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Lesson 1-3 : Lesson Review about Japanese Pronunciation

This post reviews Japanese Pronunciation system with audio examples.

(you can listen to audio files by clicking all links in green letters)

1-3 JAPANESE PRONUNCIATION

1) Transcribing Double Consonants

There is another small letter 「つ」, which is used when transcribing double consonants such as kk, tt, and pp.

Example :

oto (おと/sound ) → otto (おっと/ husband )

kako (かこ/past ) → kakko (かっこ/ parenthesis )

machi (まち/ town ) → *matchi (マッチ/ match )

*Instead of “tt ” as “matti “, the second “t ” becomes “ch ” to make its sound closer to English pronunciation.

Note that double consonant n’s, as in sannen (さんねん/ three years ), are written with「ん」+ a hiragana with an initial n sound ( Na Gyou/ na, ni, nu, ne, and no ).

Example :

sannen (san-nen/さんねん/ three years )

annai (an-nai/あんない/ guide )

2) Short and Long Vowels

When the same vowel is placed one right after the other, the pronunciation of the vowel becomes about twice as long as the single vowel. Be sure to hold the sound long enough, because the length of the vowel can change one word to another.

The long ee sound is usually transcribed by adding an「い (i)」to an e-vowel hiragana. However, there are few words in which ”e” sound is used instead of “i” sound, such as in “heeya (へいや/ plain )” and “eega (えいが/movie )”, instead of “heiya” and “eiga”.

The long oo sound is in most cases transcribed by adding an「う (u)」to an o-vowel hiragana. There are, however, words in which the long vowel is transcribed with an ”o” sound, for historical reasons, such as in kookoo (こうこう/high school ) and hooritsu (ほうりつ/law ), instead of “koukou” and “houritsu”.

Examples :

obasan (おばさん/aunt ) → obaasan (おばあさん/grandmother )

ojisan (おじさん/uncle ) → ojiisan (おじいさん/grandfather )

yuki (ゆき/snow ) → yuuki (ゆうき/courage )

heya (へや/room ) → heeya (へいや/plain )

e (え/picture or painting ) → ee (ええ/yes )

koko (ここ/here ) → kookoo (こうこう/high school )

toru (とる/take ) → tooru (とおる/pass through )

3) Pronunciation of「ん/n」

「ん ( n ) 」is treated like a full syllable, in terms of length.

Its pronunciation varies, however, depending on the sound that follows it.　Japanese speakers are normally not aware of the different sound values of「ん」. Therefore, you do not need to worry too much about its pronunciation.

「ん ( n ) 」before “t“, “d“, “r“, and “n” represents a sound like the “n [n]” in “sun” in English.

EX : benri (べんり/convenient ) minna (みんな/everyone )

「ん ( n ) 」before “b”, “m”, and “p” is pronounced like “m [m]” in “sample” in English.

EX. konban (こんばん/this evening ) sanpo (さんぽ/walk )

「ん ( n ) 」before “k” and “g” represents a sound similar to “ng [ŋ]” in “king” in English.

EX. tonkatsu (とんかつ/pork cutlet ) bengoshi (べんごし/lawyer )

4) The sound of “r “

The consonant “r ” in ra, ri, ru, re, and ro is not pronounced like English “r”, where the tip of the tongue is usually curled, but sounds like ” l ” at the beginning of a word or a weak “d “.

EX.

kore (これ/this )

atarashii (あたらしい/new )

5) Voiceless vowels

When “i ” or “u ” is placed between such voiceless consonants as “k “, “s “, “t “, “p “, and “h“, it is whispered. This is also the same for “u ” in “desu” and “masu“.

EX.

tesuto (テスト/test )

arimasu (あります/have or there is/are )

6) Accent

Japanese has a pitch accent: all syllables are pronounced basically either in high or low pitch. Unlike the English stress accent in which stressed syllables tend to be pronounced longer and louder, in Japanese each syllable is pronounced approximately in equal length and stress. This is very important point in Japanese as a change in pitch may make the meaning of the word entirely different.

EX.

hashi (はし/bridge ) [ ha↗shi ]

hashi (はし/chopsticks ) [ ha↘shi ]

Please note that the pitch patterns in Japanese vary greatly, depending on the region of the country as dialects.

7) Katakana

The pronunciation of katakana and its combinations are the same as those of hiragana, except for the following points.

(1) The long vowels are written with 「ー」.