とくしゅはく

Japanese

For pronunciation and definitions of とくしゅはく – see the following entry.
特殊拍
[noun] (Japanese phonology) a mora that is variously dubbed in English "special mora" (literal translation), "non-syllabic mora" (by Kubozono Haruo), "non-head mora", or "deficient mora" (by Laurence Labrune), and that is unique in that it cannot form a 音節 (onsetsu, syllable) on its own, that it never occurs at the beginning of a word, and that is incapable of acting as an アクセント核 (akusento-kaku, accent kernel); morae like these include the 促音 (sokuon, moraic obstruent), the 撥音 (hatsuon, moraic nasal), the second half of a 長音 (chōon, long vowel), and the second half of a 二重母音 (nijū boin, diphthong)
(This term, とくしゅはく (tokushuhaku), is the hiragana spelling of the above term.)