Pronouncing が as 'nga'


I'm a beginner and am learning from CD (Pimsleur). There are two native
speakers going through the dialogue. One, the man, pronounces が as I would
expect - 'ga'. The other (female) pronounces it as 'nga'.

How common is the latter? Which should I used? Is the usage split along
gender, age or geographic lines?




"Ga" and "Nga" are same in Japanese, just a personal difference. Some used to
say that old Japanese people used "Nga" more frequently than "Ga"




Here's the English equivalents for the IPA:  

[ɡ] = the 'g' in 'get'  
[ŋ] = the 'ng' in 'sing'  

The main difference is that [ŋ] is a [nasal
consonant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_consonant), whereas [ɡ] is not.
If you try plugging your nose and pronouncing [ŋ], you'll realize that it's
not possible. That's because air must flow through the nasal passage, but not
the oral passage, for [ŋ]. The simplest answer to your question is that [ŋ]
can optionally replace [ɡ] only in the _middle_ of the word or compound ([An
Introduction to Japanese Linguistics. Tsujimura,
2013](http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1444337734.html)), so
for example:

  * ごま (sesame seeds) can be only [ɡoma]
  * 下駄 (garden clogs) can be only [ɡɛta]
  * 庭下駄 (garden clogs) can be either /niwaɡɛta/ or /niwaŋɛta/
  * 縞柄 (stripped pattern) can be either /ɕimaɡaɾa/ or /ɕimaŋaɾa/

Words and phrases cannot start with a [ŋ]. Since [ɡ]→[ŋ] is optional, speakers
are divided into 3 obvious categories:

  * Speakers who never use [ŋ]
  * Speakers who always use [ŋ] (when it is possible)
  * Speakers who sometimes use [ŋ]

A study in 1941 showed that each category was equally about 30% out of 70
middle-school students (Nihongo no Hensen. Kindaichi, 1967). Generally older
speakers use [ŋ] more and younger speakers less. In fact, here is a graph of
that relationship:  

![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Mv1Lu.jpg)  
This graph comes from the paper [Variationist Sociolinguistics in The Handbook
of Japanese
Linguistics](http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631234944_chunk_g97806312349446)
(download
[here](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84340191/Variationist%20Sociolinguistics.zip)).
Also, here is a map of the distribution:  
![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9rytN.png)  
It's a high-res map so to actually see it, you can download the original
[here](https://www.ninjal.ac.jp/s_data/drep/laj_map/LAJ_001.pdf). But
basically the pink is [ɡ] and the green is [ŋ]. This map comes from a survey
done by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics and you
can find more maps like it
[here](https://www.ninjal.ac.jp/publication/catalogue/laj_map/map1/).
Generally [ŋ] is more prestigious than [ɡ] and a little bit of history
explains why:

> \- Before World War II, it was an emphasized point of elementary school
> education that /g/ should be realized as [ŋ] in non-initial position. Today,
> many trained television and radio broadcasters use non-initial [ŋ].  
> \- In early nineteenth-century literature (Ukiyoburo written by Shikitei
> Samba), it is specifically mentioned that speakers in Edo had the nasal
> word-internally [ŋ] while rural speakers had the plosive [g]  
> \- The results of these analyses, along with the earlier findings and
> observations, show that the change of word-internal [g] to [ŋ] in Tokyo
> Japanese originated in yamanote in the early twentieth century and has
> spread to the entire Tokyo speech community.

Also, there is no significant difference in usage by gender. As for the future
trend:

> An overall increase in the use of word-internal [g] in the vernacular is
> observed over several decades. The change is near completion, and the word-
> internal [ŋ] has been replaced by [g] at a very rapid rate within three
> generations.

So, [ŋ] is moribund (becoming extinct) at least in the areas major of Japan.
As a JSL student you'd prolly be better off just forgetting it even exists.
Besides all that, there's a bunch of interesting details and exceptions
regarding the [ɡ]/[ŋ] alternation, but that's prolly best left to a separate
question on its own.

