w:zh:清濁音). Unlike in Chinese where "clear" and "muddy" were phonological, in Japanese, these terms are purely orthographic: a "muddy sound" (濁音, dakuon)...

The concept of "clearness" comes from Middle Chinese phonology (see w:zh:清濁音), in which it meant "voiceless consonant", although the consonants /n/ (な行)...