I'm afraid Professor Goldsbury has mistakenly switched the Chinese and Japanese methods of counting in Japanese. "Ichi, ni, san, etc." comes from Chinese pronunciation, while "Hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, etc." is the native Japanese one.
Why does "ichi" become "ich(i)"? There are some phonological reasons, but first, try saying the word "seven". Notice that you have two distinct syllables, of roughly equal length (although the first syllable will be weighted with stress). Now, do 10 fast push-ups, counting outloud. Most likely, in that situation, the full "seven" will become a one syllable "sevn", to save time and breath, and to keep in the rhythm of the exercise. That's the same effect happening here. When counting fast and rhythmically, words get shortened.
Now, why does ichi specifically become ich'? Because it's a feature of Japanese (in most dialects, and all the major ones) that "u" and "i" become unvoiced (not dropped altogether!) following or in between unvoiced consonants. I.e., "su", "ku", "fu", "pu", and "shi". One example is Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, whose nickname is "Dice-K" because that's how one pronounces his name - the "u" in the "su" is unvoiced.
So, ichi becomes "ich(i)" (with the second "i" essentially whispered), roku becomes "rok(u)", shichi becomes shich(i) (or alternatively, as Jennifer indicates, "sh(i)chi", or even "sh(i)ch(i)", and hachi becomes "hach(i)."
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Golly, just imagine if English had these kind of inconsistencies. Whew!
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We do. Say "butter", or "letter" at natural speed. In American English, at least, the medial consonant is
not a "t"! Or, say, "trip" or "train". Notice that you're not saying "t+r", but rather "ch+r". And then of course there's "gimme" for "give me", "wanna" for "want to", and "gonna" for "going to", all of which can give second language learners fits.
Jeff Foxworthy used to have a bit on this in Southern speech.
Redneck 1: "Djeetyet?" (Did you eat yet?)
Redneck 2: "Naw."
Redneck 1: "Yawntu?" (You want to?)
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Ani Forbes wrote:
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That bit's hilarious...the first time you see it.