汚れる - ゴ that sounds like ヲ

The reading for 汚れる (32) is written out as よごれる and for the “Kyoko” pronunciation that’s exactly what it sounds like to me, but to me it sounds like “Kenichi” is saying よをれる with an audible “w” not just the whisper. Is this expected, is this an accent thing, are my ears just not picking this up right? I’m familiar with the g sounds becoming a “ng” in the middle of words in some accents but never heard a “w” like this.

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It sounds fine to me. It’s the nasaly g like you describe in your post.

Here is the link to make it easier to people coming to this thread :slight_smile:

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Huh. Does it really sound the same to you? To me it’s definitely coming across as a “wo” and completely different to the “ngo” sound in all of the other words, including 汚す which sounds like “ngo”:

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Yes, I wouldn’t have even noticed it probably if not for you specifically asking about it. You will probably feel similarly with time and exposure

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I’ll report back.

Same here, I think had you not pointed anything out - I wouldn’t have noticed as it sounds just fine to me. I think it’s just something to get used to.

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I’ve never heard anyone use what I would call a hard G in Japanese for the ご sounds, only a soft G, which makes sense to me because a hard G is how I hear the じょ sound instead. But the spoken but unwritten phenomenon of the g sound becoming a ng in the middle of words in some accents is pretty well established, e.g. at https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/177/pronouncing-が-as-nga.

The ご becoming a w instead is what I’ve never heard before and can’t see anything written about so I was wondering if it was a known accent thing or just a quirk of this one guy saying this one word this one time.

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I called soft g wrong. It may also sound like a light ng.

Anyway, I think “I will report back” maybe with other similar recording, is a better answer. I don’t buy “you will feel with time” actually. It’s always possible to a native to have spoken off-guard, rather than with clear enunciation.

Unless a native answers.

Yeah I’ll see, not a huge deal I was just curious.

I see what you’re getting at, especially when comparing to Kyoko’s pronunciation. I think it should be fixed.