父音

Japanese

Kanji in this term
父	音
ふ Grade: 2	おん Grade: 1
goon

Kanji in this term
父	音
ふ Grade: 2	いん Grade: 1
kan’on

Etymology

父 (“father”) +‎ 音 (“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 あ (/a/) = child か (/ka/).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ふいん [fùíń] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯ̟ᵝĩɴ]

• (Tokyo) ふおん [fùóń] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯ̟ᵝõ̞ɴ]

Noun

父(ふ)音(いん) or 父(ふ)音(おん) • (fuin or fuon) 

1. (obsolete, phonetics, phonology) Synonym of 子音 (shiin, “a consonant”)

   Holonym: 子音 (shion)

   Coordinate term: 母音 (boon)

   • 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, page 6:

     父音とは、母音と配合して、子音をつくる一種の音なり。その音隱微にして、 いまだ、判然と口外にあらはれたるものにあらず。されば、また、これを標すべき文字のあることなし。今、假に、片假字を以て示すときは、五十音の宇列の、ク、ス、ツ、ヌ、フ、ム、ユ、ル、ウ、九個の子音より、母音を引き去りたる跡にのこれるもの、卽ちこれなり。

     Fuon to wa, boon to haigō shite, shion o tsukuru isshu no on nari. Sono on inbi ni shite, imada, hanzen to kōgai ni araware taru mono ni arazu. Sare ba, mata, kore o shirusu beki moji no aru koto nashi. Ima, kari ni, katakana o motte shimesu toki wa, gojūon no jiretsu no, ku, su, tsu, nu, fu, mu, yu, ru, u, kuko no shion yori, boon o hikisari taru ato ni nokoreru mono, sunawachi kore nari.

     ‘Father sounds’ are a class of sounds that combines with mother sounds to make child sounds. They are obscure: there is no obvious way to enunciate them. As such, there are no letters for representing them either. Now, if we tentatively note them with katakana, using this column of the fifty sounds, ku, su, tsu, nu, fu, mu, yu, ru and u, they shall be just whatever is left after we take the mother sounds out of these nine child sounds.

   • 1897 March, “〇父音 [Father Sounds]”, in 日本文典 [A Japanese Grammar], 中等學科敎授法硏究會:

     母音と配合して、子音を生ずる、幽微なる音を、父音といふ。父音をあらはすべき、文字は無けれど、假に、クスツヌフムユル𛄢の九字と以て、之にあつ。父母兩音の配合して、子音を生ずる狀、左の如し。

     Boon to haigō shite, shion o shōzuru, iubi naru on o, FUON to iu. Fuon o arawasu beki, moji wa nakere do, kari ni, ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru u no kuji to motte, kore ni atsu. Fubo ryōon no haigō shite, shion o shōzuru jō, hidari no gotoshi.

     Father sounds are subtle sounds that combine with mother sounds to bear child sounds. There are no letters for representing father sounds, so the nine letters ku, su, tsu, nu, fu, mu, yu, ru and u are tentatively used here. The ways father and mother sounds combine and bear child sounds are illustrated on the left.

   • 1897 November, Shioi, Ukō, “第二　　子音 [Number 2: Child Sounds]”, in 中學日本文典 [A Middle-School Japanese Grammar], 六盟館, page 3:

     故に、此の四十五音を、子音と稱し、其のクスツヌフムユル𛄢の如き九音を、父音と稱す。此の父音は、極めて隱微なるものにて、明に聲に發する能はざれど、やゝ、これ等に似たる故に、此の九個の音の文字にて、これを示せるなり。

     Yue ni, kono shijūgoon o, shion to shōshi, sono ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru u no gotoki kuon o, fuon to shōsu. Kono fuon wa, kiwamete inbi naru mono ni te, saya ni koe ni hassuru nō wa zaredo, yaya, korera ni ni taru ni, kono kuko no on no moji ni te, kore o shimeseru nari.

     Thus, the forty-five sounds are called ‘child sounds’, and the nine sounds such as ku, su, tsu, nu, fu, mu, yu, ru and u are called ‘father sounds’. The father sounds are highly obscure, and even though they can be clearly uttered, they can only be approximated by these nine phonetic letters that sound close to them.

   • 1902, Hirano, Hidekichi, “第十四章　　父音 [Chapter 14: Consonants]”, in 國語聲音學 [The Phonetics of the National Language], 國光社, page 75:

     父音は、モルガニー竇以上、卽ち副管中の或る局部に於ける、音の摩擦、密閉等によりて生ずるものである。前に母音の特質として擧げたるものを知らば、母音ならざるものゝ特質も推量せられるであらうが、とにかく、父音と母音との根本的區別に於て、下の如く說くことが出來る。母音に於ては、口腔は單に有聲の音を共鳴するので、有聲の音と云ふが母音の本質であるが、父音は口腔內に於ける音の通路を狹窄して、摩擦音を生じたり、密閉して之を破裂して、一種の破裂音を生じたりするので、口鼻腔內の調節が其の要素で、聲門の開閉はどうでもよいので、時には開いて息の音たり、時には閉ぢて聲の音たることが出來る。

     Fuon wa, Moruganī-tō ijō, sunawachi fukukanchū no aru kyokubu ni okeru, on no masatsu, mippei tō ni yorite shōzuru mono de aru. Mae ni boon no tokushitsu to shite age taru mono o shira ba, boon narazaru mono no tokushitsu mo suiryō serareru de arō ga, to ni kaku, fuon to boon to no konponteki kubetsu ni oite, shita no gotoku toku koto ga dekiru. Boon ni oite wa, kōkō wa tan ni yūsei no on o kyōmei suru no de, yūsei no on to iu ga boon no honshitsu de aru ga, fuon wa kōkōnai ni okeru on no tsūro o kyōsaku shite, masatsuon o shōji tari, mippei shite kore o haretsu shite, isshu no haretsuon o shōji tari suru no de, kōbikōnai no chōsetsu ga sono yōso de, seimon no kaihei wa dō de mo yoi no de, toki ni wa aite iki no on tari, toki ni wa tojite koe no on taru koto ga dekiru.

     Consonants are sounds generated due to friction, closure, etc., at specific places of articulation above the sinus of Morgagni in the vocal tract. The characteristics of vowels have been discussed earlier, so it should not be too difficult to infer the characteristics of non-vowels. As such, the fundamental distinction between consonants and vowels can be explained as follows. For vowels, the voiced sound merely resonates in the oral cavity, and that voiced sound is characteristic of vowels. Whereas for consonants, the path of the sound through the oral cavity may be constricted in the case of fricatives, or closed and followed by a burst in the case of plosives; there may also be modulation in the oral and nasal cavities, the opening and closing of the glottis may not be relevant, or an opening may result in airflow, or a closure may result in phonation.

   • 1905 June, 黃山 片岡, “父音 [Father Sounds]”, in 黃山著作集, Saitama: Suharaya, page 14:

     ク、ス、ツ、ヌ、フ、ム、ユ、ル、ウの九文字を、父音と云ふ、

     Ku, su, tsu, nu, fu, mu, yu, ru, u no kumoji o, fuon to iu,

     The nine letters ku, su, tsu, nu, fu, mu, yu, ru and u are called ‘father sounds’

   • 1912, 淸 榊原, “⑶　父音 [(3) Father Sounds]”, in 自習速記術 [Self-Taught Stenography], 以文館, page 13:

     父(ふ)音(おん)と云(い)ふものはカサタナハマヤラの八字(じ)を云(い)ふのでありまして、大(おほ)きな環(くわん)から左(さ)に示(しめ)す圖(づ)式(しき)のやうに取(と)るのであります。

     Fuon to iu mono wa ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra no hachiji o iu no de arimashite, ōki na kan kara sa ni shimesu zushiki no yō ni toru no de arimasu.

     ‘Father sounds’ are the eight letters ka, sa, ta, na, ha, ma, ya and ra, and they are written as shown in the diagram on the left page, around the big circle.