産婦人科 pronunciation

[FinancialWar]

産婦 is さんぷ

But when in

産婦人科 it becomes さんふじんか

Why is that the case?

 

[Mike Cash]

Because 産科 and 婦人科 are being mashed together.

 

[FinancialWar]

The pronunciation should be changed regardless? Because smashed them together would mean their are now one word and dakuten are constantly added when now words are created.

Considering Japanese basics changes pronunciation arbitrarily any way.

産婦人科 seem to be the only word in the Japanese language where ふ does not become ぷ after an ん.

 

[Mike Cash]

Then it would be 産婦 and 人科, which doesn't make sense.

Think of it as 産/婦人科. Your trouble comes from wanting to join the first two characters together just because they occur next to each other. Joined together they're a different word.

The two specialties are practiced together as a general thing, so "obstretics" and "gynecology" (産科 and 婦人科) get conjoined, just as happens in English with the term "OB-GYN".

 

[Toritoribe]

The pronunciation should be changed regardless? Because smashed them together would mean their are now one word and dakuten are constantly added when now words are created.

Considering Japanese basics changes pronunciation arbitrarily any way.

産婦人科 seem to be the only word in the Japanese language where ふ does not become ぷ after an ん.

There are many examples ふ doesn't change to ぷ, of course.

有閑夫人
黄斑浮腫
半浮遊卵
反服従
半扶養......


There IS a rule why Rendaku doesn't occur on 産婦人科. Do not call it "arbitrarily". That only shows your own ignorance.
Rendaku - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[FinancialWar]

There are many examples ふ doesn't change to ぷ, of course.

有閑夫人
黄斑浮腫
半浮遊卵
反服従
半扶養......


There IS a rule why Rendaku doesn't occur on 産婦人科. Do not call it "arbitrarily". That only shows your own ignorance.
Rendaku - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

These are not words. They are phrases.

 

[Toritoribe]

有閑夫人とは - 難読語辞典 Weblio辞書
黄斑浮腫の英語・英訳 - 英和辞典・和英辞典 Weblio辞書
半浮遊卵の英語・英訳 - 英和辞典・和英辞典 Weblio辞書

 

[Mike Cash]

These are not words. They are phrases.

But the link does answer your question:

 

[FinancialWar]

but there is no rule for ふ

 

[undrentide]

Basically 婦 is pronounced ふ and when it follows ん, it becomes ぷ.
夫婦、婦人、婦女子、主婦、農婦 ： ふ
妊婦、新婦、天婦羅 ： ぷ

産婦人科 is an exception, as Mike san pointed out it actually is two words 産科＋婦人科

 

[Toritoribe]

ふ also changes to ぷ after っ.
e.g.
一夫(as in 一夫多妻) 屈服 発奮

 

[Morphling]

For what it's worth さんぷ 産婦 does follow the pattern when used as a word but not in the case of 産婦人科 as described previously which I'm not going to go over.