撥音便

In Japanese, hatsuonbin 撥音便 is a change in pronunciation of a word where a kana 仮名 is changed to the nasal n ん, also known as hatsuon 撥音. This mainly happens in the conjugation of certain verbs.

For example: shinda 死んだ, "died," is supposed to be shini-ta 死にた, but ni に and ta た are pronounced merged together.

Note: not to be confused with hatsuon 発音, "pronunciation," which is a homonym.

• 連用形
• Nouns
• References

連用形

In verbs, hatsuonbin manifests when the ren'youkei 連用形 form of godan verbs ending in ~nu ～ぬ, ~bu ～ぶ, or ~mu ～む, is suffixed by the jodoushi 助動詞 ta た or te て.

This ren'youkei form ends in ~i for all godan verbs. Compare below:

• korosu
  殺す
  To kill.
• koroshi-ta
  殺した
  Killed.

• shinu
  死ぬ
  To die.
• shini-ta
  死にた
  (undergoes hatsuonbin.)
• shinda
  死んだ
  Died.

• asobu
  遊ぶ
  To play.
• asobi-ta
  遊びた
  (undergoes hatsuonbin.)
• asonda
  遊んだ
  Played.

• nomu
  飲む
  To drink.
• nomi-ta
  飲みた
  (undergoes hatsuonbin.)
• nonda
  飲んだ
  Drank.

Above, ~ni ～に, ~bi ～び, and ~mi ～み became a hatsuon (n ん). This is what's called hatsuonbin.

Note that ~ta ～た also became ~da ～だ, that is, it gained a diacritic, a dakuten 濁点, every time the suffix was fused with stem. This has nothing to do with hatsuonbin, though. This is a separate phenomenon called renjoudaku 連声濁 and it can happen without hatsuonbin.

• oyogu
  泳ぐ
  To swim.
• oyogi-ta
  泳ぎた
  (this word undergoes i-onbin イ音便, not hatsuonbin.)
• oyoida
  泳いだ
  Swam.
  • Here, ~ta changed to ~da, too, so we have renjoudaku, too.

Besides the past form, the hatsuonbin also applies to the te-form, which is used, among other things, to connect verbs to auxiliary verbs like kudasai ください, "please."

• shinde-kudasai
  死んでください
  Please die.
• asonde-kudasai
  遊んでください
  Please play.
• nonde-kudasai
  飲んでください
  Please drink.

It also applies to the conditional ~tara ～たら form, since it's related to ~ta ～た.

• shindara
  死んだら
  If died.
• asondara
  遊んだら
  If played.
• nondara
  飲んだら
  If drank.

However, it doesn't apply to the desiderative ~tai ～たい suffix, because ~tai ～たい isn't related to ~ta ～た, despite looking so very similar.

• shinitai
  死にたい
  [I] want to die.
• asobitai
  遊びたい
  [I] want to play.
• nomitai
  飲みたい
  [I] want to drink.

Nouns

The hatsuonbin phenomenon isn't limited to verbs. Some nouns feature it, too. For example:

• kami-sashi
  髪挿し
  Hair-insert. (literally.)
• kanzashi
  簪
  Hairpin.
  • This single kanji contains multiple morphemes.

References

• 撥音便 - kotobank.jp, accessed 2019-11-10.