

62.50%

63.97%

70.59%

61.03%

67.65%

68.38%

66.91%

66.91%Rateχ (1)=16.941, p <.00122

χ (1)=8.500, n.s.

2

χ (1)=10.618, p <.001χ (1)=23.059, p <.00122

χ (1)=6.618, n.s.

2

χ (1)=16.941, p <.0012χ (1)=18.382, p <.001χ (1)=15.559, p <.00122

χ (1)=15.559, p <.001

Chi-square test of
goodness-of-fit

2χ (1)=1.595, n.s.

2

χ (1)=3.832, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.809, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.680, n.s.

2

χ (1)=2.341, n.s.

2

χ (1)=1.053, n.s.

2

χ (1)=1.467, n.s.

2

χ (1)=4.142, n.s.

2

χ (1)=0.152, n.s.

Chi-square test of
independence

Note 3 : In accordance with Bonferrorni's adjustment, a significant level of 0.001 was used, since the first element is repeated nine times for each nonword.

Note 2 : 'Rate' in Table 3 refers to voiced rate out of total responses to each stimulus (50% is random).

92

85

87

96

83

92

93

91

91

VoicedSecond element hasuri

Note 1 : Due to missing values, the number of participants for first element stimulus varies from 135 to 136.

Wago

机

Second element hukariFirst elements Etymologicaltype
ScriptVoiceless Voiced
Rate

Table 9. Choice of voiceless or voiced second-element nonwords huk ari and hasuri as influenced by first elements of three-mora etymological-type

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 33

34 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

combined with the second elements showed no distinction between /hukari/ and /hasuri/. Thus, a generaltendency is likely to appear in the majority of compound words regardless of second elements.
7.5. Analysis and results for examining effects of the first-element etymological-type
As in Experiments 1 to 3, voiced items were recorded as 1 and voiceless items as 0 in each etymologicalcategory (6 compound words each), so that the voicing power of a first element on a second element was
defined by a single variable ranging from 0 to 6. The means and standard deviations are shown in Table 10.
A one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures of the three etymological-types conducted with
136 participants indicated that the main effect of etymological-type was significant [F(2,270)=6.147,
p<.01]. Pair-wise simple contrast comparisons indicated that (1) the first Wago element significantly
differed in voicing power from the first Gairaigo elements [F(1,135)=13.190, p<.001] and (2) the first
Kango elements significantly differed in voicing power from the first Gairaigo elements [F(1,135)=4.276,
p<.05], but (3) the first Wago elements did not significantly differ from the Kango elements[F(1,135)=1.539, n.s.].
7.6. Findings of Experiment 4
As was indicated in Experiment 3, Wago first elements in Experiment 4 also consistently showed stronger
voicing power on second elements than those of either Kango or Gairaigo. Therefore, the overall trend of
the first element ‘Wago = Kango > Gairaigo’ affecting the voicing power of second elements must be
much more prevalent.
Table 10. Voicing power of three-morae etymological-type on second elements
Etymologicaltype

Stimulus words

Voicing Power
M

SD

Wago

机(tukue), 袋(hukuro), 畑(hatake)

4.24

1.70

Kango

帰宅(kitaku), 麻薬(mayaku), 摩擦(masatu)

4.07

1.78

Gairaigo

テニス(tenisu), ピアノ(piano), リスク(risuku)

3.74

1.85

Results of pair-wise simple contrast comparisons

Wago = Kango > Gairaigo

Note 1 : Participants=136. M=Mean. SD=Standard deviation.
Note 2 : /tukue/ and /piano/ include empy consonants in their phonological CVCVCV-structure, butthese were included in the CVCVCV items.

8. General discussion
Sequential voicing, or rendaku, was observed in varying degrees of consistency depending upon a
combination of factors. The present study investigated the influence of the phonological-length(Experiments 1, 2 and partly 3) and etymological-type (Experiments 3 and 4) of first elements on rendaku
of the initial consonant of the CVCVCV-structured Wago-like nonwords /hukari/ and /hasuri/. Findings
indicate that the voicing of second elements within compound words as determined by native Japanese
speakers is influenced by the nature of first-element phonological-length and etymological-type. Since amajority of previous studies regarding rendaku (e.g., Haraguchi, 2001; Irwin, 2005; Itô & Mester, 1986,

Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 35

2003; Kurisu, 2006), limited their intensive investigations largely to the voicing of second elements, thepresent study represents an innovative contribution to the study of rendaku.
The following sections discuss the influence caused by the nature (i.e., phonological-length andetymological-type) of first elements on the rendaku of second elements.
8.1. Effects of first-element phonological-length
Particular phonological aspects of first elements which influence the degree of second element voicing
were especially salient in the present study. Experiment 1 revealed an overall trend whereby voicing
determination (i.e., voicing power) from one mora to three morae was observed to have a descending orderof strength. However, after controlling the characteristics of the first Wago elements by three conditions ofprinted-frequency, script type and free-standing single kanji, Experiment 2 revealed that a single mora
Wago showed greater voicing power than two or three morae. Although the phonological-length is limited
to this small range of one to three morae, from the findings of Experiments 1 and 2, it is safe to conclude
that a single Wago mora is more likely to have a stronger voicing power on the initial voiceless consonantin the second element than phonologically longer Wago.
Irwin (2005) collected samples of noun compounds with Kango second elements, showing that
rendaku of mononoms (single kanji units) appeared twice as frequently as binoms (two-kanji units). A
unit of mora differs from a unit of sinogram or sinograph (or kanji), but Irwin’s corpus data suggests thatthe shorter the length of the second element, the more frequently rendaku occurs (type frequency) among
Kango. Although the present study examined the effects of the first element on rendaku of a second
element and Irwin’s finding is related to the length of second elements, a shorter unit in either mora or
sinogram may result in a higher frequency of rendaku.
Furthermore, as previous studies (Endo, 1966; Okumura, 1952, 1955) have indicated, the results ofExperiment 3 showed a general likelihood that CVN first elements have stronger effects on rendaku of
second nonword elements than their counter stimuli of CVCV in both Wago and Kango, but not Gairaigo.
Concerning the CVN unit, a group of Japanese phonologists (e.g., Haraguchi, 1996; Kubozono, 1989,
1995a, 1999; Kubozono & Ota, 1998; Terao, 2002) have proposed that both morae and syllables aredescribed in a single phonological structure. Phonemes, morae and CVC and CVV (including CVJ as avariation of CVV) syllables are illustrated together in a single hierarchical structure. The lowest
phonological level is the phonemic level, representing consonants and vowels. The next higher level is themoraic level. The first mora (µ1) is constructed from a consonant (C) and a vowel (V) and the second mora(µ2) from a consonant (i.e., /N/ or /Q/) or a vowel (i.e., /R/ or /J/). The highest level in the figure is thesyllable level. Units at this level are constructed from CV and C/V, which create CVC and CVV syllables.
In this phonological structure, a CVN is considered as a single syllabic unit (or a single ‘heavy’ syllable),while a CVCV structure is two syllabic units (or two ‘light’ syllables). In addition, Tamaoka and Terao(2004) indicated in naming latencies that CVNCV-structured nonwords were named with the same latency
as the CVCV-structured nonwords, suggesting that CVN as a single phonological unit is processed justfast as a CV unit. Therefore, as observed in CV units, CVN units also have a strong influence on thevoicing of second elements. It should be noted that, since /N/ ending is seldom seen in Wago, the present
study could not find appropriate stimulus items matched across other phonological lengths by
printed-frequency and script type to conduct Experiment 2.
In sum, the findings of Experiments 1, 2 and, in part, 3 suggest the overall trend that within firstelements, a single mora or syllable phonological structure of CV and CVN units results in higher
frequency of rendaku in second elements.

36 Katsuo Tamaoka, Mutsuko Ihara, Tadao Murata, and Hyunjung Lim

8.2. Effects of the first-element etymological-type
As previously noted, intensive linguistic investigation into rendaku to date has focused almost exclusively
on the voicing of second elements. In fact, Itô and Mester (2003) claimed that since many examples
undergo rendaku regardless of the etymological-type of the first element, only the status of the second
element is relevant. Despite this claim, the present study of three etymological-types in Experiment 3
demonstrated that the first element Wago words had stronger voicing power upon the second elements thaneither Kango or Gairaigo, both of which had equal influence.
However, after controlling
printed-frequency and script type in Experiment 4, Wago and Kango displayed a similar likelihood of
rendaku and both showed higher rendaku frequency than Gairaigo. In the results of both Experiments 3
and 4, the etymological-type of first-elements appeared to exert influence on the rendaku in second
elements.
It is commonly known that rendaku fundamentally occurs among Japanese origin words (Wago),but not among Kango or Gairaigo (e.g., Itô and Mester, 1986, 2003; Kubozono, 1995b). However, Kango
also exhibit rendaku in their compounds. For instance, the compound word 株式会社 (‘joint-stockcompany’) composed of /kabusiki/ (株式) and /kaisya/ (会社) is pronounced /kabusiki-gaisya/ as theinitial consonant /k/ of the second element becomes voiced /g/. According to Vance (1996), as describedin Irwin (2005), the proportion of words exhibiting rendaku is approximately 90% for Wago, 20% formononomes of Kango, 10% for binomes of Kango, and negligible for Gairaigo (rounded to the nearest10%). In fact, Nakagawa (1966) suggested that rendaku among Kango is a barometer for ‘nativization’.
Likewise, Otsu (1980) also mentioned that Kango and Gairaigo also exhibit rendaku as one manifestationof the extent to which these words have become ‘Japanized’. Takayama (1999) labeled these words aszokukango (vulgarized Sino-Japanese) to display rendaku as observed in Wago. Whichever term –‘nativization’, ‘Japanization’ or ‘vulgarization’ – is used to describe rendaku among Kango, it appears to
be a good candidate of rendaku phenomena. Unlike the etymological types of Wago and Kango, lexical
items of Gairaigo, however, have not yet been sufficiently nativized to show a strong rendaku tendency.
Experiment 3 showed the tendency of rendaku in second elements to be influenced by the
first-element Wago more strongly than Kango and Gairaigo. After controlling for the major factor ofword-printed frequency, the results of Experiment 4 suggested that the first elements of both Wago andKango displayed similar voicing power to affect rendaku in second elements. Although the present study
focused on first-elements, as suggested by previous studies (Nakagawa, 1966; Otsu. 1980; Takayama,
1999), the tendency of nativization seems to be observed differently in the effects of rendaku on second
elements depending on the etymological types of first elements.
9. Limitations of the present study and further possible investigations
The present study shed light the influences of voiced-or-voiceless choice on first-element
phonological-length and etymological-type. However, due to the nature of data collection from over 100
participants in each Experiment, the scope of the present study was limited to investigating only two
Wago-like nonwords (i.e., hukari and hasuri) as second elements to determine whether or not the voiceless/h/ remains unchanged or becomes a voiced /b/ when the first-element is varied. The rendaku pattern of /h/
to /b/ is a relatively rare phenomenon, unique to Japanese, which is caused by labial weakening; thisweakening alters the sound of /p/ to /h/, resulting in a pattern of /h/ to/b/. As Kubozono (1999) explained,
there are four distinct voiceless-to-voiced patterns: /k/ to /g/, /s/ to /z/, /t/ to /d/ and /h/ to /b/. All these
rendaku patterns should be investigated using multiple examples. In addition, since many first elements
ending with /N/ can be found among Kango (but not Wago), the effects of /N/ on rendaku in the crossmorpheme condition should be examined by controlling the position of /N/ in first elements. Furthermore,Effects of phonological-length and etymological-type features in rendaku 37

the influence of the position of voiced consonants in first elements should also be investigated. As such,the questionnaire-based approach will likely continue to have a prominent role in future studies.
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Katsuo Tamaoka
Graduate School of Languages and Cultures
Nagoya University
Japanktamaoka@lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp
or ktamaoka@gc4.so-net.ne.jp
Mutsuko Ihara
Faculty of Medical Education and Culture
St. Marianna University School of MedicineJapanm2ihara@marianna-u.ac.jp
Tadao Murata
Human Sciences
Interdisciplinary Department
Faculty of Engineering
Kyushu Institute of TechnologyJapanmurata@dhs.kyutech.ac.jp
Hyunjung Lim
Department of International Cultures
Yamaguchi Prefectural UniversityJapanhjlim@yamaguchi-pu.ac.jp