Tuesday, September 25, 2018

pronunciation - Why is debug デバッグ but bug is バグ?


I'm interested in why the extra small tsu in included in the word デバッグ but not バグ.


Are there any rules governing voicing in words formed via reduplication?


Lyman's rule may explain this, but does anyone know any more information on why the triple voiced compound is resolved by adding a small tsu (like maybe why a long sound or something different isn't used)



Answer



I'm fairly certain that this has to do with pitch in Japanese and accentuation in English.


The natural pitch for デバグ【HLL】 is HLL, whereas デバッグ【LHLL】 would naturally be LHL (and バグ【HL】 is HL). To mimic accentuation by pitch (i.e. accented syllables get a high pitch after transliteration), the ッ is necessary to give the バ a (natural) high pitch. バグ already has the right pitch pattern and the best pronunciation approximation to "bug".


(Besides, バッグ is already a word, although here the ッ is probably used to imitate the /æ/ sound, like in キャシュ "cash".)


So both バグ and デバッグ are to be the expected transliterations, and either pair バッグ/デバッグ and バグ/デバグ has shortcomings, albeit being more consistent in some sense.



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