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    Japanese Pronunciation Guide

    Uploaded by

    Izza Mae Mejillano Aniel
    This document provides guidance on Japanese pronunciation, including basic vowel sounds, consonant sounds like "r", tone, and syllable emphasis. It notes that all words end in a vowel sound unless ending in "n", and provides examples of pronunciation. Advanced tips cover dropping or whispering ending vowels, elongating vowels through notation, and holding doubled consonants or vowels longer. It concludes with example names and their basic and advanced pronunciations.

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    Japanese Pronunciation Guide

    Uploaded by

    Izza Mae Mejillano Aniel
    23 views2 pages
    This document provides guidance on Japanese pronunciation, including basic vowel sounds, consonant sounds like "r", tone, and syllable emphasis. It notes that all words end in a vowel sound unless ending in "n", and provides examples of pronunciation. Advanced tips cover dropping or whispering ending vowels, elongating vowels through notation, and holding doubled consonants or vowels longer. It concludes with example names and their basic and advanced pronunciations.

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    This document provides guidance on Japanese pronunciation, including basic vowel sounds, consonant sounds like "r", tone, and syllable emphasis. It notes that all words end in a vowel sound unless ending in "n", and provides examples of pronunciation. Advanced tips cover dropping or whispering ending vowels, elongating vowels through notation, and holding doubled consonants or vowels longer. It concludes with example names and their basic and advanced pronunciations.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    23 views2 pages

    Japanese Pronunciation Guide

    Uploaded by

    Izza Mae Mejillano Aniel
    This document provides guidance on Japanese pronunciation, including basic vowel sounds, consonant sounds like "r", tone, and syllable emphasis. It notes that all words end in a vowel sound unless ending in "n", and provides examples of pronunciation. Advanced tips cover dropping or whispering ending vowels, elongating vowels through notation, and holding doubled consonants or vowels longer. It concludes with example names and their basic and advanced pronunciations.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Japanese Pronunciation Guide

    Basic vowel sounds

    A – “ah” Waseda

    I – “ee” Hiro

    U – between “oo” and the sound in “push” Murata

    E – “eh” Endo

    O – “oh” Konnichiwa

    Basic Tips

    • All Japanese words end with a vowel sound, unless they end with the letter N.
    • Rs are flipped, similar to Spanish or Italian.
    • Single vowels are “pure” without diphthongs; however, two or more vowels can be combined to
    produce a diphthong vowel. So e = “eh” but ei = “ay”
    • Tone of voice is not used to express emotion in the same way it is in English or Romance
    languages. What would sound monotonous to English speakers sounds perfectly fine to the
    Japanese ear. Most of the time, less is more.
    • Generally, syllable emphasis is much more toned down and comes 1-2 syllables before we
    would expect it in English.

    Example: Kentaro

    Incorrect: Ken-TA-ro Correct: KEN-ta-ro

    Advanced Tips

    • Sometimes, “U” and “I” vowel sounds are dropped or barely whispered if they come at the end
    of a word or in particular mid-word constructions. This may take a little practice/experience to
    get the knack.

    Example: Keisuke, Yoshihiro, Akiko

    Incorrect: Kei-soo-ke, Yo-shee-hiro, A-kee-ko Correct: Kei-s-ke, Yo-sh-hiro, A-k-ko

    • There are various ways of indicating that a vowel sound should be elongated. To make an “o”
    sound longer, for example, it can be notated as oo, oh, ou, or ō. Sometimes there’s no change.
    • A double consonant or vowel basically indicates that the sound should be held for twice as long.
    To English speakers, an elongated vowel sounds stressed and the syllable after an elongated
    consonant sounds stressed, e.g. hikooki = hi-KO-ki and gakko = gak-KO.

    By Josh Little in International Specialized Programs, 2012


    More Example Names (remember less is more when accenting syllables)

    As written Basic Advanced

    Aimi EYE-mee (same)

    Asuka AH-soo-kah AH-s-kah

    Chika Chee-kah Ch-kah

    Etsuko EH-tsoo-koh EH-ts-koh

    Fujiko FOO-jee-koh HOO-j-koh

    Hibiki Hee-bee-kee sH-bee-k

    Hikari Hee-KAH-ree sH-KA-ree

    Hitomi Hee-TOH-mee sH-TO-mee

    Itsuki EE-tsoo-kee EE-ts-kee

    Kaede Kah-eh-deh (same)

    Kazue Kah-zoo-eh (same)

    Mitsuhide MEE-tsoo-hee-deh MEE-ts-sH-deh

    Noboru Noh-boh-roo (same)

    Rikuto REE-koo-toh DEE-k-toh

    Ryosuke RYOH-soo-keh DYOH-s-keh

    Sachiko SAH-chee-koh SAH-ch-koh

    Shichiro SHEE-chee-roh SHEE-ch-roh

    Tsukiko Tsoo-kee-koh Ts-k-koh

    Yoshiyasu Yoh-shee-yah-soo Yoh-sh-yah-s

    By Josh Little in International Specialized Programs, 2012

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