Why is [好]{す}き pronounced with a voiceless/almost silent U, but [隙]{すき} is not?


Why is [好]{す}き pronounced with a voiceless/almost silent U, but [隙]{すき} is
not?

I've used 2 sound sample sources for both, Jisho and Rikai sama. They both
pronounce the first (like) with a voiceless U. However, they both pronounce
the second (gap) with a voiced U.

I thought that if you disregard external factors like
mood/emphasis/politeness/dialect/whatever for a second, that devoicing occurs
when U and I are sandwiched between two voiceless consonants, or if there's a
voiceless consonant first and then nothing after.

But here 1 word takes that rule and the other doesn't. Does that mean that
some specific words have a voiced U where it normally shouldn't be there?




living in Japan, I have heard a variety of words containing "su" spoken by
multiple people, in many areas of the country, with mixed usage of voiced or
unvoiced "u" sound. This includes most of the common words that contain the
pattern "suki". Words such as sukiyaki, sukima, sukiari, sukii, sukiiru, to
name some of the most common. Sometimes the same person will say the same
word, first one way, and then the other, during the course of a conversation.
It's rare to have an opportunity to hear that occur, though. If there is a
grammatical/phonetic rule that is meant to be applied to all words using the
"suki" syllables, I have not met any Japanese people who apply it strictly.

and as Eiríkr Útlendi mentioned in a comment, there are regional dialects that
flip the rules for voiced/devoiced sounds.

