Why does the g tends to sound more like a m or n?


I have heard words such as shigoto, sugata, sugu (ni) and they end up sounding
like shimoto, sunata, and sunu ni. Even in sentence such as Haru ga kimasu.
I've heard sound like: Haru na kimasu.

So why is that? Do the Japanese not like the g sound (g as in gorilla)? This
seems to be a everyday spoken, I daresay colloquial, thing. I don't know, so
obviously I'm asking.

Here is a [good
example](http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lesson/english/learn/list/5.html) of what I
mean. If you skip to the 4:00 mark and listen up to the 4:30 mark, you'll hear
(hopefully what I hear) the "different" pronunciations of shigoto.




**I've heard sound like: Haru na kimasu. So why is that?**

I'm going to be very frank here. I think it's because you're not yet able to
distinguish intervocalic [ŋ] from [n] and [m]. Incidentally, listening to the
passage you link to, I hear [ŋ] in the first, [ɡ] in the second ocurrence of
しごと.

**Do the Japanese not like the g sound (g as in gorilla)?**

It's not that they don't like it. But the fact is that the phone [ɡ] is just
one of the ways that the phoneme /ɡ/ is realized in Japanese. Have a look
[here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Weakening). Often
intervocalic /ɡ/ is realized as [ɣ] or [ŋ]. Also, intervocalic /b/ is often
realized as [β], but this might not catch your attention as much, since this
is less likely to cause confusion with other consonants.

If by the first question, you meant to ask why /ɡ/ it is pronounced
differently from [ɡ], one way to answer that would be that [ɣ] or [ŋ] require
less effort to pronounce intervocalically. [ɡ] is a _stop_ , meaning that you
have to stop the airstream while articulating, while [ɣ] or [ŋ] are a
_fricative_ and a _nasal stop_. In the former, the airstream is not stopped
although the channel that the air goes through is made narrower. In the
latter, the air stops going through the mouth and is directed through the
nose.

This phenomenon, known as _weakening_ , happens in other languages as well,
e.g. in Castillian Spanish, where intervocalically (and in certain other
positions) /ɡ/ -> [ɣ], /b/ -> /β/ etc.




**I've heard sound like: Haru na kimasu. So why is that?**

I'm going to be very frank here. I think it's because you're not yet able to
distinguish intervocalic [ŋ] from [n] and [m]. Incidentally, listening to the
passage you link to, I hear [ŋ] in the first, [ɡ] in the second ocurrence of
しごと.

**Do the Japanese not like the g sound (g as in gorilla)?**

It's not that they don't like it. But the fact is that the phone [ɡ] is just
one of the ways that the phoneme /ɡ/ is realized in Japanese. Have a look
[here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Weakening). Often
intervocalic /ɡ/ is realized as [ɣ] or [ŋ]. Also, intervocalic /b/ is often
realized as [β], but this might not catch your attention as much, since this
is less likely to cause confusion with other consonants.

If by the first question, you meant to ask why /ɡ/ it is pronounced
differently from [ɡ], one way to answer that would be that [ɣ] or [ŋ] require
less effort to pronounce intervocalically. [ɡ] is a _stop_ , meaning that you
have to stop the airstream while articulating, while [ɣ] or [ŋ] are a
_fricative_ and a _nasal stop_. In the former, the airstream is not stopped
although the channel that the air goes through is made narrower. In the
latter, the air stops going through the mouth and is directed through the
nose.

This phenomenon, known as _weakening_ , happens in other languages as well,
e.g. in Castillian Spanish, where intervocalically (and in certain other
positions) /ɡ/ -> [ɣ], /b/ -> /β/ etc.

