"Arigatō" and "gozaimasu" combined into a single word?


In Japan for three years, and I've noticed that the locals often sound like
they're combining the two words "arigatō" and "gozaimasu" into a single word,
"arigatōzaimasu".

Am I hearing things (possible, as they speak very quickly), or is this a
common practice?




Another possibility is that the /g/ is being lenited into a voiced velar
fricative /ɣ/, as is common between vowels in Japanese. (See ["Handbook of the
International Phonetic Association: Japanese" by Hideo
Okada](http://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_jpn_phon-2), or
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Japanese_phonology&oldid=506661712#Weakening).)
Further, since the second /g/ has rounded vowels (/o/) on both sides, it is
likely to be somewhat rounded (/ɣʷ/ = /w̝/).

The utterance, phonemically

> /aɽígatoogozaimásu/

then would be something like

> [àɽíɣàtoow̝ozaimás]

Judging by your username, I'm guessing you're a native English speaker. Since
most varieties of English diphthongize /o/ to something like /ow/, and
minimally distinguish vowel length, English speakers are likely less sensitive
to the intervening [w̝] and to the extra-long vowel sequence /ooo/. So you
hear the utterance as

> /arigatoːzaimas/

which would be transcribed as "arigatōzaimasu".




Another possibility is that the /g/ is being lenited into a voiced velar
fricative /ɣ/, as is common between vowels in Japanese. (See ["Handbook of the
International Phonetic Association: Japanese" by Hideo
Okada](http://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_jpn_phon-2), or
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Japanese_phonology&oldid=506661712#Weakening).)
Further, since the second /g/ has rounded vowels (/o/) on both sides, it is
likely to be somewhat rounded (/ɣʷ/ = /w̝/).

The utterance, phonemically

> /aɽígatoogozaimásu/

then would be something like

> [àɽíɣàtoow̝ozaimás]

Judging by your username, I'm guessing you're a native English speaker. Since
most varieties of English diphthongize /o/ to something like /ow/, and
minimally distinguish vowel length, English speakers are likely less sensitive
to the intervening [w̝] and to the extra-long vowel sequence /ooo/. So you
hear the utterance as

> /arigatoːzaimas/

which would be transcribed as "arigatōzaimasu".

