i am stupid at linguistics

[antpower]

* I shall never really understand what an allophone is, I am convinced. I think it's like r/l is an allophone is Japanese and they're both represented by r but every time I think I understand this type of thing, I find out I am wrong. If anyone is clever at this type of thing and knows, please help me be less stupid!!

* When I wrote r/l just then, it made me think of Death Note.

* I am in a very Jun place right now. I think it's brought on by "Come Back to Me" (72 plays already!! Damn catchy tune!), or maybe the combination of that and NatsuNiji, or maybe I just like his hair right now (though I keep thinking his hairline is receeding, can anyone confirm/deny this?) but the world is coloured very Jun and sparkly for me right now. I am rewatching Kimi wa Petto, he's a very good puppy.

* Am thinking of getting a tumblr account. Is this a good idea? It seems like blogging for lazy people and I am lazy.

* Speaking of lazy, I think I need to trim my flist. I didn't check it for three days and it was over skip 400. It's mostly comms, so I've taken off some fic communities and icons, because if I'm in the mood for that kind of thing, I can just look for it. And also some of those subbing communities who post little random comments in with their subs - does that annoy anyone else? Not helpful information like Stormy Team will occassionally put up, I mean like "omg Nino so kawaii!!!!", ack that bugs me!! When I get some free time I'm going to go through and take out some comms that are always cross-posted to as well, I'm sick of reading 50 of the same thing.

* So, if anyone wants to defriend me, now's a good time. I probably won't cut any actual friends unless we honestly never talk and I don't know who you are or something, but if you want to defriend me for any reason, I honestly don't mind.

* LOL, I just signed up for tumblr, I am ant-power.

* Anyone going to Kokuritsu, I'm probably going to ignore your posts for the next week or so. I'm sorry, but there is a big Kokuritsu-shaped hole in my soul-soul and it's a dark and bitter place!! You don't need my big stormy raincloud glooming up your good time. (Not that you probably care, because you're going to Kokuritsu and you're going to have the most amazing time of your entire life!)

* LOL, I was just looking through my (entirely too big) icons folder and I was like "woah, who's that guy, he's really hot!" and it was Nino!!

* Speaking of Nino, and seeing as how the bulk of this post seems to be about me being snippy about things, it also really bugs me when random people refer to Nino as "Kazu". WTF, have some manners, you don't know him, he's not actually your future husband, please don't be calling him something that even his members rarely call him!

* I blame my snippiness on allophones, really.

* I was going to do a meme but this post is already way too long. Tomorrow, I'll do it and be less snippy. It will be much better!

Comments

[jamasunda.livejournal.com]

- And also some of those subbing communities who post little random comments in with their subs - does that annoy anyone else?

Oh dear god, YES. It bothers the hell out of me. It's really distracting and very unappealing. That and also subbers that don't know proper English.

I haven't noticed Jun's hairline receeding so maybe it's just the hairstyle? You could be correct though

Oh if only I could go to a concert, which is not likely in the near future. But at least we can look forward to the DVD release ♥

Never in my life have I heard the word "allophone". I should google it.

[mayhemagenta.livejournal.com]

According to my handy dandy iPodTouch dictionary app, "allophone - (linguistics) any of various acoustically different forms of the same phoneme". I am not entirely sure that I understand it either, but... :B thank you. I now have a new word to add to my dying vocabulary?

Yayyy, tumblr! I just got an account about two days ago! I also kind of love it though. And the reblog function is handy, though I could spend most of my time using it and never produce anything that's actually my own :) I will go follow you after I send out this comment!

I am loving Jun and the new solo. I cannot stop humming it either! And I am just waiting to see how he performs it on stage this tour :) THE POWER OF MATSUJUN KNOWS NO BOUNDS. My friend who's only seem him once or twice through pictures recently had a dream which consist of him wearing a pink shirt and black vest over slacks and a fedora -- while he danced on a cloud =w=

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

I am so dumb at linguistics, honestly! I hope I'll pick it up as I go along!!

Yay, tumblr! I am still customising everything, I haven't quite worked everything out yet, but once I do, I shall follow you back! XD

I KNOW, RIGHT!! I've been walking around kind of singing it to myself like a crazy person!! And you know, if it's Jun, I believe he could dance on a cloud!! He has to do something to top 5x10, right??

[mayhemagenta.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the subject, so I can't really say, but... things just take time. I'm sure you'll do fine :)

I have realised that my previous comment was obviously and stupid placed in reply to someone elses' comment, and for that I am so sorry! I feel embarrassed :/

Jun sure could dance on a cloud. He could probably part the Red Sea with all the magic hidden in his eyebrows :D

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

LOL, don't be embarrassed! I always do things like that, or I have stuff open in tabs and post my comment to the wrong person! XP

OMG, I bet he could! Jun is awesome. He could fly to drought-striken areas on his cloud and then tap-dance on it to make it rain!!

[mayhemagenta.livejournal.com]

XD I don't know what I was thinking at the time-. Oh wait -- Matsujun on the cloud. Yeaaaaah. That's a valid enough reason to be distracted :B

Taguchi from KAT-TUN can tap-dance. I feel compelled to find a .gif of him tapping and photoshopping Matsujun's head onto his body and add a cloud at his feet. Then add sparkles zapping out of his eyebrows when he makes it rain.

... What.

I... I don't know what to do with myself xD

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

Yes! It's okay if you're watching some dodgy stream like vikki or whatever it is where you can turn it off, but if it's from a downloading comm it drives me nuts! And also when they leave huge gaps in the subbing, like they couldn't be bothered doing that part, or if they just put something like *they're just talking about blah blah here*. If you can't be bothered, then don't do it!!

LOL, this probably sounds really ungrateful, but I am grateful to the subbing communities who actually take pride in their work, they make life awesome. I'm just not going to bother with the dodgy ones anymore, I'd rather wait!

I noticed in a photoshoot a few weeks ago it looked as if Jun's hairline was drawn in and since then it's really been bothering me! It could just be the hairstyle though, with it sort of flopping over his forehead.

Yes, the DVD will be awesome! I actually find that I don't enjoy the 5x10 DVD as much as the others because I went to the dome concert, whereas I absolutely love the others, esp Time and AAA, so maybe, in the long run, it's better not to go! (I'm going to keep telling myself that anyway!)

[jamasunda.livejournal.com]

Exactly how I feel! And you're not the only one who's grateful for those subbing communities XD I'd also either wait for a decent sub, or watch the raw.

I really should try to look for that, because you've made me really curious now. XD

.......... I still wish I could go to a concert. Ugh, so much. I will someday ♥ *nods*

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

Yes! I am so lazy about watching raws, but I should more often to practice Japanese! Usually I only watch VSA because it's easy to understand, and things like Mote Arashi, Dame Arashi because I can get the meaning from the writing on the screen. XP

If I remember where I saw it, I will link you! I feel like in episode 4 of NatsuNiji his forehead seemed larger than it did a few months ago. I might make a comparison picspam on the weekend to see if it's just the hairstyle!! XP

Definitely some day!! If you're determined to do something, you can definitely do it!!

[solesakuma]

ALLOPHONES:

Well, first we define 'phoneme'. A phoneme is a sound that, if changed, renders the word unrecognizable. For example, 'cat' and 'car'. Those two are phonemes because their difference carries a difference in meaning. However, /a/ can sound very differently depending on the dialect, but in your mind they're all the same sound.

Allophones are all those /a/ variants. In Japanese, /r/ and /l/ are allophones - instead of distinct phonemes - because saying 'sayonara' and 'sayonala' are both possible and accepted, because they happen to be the same phoneme.
In romanji we use an r to represent it, but it's not an r nor an l. It's both.
It may help you to realize that /r/ and /l/ - and /R/, which exists in Spanish but not in English nor Japanese - are very close in your mouth when you pronounce them. :O

[solesakuma]

... And I should explain I study Linguistics and Literature at college. :P
Also: sorry if it was confusing. Phonemes are something to be explained in person WITH SILLY EXERCISES.

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

It didn't help that I was sick last week when it was all explained. This week in class we were doing phoneme exercise and I was just sitting there like "...", it was very distressing. Your explanation was really good though, it made total sense! I've been reading through my text book and the class readings but it just made me more confused!

[solesakuma]

Linguistics text have that characteristic, yes. (Translation: Chomsky, go fuck yourself gramatically.)

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

OMG YOU ARE AMAZING, PLEASE COME TO MY UNI AND TAKE OVER MY LINGUISTICS COURSE!!!

You realise I'm going to be coming to you with every little linguistic question I have from now on, right?

<333333333333333333333

[solesakuma]

:P I don't mind, specially since the rest of your flist is linguistically inclined enough to be able to correct my mistakes or expand upon what I said.

RE: The Kazu thing! Dude, I get thrown out of fics when Arashi uses it... Fans? I mean, we do use 'Jun' or 'Sho' but... Kazu? :S When the guy is not even called KAzunari in public? Weeeird.

[a-brokenangel.livejournal.com]

actually l/r are not allophones in Japanese, although they are widely believed to be, at least that's what my sources told me. I recently wrote a paper about the phonology of English loan words in Japanese.

[solesakuma]

My knowledge of Japanese phonology is... pretty much based on my impressions while studying it, so I stand corrected.

Hmmm... so what are they, exactly, then? If you're willing to answer or point to some sources! :)

[a-brokenangel.livejournal.com]

No problem :) My knowledge of linguistics, especially with regards to phonetics and phonology was basically none existent before I took this class. ^^

okay, I will just go cite my paper:


It can be said that Japanese speakers, while being able to produce the sounds, do not seem to be able
to distinguish between the English /r/ and /l/. Depending on the context, e.g. speed and speaker,
what would be an /r/ sound in English can either be perceived as /r/ or /l/.

Furthermore, the two sounds, /r/ and /l/ do not correspond, as widely believed, to one single
Japanese sound. According to Avery and Ehrlich (1992, cited in Carruthers 2006: 19) these two
sounds are not allophones but rather “one liquid sound which is between the English/r/ and /l/”. (see
Carruthers 2006: 19)

However, according to Aoyama et. al. (2001, cited in Carruthers 2006: 19): “Despite the
articulatory difference between Japanese and the English liquids /l/ and /r/, Japanese speakers seem
to perceptually assimilate both English liquids to Japanese /r/.”

Therefore, while the sounds may not be allophones they do act as such due to “similarities in place
and manner of articulation”. (Carruthers 2006: 19) This leads to both /r/ and /l/ being pronounced
the same way in initial position. An example for this would be ロンドン (/ɽondon/, London) and
リベンジ (/ɽibentɕi/, revenge).


As you can see above this article was my main source. If you are interested I could send you my complete reference list or my paper. ^^

[solesakuma]

That'd be great, actually :) You're awesome.

[imifumei.livejournal.com]

solesakuma seems to have given you a pretty good description of allophones, so I won't repeat it, but it may also be helpful to have some other examples of them.

Vowels are tricky because they are pronounced different way in different words and in areas of the world so just about every vowel sound is an allophone for the phoneme of that vowel, but consonants make it clearer.

A good way to judge whether a sound is an allophone is whether you can use it instead of the sound you'd normally use and still be understood. Using an allophone usually just makes you sound like you have an accent or a speech impediment.

The /th/ phoneme, which is in words like 'this', 'that', and 'their' contains the allophone /d/. If a German person says, in English, 'dis is not what I wanted', you understand them to mean 'this'. Therefore, /d/ and /th/ are allophones.

We can also look at the /th/ phoneme which is in words like 'think' and 'thank'. If a Japanese person says, in English, 'sank you', you understand them to mean 'thank you'. Therefore /s/ and /th/ are allophones.

Does that make sense?

[ant-power.livejournal.com]

Yes, it makes a lot of sense! They're basically sounds that can be substituted without changing the meaning of the word, right?? I am totally going to write these comments into my textbook!!

Thank you! <333333333333333333

[imifumei.livejournal.com]

Yes! That is an excellent summation.

You're very welcome. I studied these things when I thought I might go into speech therapy but then I didn't (or haven't yet, at any rate). I am glad someone is getting some use out of the knowledge.

[solesakuma]

Thanks for the example! I'm a Spanish speaker, not an English one so I'm happy someone was able to give examples, because this is one area where examples really clear things up.

[imifumei.livejournal.com]

No problem at all!

[a-brokenangel.livejournal.com]

oh, you remind me that I haven't checked out the new album yet., I feel like such a bad fan. xD

I agree on the whole Kazu bit, it's just odd. >_> it might be almost as annoying as people refering to Ohno as Riida

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I need to trim my f-list too; 100+ comms I'm watching, and after not getting on LJ all yesterday I had to skip back like 150+ posts. D: But then again I still want to keep up with most of the comms... it can't be helped that there just happen to be so many fic exchanges/BB challenges posting fic at the same time... >_>;

I agree, the random comments are annoying. I like for the posts to just be "here is the link. Enjoy!" Sweet and short. :)

[beltenebra.livejournal.com]

Jun may just be the best puppy ever. I want one.

Man, It is one of my personal goals to Someday be in the vicinity of Kokuritsu the same time Arashi is. I totally feel you.

Also your entire point about 'Kazu'? HELL YES. ::high-fives::

I... have never heard of an allophone.... <.<