wafl's Japanese information
:Pronounciation:.
When most of us began studying Japanese, one of the first serious things
we did is learn kana. This is natural, and very good, since knowing
how to read is essential for basically everything else. However, along
with kana, most everyone got a quick introduction to pronounciation too.
Unfortunately, Japanese phonetics are not as straightforward as many would
like to believe. The best resource for learning more about it is probably
the wikipedia page on the subject. I suggest you get familiar with IPA if
you really want to sound native.
Otherwise, here are some tips that I have aggregated over study and
observations:
*Henceforth, when I refer to a specific kana, I will write the romanized
form in uppercase letters, enclosed in quotes, such as "FU"
1) Pronounce your vowels correctly.
This is actually pretty easy. "A" is as expected, that is <ah> as in
f-a-ther. "I" is also straightforward, but I think it is a little more
frontward in the mouth. "U" is pure, please don't ever say "yoo." "O"
is similarly pure, and you should be able to say it without moving your
lips or toungue. In fact, this holds true for all Japanese vowels.
"E" is a little bit more difficult, because it is not quite what many
have learned. If you live in Great Britain, this is probably not a
problem for you, but if you are one of us Americans, you most likely
prounounce "E" the same way you say the <e> in m-e-t. This is not the
correct pronounciation, however. "E" is represented in IPA as the letter
/e/, which is best learned by listening to people say it.
Also, most people already know that vowels can differ in length in
Japanese. This is true, but it is a little deeper than that. Japanese uses
a system of "mora," where each element gets one unit of time. This means
that in the word "RE I N," "RE" "I" and "N" each get an equal amount of
time. In practice things are slurred a lot, but one thing which is often
kept is the distinction between vowels. In words like "A O I," "MA E," and
"HA I," each vowel is considered separate, and should be thought of as so,
even if not exactly pronounced that way.
2) Know your consonants.
When most of us learn kana, we are told things like "SHI" is the <sh> in
"sheep," and "FU" is the <f> in "food." For the most part, these are
correct, but there are some exceptions:
"SHI" is pronounced must closer to the front of the mouth, making it
almost like an <s> sound. This is why it is grouped with the rest of the
<s> kana anyway. Try making an <s> sound and making it sound more like
<sh>, but keep your tongue in the same spot.
"CHI" is similarly frontal, and is very close to the <t> sound. To make
this sound, find the "bump" right behind your top teeth. Place the flat
part of your tongue, just behind the tip, on that spot, and make a <ch>
sound.
"FU" is very unlike the English <f> sound. It is also very easy to make:
open your lips slightly, and blow air through them. That's it. It's as if
you were trying to lightly blow dust off of something fragile.
"GA" and the other <g>s tend to be a bit softer than the English <g>,
especially when "GA" is used alone as a particle. To match this, try
saying "GA", but at a short <ng> - as in "ring" - right before it.
There are some others, but these are the main differences.
3) Know your accent
Unlike English, which has a stress accent system, Japanese has a pitch
accent system. This is similar in effect to our own, so most people are
never even aware of it. Essentially, each mora of a word is pronounced
with either a relatively low or relatively high pitch. It is different for
each word, and varies among regions.
It is not particularly important to know the accent for each word. The
best way that I know to get accent down properly is just to pay attention
to how people say things, and emulate it the best you can. It is much more
important, though, that you don't re-create English's stress accent
system. This just sounds wierd.
