On the Difficulty of Elementary Thai Learners of Japanese in Distinguishing Between Intervocalic [k] and [g] Sounds Sound changes in spoken Japanese

Abstract

The words「信仰(しんこう)」and「信号(しんごう)」are frequently used by Japanese; however, for Thai beginning learners of Japanese, it is difficult to distinguish these words. The author in the present article verified the cause of not being able for them to distinguish these sound problems. According to the survey, it was found that the causes are the following: 1) the way of pronouncing the intervocalic /k/ for Japanese people; and 2) the lack of the /g/ sound in Thai phonology. The Japanese voiceless plosive /k/ has a slight air stream at the initial position. Therefore, the learners recognized it as aspirated ‘ค’. On the other hand, when it is pronounced at the intervocalic position, the air stream is reduced, and the sound is recognized as ‘ก’. In addition, lack of the /g/ in Thai phonology caused mishearing, as well. Thus, the pronounced [g] is recognized as ‘ก’ because of the amount of airflow.