Why did Japanese evolve to have a ''she'' mora instead of a ''see'' mora in さしすせそ?


In the さしすせそ series, し is an exceptions to the pattern.

Is ''she'' easier to pronounce than ''see'' or why does Japanese have this
feature?




> In the さしすせそ series, し is an exceptions to the pattern.
>
> Is ''she'' easier to pronounce than ''see'' or why does Japanese have this
> feature?

This comes down to the biomechanics of pronunciation. It's the same reason we
say things like "tenshun" in English for the word _tension_.

The specific phenomenon is called "palatalization". There are two articles
about this on Wikipedia, and both are relevant:

  * [Palatalization (sound change)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalization_\(sound_change\))
  * [Palatalization (phonetics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalization_\(phonetics\))

Put simply, when you have a so-called "front vowel" -- a vowel pronounced more
in the front of the mouth -- that can gradually affect the preceding
consonant, eventually causing that consonant to change.

A simple example in modern English is the phrase _" did you?"_ The ⟨ y ⟩ in _"
you"_ is sometimes called a "palatal glide", and it basically works as a front
vowel. This affects the final ⟨ d ⟩ in _" did"_, and in fast, informal speech,
this shifts from _" did you"_ to something more like _" didja"_: that final ⟨
d ⟩ becomes **palatalized** , and ultimately also shifts from a
[stop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_consonant) to an [**affricate
consonant**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affricate_consonant#Affrication)
(it gets "friction").

A similar process has happened in languages around the world. For instance,
Latin had the word _"[centum](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/centum#Latin)"_
for "hundred", and it was pronounced like //kentum//, with a hard //k-// sound
at the start. The following //e// is a front vowel, and over time, this caused
a shift in that hard initial //k-//, resulting in modern Italian
_"[cento](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cento#Italian)"_, pronounced instead
like //t͡ʃento// (where the //t͡ʃ// part is pronounced like ⟨ ch ⟩ in English
words like _" chain"_).

In Japanese, we see palatalization in a few places. し is one such example.
Historical linguists theorize that this may have originally been pronounced as
//si// (like English _" see"_), and the front vowel //i// caused the initial
//s-// to palatalize, shifting the pronunciation to //ɕi// (like English _"
she"_). Another example is ち, where again linguists theorize that this was
originally //ti// (like English _" tea"_), and the front vowel caused a shift
to //t͡ɕi// (like in English _" cheese"_).

### Historical wrinkle

Interestingly, //e// is also a front vowel, although not quite as front as
//i//. It turns out that せ was also previously subject to this same
palatalization as し, and せ used to be pronounced as //ɕe// (like the first
three letters in English _" shed"_). We can tell that this used to be the case
around four hundred years ago, thanks to a Portuguese-Japanese dictionary from
1603, called the _Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam_ in Portuguese and the [日葡辞書
( _Nippo Jisho_ )](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippo_Jisho) in Japanese. The
compilers of that dictionary always spelled せ as ⟨ xe ⟩ (as we can see [in
this scan on Google
Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=TFJAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP585#v=onepage&q&f=false)),
which was (and still is) pronounced as //ɕe// or //ʃe// in Portuguese.

I'm not sure why this palatalization reversed. It might be that //e// in
Japanese was pronounced more towards the front of the mouth in years past, and
gradually moved further back in the mouth. Or it might be that speakers felt
more need to differentiate between し and せ. Or it might have been some social
or political angle, where pronouncing せ as //ɕe// came to be seen as uncool or
impolite or something otherwise negative. The reasons are lost to time, from
what little I can find.

* * *

Please comment if the above does not answer your question, and I can edit to
update.




> In the さしすせそ series, し is an exceptions to the pattern.
>
> Is ''she'' easier to pronounce than ''see'' or why does Japanese have this
> feature?

This comes down to the biomechanics of pronunciation. It's the same reason we
say things like "tenshun" in English for the word _tension_.

The specific phenomenon is called "palatalization". There are two articles
about this on Wikipedia, and both are relevant:

  * [Palatalization (sound change)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalization_\(sound_change\))
  * [Palatalization (phonetics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalization_\(phonetics\))

Put simply, when you have a so-called "front vowel" -- a vowel pronounced more
in the front of the mouth -- that can gradually affect the preceding
consonant, eventually causing that consonant to change.

A simple example in modern English is the phrase _" did you?"_ The ⟨ y ⟩ in _"
you"_ is sometimes called a "palatal glide", and it basically works as a front
vowel. This affects the final ⟨ d ⟩ in _" did"_, and in fast, informal speech,
this shifts from _" did you"_ to something more like _" didja"_: that final ⟨
d ⟩ becomes **palatalized** , and ultimately also shifts from a
[stop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_consonant) to an [**affricate
consonant**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affricate_consonant#Affrication)
(it gets "friction").

A similar process has happened in languages around the world. For instance,
Latin had the word _"[centum](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/centum#Latin)"_
for "hundred", and it was pronounced like //kentum//, with a hard //k-// sound
at the start. The following //e// is a front vowel, and over time, this caused
a shift in that hard initial //k-//, resulting in modern Italian
_"[cento](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cento#Italian)"_, pronounced instead
like //t͡ʃento// (where the //t͡ʃ// part is pronounced like ⟨ ch ⟩ in English
words like _" chain"_).

In Japanese, we see palatalization in a few places. し is one such example.
Historical linguists theorize that this may have originally been pronounced as
//si// (like English _" see"_), and the front vowel //i// caused the initial
//s-// to palatalize, shifting the pronunciation to //ɕi// (like English _"
she"_). Another example is ち, where again linguists theorize that this was
originally //ti// (like English _" tea"_), and the front vowel caused a shift
to //t͡ɕi// (like in English _" cheese"_).

### Historical wrinkle

Interestingly, //e// is also a front vowel, although not quite as front as
//i//. It turns out that せ was also previously subject to this same
palatalization as し, and せ used to be pronounced as //ɕe// (like the first
three letters in English _" shed"_). We can tell that this used to be the case
around four hundred years ago, thanks to a Portuguese-Japanese dictionary from
1603, called the _Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam_ in Portuguese and the [日葡辞書
( _Nippo Jisho_ )](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippo_Jisho) in Japanese. The
compilers of that dictionary always spelled せ as ⟨ xe ⟩ (as we can see [in
this scan on Google
Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=TFJAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP585#v=onepage&q&f=false)),
which was (and still is) pronounced as //ɕe// or //ʃe// in Portuguese.

I'm not sure why this palatalization reversed. It might be that //e// in
Japanese was pronounced more towards the front of the mouth in years past, and
gradually moved further back in the mouth. Or it might be that speakers felt
more need to differentiate between し and せ. Or it might have been some social
or political angle, where pronouncing せ as //ɕe// came to be seen as uncool or
impolite or something otherwise negative. The reasons are lost to time, from
what little I can find.

* * *

Please comment if the above does not answer your question, and I can edit to
update.

