Pronouncing 私 (ɰ͡β̞ataɕi)

While looking up what a voiced labial-velar approximant is (spoiler, it’s the wuh in weep), I came across something weird about Japanese.

On the page it said that 私 is written as ɰ͡β̞ataɕi in IPA, and is not exactly a Voiced labial-velar approximant. On the Japanese phonology page, it says:

7. The compressed velar /w͍/ is essentially a non-moraic version of the vowel /u͍/. It is not equivalent to a typical IPA [w] since it is pronounced with lip compression rather than rounding ([ɰ͡β̞]).

My linguistese is still developing so I wandered round Wikipedia translating the terms into stuff I could understand:

Compressed: When you round your lips to make a “W” sound, but you’re not sticking out your lips like you’re kissing someone (that’s called protruded). No, really. Examples below:

Compressed rounding example, aka The First Kiss Protruded rounding example aka The Sloppy Kisser

Velar: Consonants made with the back of the tongue touched against the top of the soft palate at the back of your mouth. Try making a W sound and then try putting your tongue at the bottom of your mouth towards the front and you’ll see the difference.

Non-moraic: A mora is described as “a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress or timing) in some languages”. So in this instance the sound does not really count as a syllable (I think). There’s also an interesting note on that page about Japanese and moras which is somewhat related to my previous post on syllables in Hebrew and Japanese.

w͍ and u͍: The only reference to these I could find was on the general IPA page, which seems to suggest that the symbols underneath are used to represent unexpected roundness. I take this to mean the way that “u” can be pronounced with or without rounding your lips (see picture above).

So after all that, here’s a simpler explanation!

The first consonant “w” in 私 (watashi) is made by pressing your lips together rather than sticking out them as in the English “w”.

I have always pronounced the “w” without thinking about it so I think my “W” is rounded as that’s what English has. I’ll try to observe how Japanese people form the sound and see if there is a difference.