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I've read about if "z" sound is pronounced /z/ or /dz/ and found the answer here that:

Typically, though not consistently, [dz] occurs at the beginning of a word or in the middle of a word immediately following a syllable-final consonant (§5.1, §5.6), and [z] occurs in the middle of a word immediately following a vowel.

So I thought: okay I need to just remember which word uses which sound. Then I heard native speakers saying:

絶対にだめです。with /z/ sound

そんなことは絶対できないじょ。 with /dz/ sound

So seems like the SAME word can have both pronunciations, depending on person?

My question is should I care at all? Maybe I should choose one sound /z/ or /dz/ and use it in every word? Will everyone be able to understand me?

Thanks for help :)

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    Related: japanese.stackexchange.com/q/8324/5010 (see alexandrec's answer)
    – naruto
    May 30, 2019 at 16:48
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    Note also that different dialects have different realizations. I had one student from southwest Japan who insisted that his name こじま be pronounced //kozima//, in contrast to ふじむら (from older spelling ふぢむら) which he pronounced //ɸud͡ʑimura//. Most of his classmates from the Kantō region didn't distinguish じ //zi// from ぢ //d͡ʑi//, mostly pronouncing it as //d͡ʑi// and not hearing the difference used by the one fellow from the southwest. See the Yotsugana Wikipedia page. I suspect the //ze// ↔ //d͡ze// alternation you're hearing might be related.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    May 30, 2019 at 17:06

1 Answer 1

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You do not have to remember which word uses which. If you wish, you can stick to either [dz] or [z], and everyone will understand you. If you care, it may be better to follow the rule described in the answer you saw. As the answer says, in modern standard Japanese, [dz] and [z] are the variants (allophones) of the same sound (phoneme). That is, even if you may hear a native Japanese speaker say both [dz] and [z] depending on the situation, they are usually totally unaware of this fact, and they cannot even hear the difference. Please read the following questions.

Actually, [dz] and [z] were distinguished in old Japanese, and the distinction is still more or less preserved in some dialects (see Yotsugana). But this is not something ordinary speakers need to worry about.

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  • Thanks now that is a great answer! Yeah I won't really care too much and just repeat the common word pronunciation if it doesn't make really any difference to native speakers, thanks! You're great sensei, sir.
    – psychoboi111
    May 30, 2019 at 18:44

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