I have been reviewing 放つ for a while now.
Listening to the WK reading, and comparing it to another verb ending in つ, it sounds a bit odd.
放つ very much sounds like it ends with づ by both voices
Whereas the pronunciation of 保つ sounds much more clearly like a つ.
Am I mishearing things or is there a reason for this?
I don’t hear a difference between the 放つ and 保つ audio.
I don’t hear a difference either.
That’s not to say there couldn’t be some allophone difference. It might help if you tell us your native language just to be clear, because that can impact what people hear.
I live in Scotland. I’m not sure if that would have much of an impact.
Listening to an actual example of a づ, 手作り, I can hear a distinction between the proper づ sound and the sound I’m mis-hearing in 放つ. So it’s just me mishearing, I guess.
The づ in 手作り sounds like ず to me, as I expect. The つ in 保つ and 放つ sound the same to me, like つ. There might be a slight z quality to Kyoko’s version for 放つ, but not all the way づ/ず, sinceI still clearly hear the t as well.