Difference between んい and に

Question

I noticed that the word 単位 is written as たんい in hiragana, not たに. Is there a difference in the way んい and に are pronounced? If so, does the same principle go for んあ and な, んえ and ね, etc.?

Answer 1

There are three differences

• rhythm
  たんい has three morae ("syllables"), where as たに has only two.

• sound
  たんい has a uvular ("nasal") /ɴ/, i.e. [ta.ɴ.i], whereas たに has a "normal" /n/, i.e. [ta.ni].

• pitch
  たんい【HLL】 drops in pitch after the first mora, [たに​]【LHL】 drops in pitch after the second mora.

Try to listen for all three differences, they're all important.

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The sound and rhythm of んあ んう んえ んお are analogous. (Pitch, of course, depends on the word.)

However, in some cases (e.g. 反応 はんのう from はんおう or 天皇 or 銀杏), the "nasalization" has been lost "officially", so to speak. But /i/ following /ɴ/ it is usually preserved, 雰囲気 ふんいき, 原因 げんいん, 単位 たんい etc. That said, no one likes the combination /ɴ.i/, so these words are often subject to metathesis, see for example this answer.

Answer 2

単{たん} is pronounced たん and 位{い} is pronounced い.

Together, they are pronounced たんい or tan'i. This is distinctly different from に or ni.

For example, 谷{たに} is pronounced たに or tani. I don't know phonetic symbols so I apologize but you can sound these two out to hear how they are different.