ABSTRACT
It should be added, for the sake of accuracy, that though Japanese vowel sounds are usually described as being like those of Italian, they are much shorter and lighter; and since there is hardly any stress accent vowels playa much less important part in spoken Japanese than in Italian. The vowel u in particular is almost elided in ordinary speech in a number of words-e. g. des' for desu, tas' keru for tasukeru, &c. The negative termination nu is often pronounced and sometimes written as if it were n, e. g . ..:z. :J1 :...- instead of ..:z. :JJ ~. In Sinico-Japanese words a final tsu usually stands for an original Chinese final consonant t, as in gwatsu for J'J ngwat; a final ku for an original Chinese k, as in moku for * mok. Similarly a final Chinese n or ng was usually in early writings represented by a kana symbol for mu.
