Vowels Consonants Japanese Phonology
20 linguistic strategies. The study provides the description of five linguistic strategies. The
first strategy is sound substitution. Sound substitution refers to the strategy in labeling the non-existing sound with the sound which is present in their language and has the
closest quality with the English sound. Secondly, sound deletion is the strategy which is simply used by omitting the sound from a word Jenkins, 2000. The third strategy is
sound simplification which refers to a variation in which the certain sound within one syllable is simplified into simple sound McMahon, 2002. The fourth strategy is sound
assimilation. It is a linguistic process when one sound becomes similar to its neighbor Nathan, 2008. Lastly, insertion is the addition of a sound in the initial, middle or final
of a word Nathan, 2008. The insertion of sound which preceding the initial of a word is usually called as prosthesis Nathan, 2008. The insertion of sound which occurs in
the middle of a word is called epenthesis Nathan, 2008. Finally, paragoge is the insertion of a sound in the final of a word Nathan, 2008.
The second and the third theories are vowels and liquids in English phonological system. In 2007, Fromkin, Rodman, and Hymas stated that English vowels consist of
tense vowels, lax, and diphthongs. The fourth theory is English as a Foreign Language EFL speakers. The theory also describe the position of the Japanese singer when he
sings English song. In this case, he uses English to sing the song. As a result, he can be considered as an English as foreign language speaker since it is similar to the definition
of EFL which is a traditional term for the use or study of the English language by non- native speakers in countries where English is generally not a local medium of
communication.
21 The last theory is Japanese phonology theory. This theory describes the
phonological system in Japanese. There are some absences of sounds between English and Japanese. In Japanese there are only five variants of vowel which are not specified
whether they are lax or tense while in English there are fifteen different vowels and they contain diphthongs, tense and lax. The absence of an exact sounds of liquids also exists
in Japanese consonants. According to Kenworthy 1987, although Japanese has the same liquids as in English, they do not pronounce them very clearly whether they should
be [r] or [l]. They just pronounce them in between.