So wait... are all ducks that survived the war swans now?
It has more to do with pronunciation and transliteration. Akizuki, Teruzuki, and Hatsuzuki (and some of their other sisters like Niizuki and Yoizuki when/if they get implemented) can have the "moon" part of their names transliterated as "-duki", leading to them being called duckies. Suzutsuki and Fuyutsuki's names are not subject to this, and their white hair and elegant presentation led to them being called swans (referencing "The Ugly Duckling"). It's a mere coincidence that both Suzutsuki and Fuyutsuki survived the war.
It has more to do with pronunciation and transliteration. Akizuki, Teruzuki, and Hatsuzuki (and some of their other sisters like Niizuki and Yoizuki when/if they get implemented) can have the "moon" part of their names transliterated as "-duki", leading to them being called duckies. Suzutsuki and Fuyutsuki's names are not subject to this, and their white hair and elegant presentation led to them being called swans (referencing "The Ugly Duckling"). It's a mere coincidence that both Suzutsuki and Fuyutsuki survived the war.
Some corrections as an East Asian: the tsuki つき and dzuki づき both interprets moon but the latter is voiced. In Japanese wether it should be voiced or not depends on the word composition. If X月 (which is X-dzuki) is a specific term, like fuyudzuki means winter moon, then it is usually voiced from tsu つ to dzu づ. If the previous character just used for description, like moon in winter, it's written the same in kanji character but usually pronounced with tsu, or written with つ. Of course it's not a rule, but just something like people are used to pronounce in this way.
Another point that worth mentioning is that, the evolution of pronunciation is likely to be the root cause of such confusion. Decades ago the difference in pronunciation between zu ず and dzu づ are larger than it is nowadays, because these are the different voices version of su す and tsu つ. If you use a English character keyboard to type zu you will only find ず but no づ. Again, the latter one should be formally pronounced as dzu, although you can't find it if you type dzu in English keyboard.
But anyways it's not a big deal. From wartime documents we can see IJN gave her the formal name fuyutsuki ふゆつき, but used both ふゆづき andふゆつき, or フユズキ and フユツキ. So what we know is that as least at that time tsuki and dzuki were both accepted in pronunciation and handwriting. It is also worth mentioning that, the current JMSDF destroyer JS Fuyuzuki uses zuki as it's formal English name, and ふゆづき as Japanese one, which changed from the WW2 fuyutsuki. And for other akidzuki class in WW2 most of them were formally given the name dzuki づき and this keeps in the current JMSDF Akizuki class, while all ships written づき in Japanese their English name changed to zuki. So bye bye dzuki.
Some corrections as an East Asian: the tsuki つき and dzuki づき both interprets moon but the latter is voiced. In Japanese wether it should be voiced or not depends on the word composition. If X月 (which is X-dzuki) is a specific term, like fuyudzuki means winter moon, then it is usually voiced from tsu つ to dzu づ. If the previous character just used for description, like moon in winter, it's written the same in kanji character but usually pronounced with tsu, or written with つ. Of course it's not a rule, but just something like people are used to pronounce in this way.
Another point that worth mentioning is that, the evolution of pronunciation is likely to be the root cause of such confusion. Decades ago the difference in pronunciation between zu ず and dzu づ are larger than it is nowadays, because these are the different voices version of su す and tsu つ. If you use a English character keyboard to type zu you will only find ず but no づ. Again, the latter one should be formally pronounced as dzu, although you can't find it if you type dzu in English keyboard.
But anyways it's not a big deal. From wartime documents we can see IJN gave her the formal name fuyutsuki ふゆつき, but used both ふゆづき andふゆつき, or フユズキ and フユツキ. So what we know is that as least at that time tsuki and dzuki were both accepted in pronunciation and handwriting. It is also worth mentioning that, the current JMSDF destroyer JS Fuyuzuki uses zuki as it's formal English name, and ふゆづき as Japanese one, which changed from the WW2 fuyutsuki. And for other akidzuki class in WW2 most of them were formally given the name dzuki づき and this keeps in the current JMSDF Akizuki class, while all ships written づき in Japanese their English name changed to zuki. So bye bye dzuki.
Well actually you can find づ by typing du, so that's why they're called duckies. And for the real pronunciation of つき just try ignore the u in the middle, make it tski. So what is really intuitive is つ ➡️ ts, づ ➡️ t'suu.
Some corrections as an East Asian: the tsuki つき and dzuki づき both interprets moon but the latter is voiced. In Japanese wether it should be voiced or not depends on the word composition. If X月 (which is X-dzuki) is a specific term, like fuyudzuki means winter moon, then it is usually voiced from tsu つ to dzu づ. If the previous character just used for description, like moon in winter, it's written the same in kanji character but usually pronounced with tsu, or written with つ. Of course it's not a rule, but just something like people are used to pronounce in this way.
Another point that worth mentioning is that, the evolution of pronunciation is likely to be the root cause of such confusion. Decades ago the difference in pronunciation between zu ず and dzu づ are larger than it is nowadays, because these are the different voices version of su す and tsu つ. If you use a English character keyboard to type zu you will only find ず but no づ. Again, the latter one should be formally pronounced as dzu, although you can't find it if you type dzu in English keyboard.
But anyways it's not a big deal. From wartime documents we can see IJN gave her the formal name fuyutsuki ふゆつき, but used both ふゆづき andふゆつき, or フユズキ and フユツキ. So what we know is that as least at that time tsuki and dzuki were both accepted in pronunciation and handwriting. It is also worth mentioning that, the current JMSDF destroyer JS Fuyuzuki uses zuki as it's formal English name, and ふゆづき as Japanese one, which changed from the WW2 fuyutsuki. And for other akidzuki class in WW2 most of them were formally given the name dzuki づき and this keeps in the current JMSDF Akizuki class, while all ships written づき in Japanese their English name changed to zuki. So bye bye dzuki.
I'm East Asian myself, though I no longer live there.
Japanese pronunciations are intuitive enough for me given I spent five years there in a formative period. Unfortunately, if my education during that time covered the finer points of grammar and linguistics that would give me the vocabulary to discuss it (doubtful), I've forgotten it; I am no longer quite conversant in the language. I translate stuff here to keep myself sharp so I don't lose any more grasp on it.
As far as my awareness goes at present, whether the voiced or unvoiced phoneme is used is dependent on the phoneme that precedes it and even so it's more a guideline than a strict rule (as you stated). Hence why, as you noted, 冬月 is in fact natural to render into either "fuyutsuki" or "fuyuzuki", with the latter being closer to standard today; likewise, for me it seems like 天川 would be natural to pronounce as either "amakawa" or "amagawa" though the first may be the more widely accepted one. Two of the same voiced/stressed phonemes in a row can be awkward pronunciation-wise, though, so for instance 涼月 would always be pronounced as "suzutsuki".
I'm East Asian myself, though I no longer live there.
Japanese pronunciations are intuitive enough for me given I spent five years there in a formative period. Unfortunately, if my education during that time covered the finer points of grammar and linguistics that would give me the vocabulary to discuss it (doubtful), I've forgotten it; I am no longer quite conversant in the language. I translate stuff here to keep myself sharp so I don't lose any more grasp on it.
As far as my awareness goes at present, whether the voiced or unvoiced phoneme is used is dependent on the phoneme that precedes it and even so it's more a guideline than a strict rule (as you stated). Hence why, as you noted, 冬月 is in fact natural to render into either "fuyutsuki" or "fuyuzuki", with the latter being closer to standard today; likewise, for me it seems like 天川 would be natural to pronounce as either "amakawa" or "amagawa" though the first may be the more widely accepted one. Two of the same voiced/stressed phonemes in a row can be awkward pronunciation-wise, though, so for instance 涼月 would always be pronounced as "suzutsuki".
This is true asw as we see it is a kind of universal rule in all languages.
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