Re: Phonetic question

"Trinker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> necoandjeff wrote:
> [...]
> > I just thought of something and I'd love to hear comments on what I'm
about
> > to say from a NSoJ.
> >
> > Although I'm generally anti-nasal with gs in Japanese (it just sounds
whiny
> > to me when I hear someone say "Einga mi ni ikimasu ka?") there is one
> > situation where the reverse is true, to my ear anyway, and that is the g
of
> > the conjunction "ga" (i.e. "but"). In hyoujungo I think it generally
only
> > applies to masu verb forms since it sounds kind of hougen-ish to use
"ga"
> > after a familiar verb form (e.g. "ashita ikitai to omou ga, isogashikute
> > ikenai ka mo shirenai"). This form is certainly heard by native speakers
but
> > it is not a speaking style that I ever picked up from anyone around me.
> > Personally I usually opt for a form of kedo, keredo, etc. rather than ga
in
> > these kinds of construction but, in the event that you do use ga after
desu
> > or verb+masu, It sounds odd to me to hear it pronounced with a 100% hard
g
> > with no nasalization whatsoever. I think it is usually pronounced
somewhere
> > in between a full on hard g and a full on nasalized g but there is
usually a
> > slight nasalization. In fact I think this slight nasaliation generally
> > appears when using ga as a particle too (i.e. kore ga, boku ga, kuruma
ga,
> > etc.).
>
> Okay, "ikitai(n)ga", that I hear.  But I always thought that was
> actually written "ikitain-ga", and that it was a contraction of "ikitai
> no desu ga".

With the incredible variety of hogen that exists in Japan it's hard to say
what is or isn't possible with these kinds of phrases. Having said that, I
would be surprised if ikitai'n ga were used as a contraction of ikitai no
desu ga (the da/desu would have to drop out completely) and I would guess
that you were probably just hearing a nasalized ikitai ga.

The contraction of ikitai no desu ga in hyojungo would of course be ikitai'n
desu ga. There is also the informal version of that which would be ikitai'n
da ga but that sounds very hogenish to me (Nagoya perhaps?) The informal
hyojungo would more likely be ikitai'n dakedo.

The da is dropped in the more feminine example of ikitai no yo (masculine
equivalent would be ikitai'n da yo) and I think I've even heard ikitai'n yo
ne as a contraction of ikitai no yo ne (both feminine) but you can't just
replace the yo with ga in these "dropped da" examples and get ikitai no ga
or ikitai'n ga ne. Similarly, I don't think ikitai'n ga is possible either.

Jeff