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Notes on the

Japanese Language

Much of the writing that you see in Japan consists of the language’s famous ideographic characters or kanji (kahn-jee). But virtually all of the bus, subway, train, hotel, restaurant, and shop signs and names you encounter will also be written in the familiar Roman letters of the English language. These Romanized words make the Japanese language surprisingly easy for Westerners to pronounce.

Japanese is based on five vowels and a number of consonants that are combined to create an alphabet of syllables that never change. The result is that there are no “weird” or unexpected spellings or pronunciations of Japanese words, unlike in English and many other languages.

Once you learn how to pronounce the vowels and the vowel-consonant combinations, you know how to pronounce every word in the Japanese language. The five Japanese vowels are represented by the Roman letters A, I, U, E, and O. They are pronounced as follows:

A	ah
I	ee
U	uu as in rue
E	eh
O	oh

These vowels are “syllables” in themselves and are key elements in the vowel-consonant combinations that make up the rest of the Japanese alphabet. The following charts include all of the syllables in the Japanese language, along with their English phonetic equivalents. Just pronounce the phonetics in standard English and the sounds will come out “in Japanese.”

Primary Syllables

KA	KI	KU	KE	KO
kah	kee	kuu	kay	koe
SA	SHI	SU	SE	SO
sah	she	sue	say	so
TA	CHI	TSU	TE	TO
tah	chee	t’sue	tay	toe
NA	NI	NU	NE	NO
nah	nee	nuu	nay	no
HA	HI	HU	HE	HO
hah	hee	who	hay	hoe
MA	MI	MU	ME	MO
mah	me	moo	may	moe
YA	I	YU	E	YO
yah	ee	yuu	eh	yoe
RA	RI	RU	RE	RO
rah	ree	rue	ray	roe
(In Japanese, the letter R sounds a bit like the English letter L and often requires a slight trilling sound. You should also roll the letter R a bit when saying Japanese words.)
GA	GI	GU	GE	GO
gah	ghee	goo	gay	go
ZA	ZI	ZU	ZE	ZO
zah	jee	zoo	zay	zoe
DA	JI	ZU	DE	DO
dah	jee	zoo	day	doe
(Note that ZI and JI sound virtually the same.)
BA	BI	BU	BE	BO
bah	bee	boo	bay	boe
PA	PI	PU	PE	PO
pah	pee	puu	pay	poe

Combined Syllables

The following syllables are combinations of some of the ones appearing above. Two syllables are combined into one simply by merging them, and they are pronounced as “one” syllable, not two. Biyu (spelled byu in its combined form), for example, should be run together and sound like the Beau in Beulah.

RYA	RYU	RYO
re-yah	re-yuu	re-yoe
MYA	MYU	MYO
me-yah	me-yuu	me-yoe
NYA	NYU	NYO
ne-yah	ne-yuu	ne-yoe
HYA	HYU	HYO
he-yah	he-yuu	he-yoe
CHA	CHU	CHO
chah	chuu	choe
SHA	SHU	SHO
shah	shuu	show
KYA	KYU	KYO
q’yah	que	q’yoe
PYA	PYU	PYO
p’yah	p’yuu	p’yoe
BYA	BYU	BYO
b’yah	b’yuu	b’yoe
JA	JU	JO
jah	juu	joe
GYA	GYU	GYO
g’yah	g’yuu	g’yoe

I suggest that you practice saying these syllables for several minutes until you are able to say them smoothly and without hesitation. Soon you will be able to recognize individual syllables in the Japanese words you see and hear. The word arigato (“thank you”), for example, is made up of four syllables: a-ri-ga-to (ah-ree-gah-toe). Don’t forget to trill the ri syllable a bit, as if it were Spanish. (In fact, most of the primary syllables outlined above are pronounced almost exactly the way they would be in Spanish.)

The letters H and G are pronounced hard, as in ho and go. There are no true L or V sounds in Japanese, so they are not on the list of syllables. As these sounds are unfamiliar, Japanese people trying to pronounce English words that include them often say R instead of L and B instead of V.

Long vowels in Japanese syllables are pronounced twice as long as regular vowels and are indicated by a straight line, or macron, placed above them: ā, ī ū, ē, and ō.

Most syllables in Japanese are distinctly pronounced. At times, however, I and U vowel sounds are weak, and the syllable is not clearly pronounced. Thus, desu—the verb “to be”—is pronounced dess and yoroshiku becomes yohrohshh-kuu.

English speakers traveling in Japan should also be aware that more than 20,000 English words have been integrated into the Japanese language. Rendered into Japanese syllables, they are now a fundamental part of daily speech, making the study and use of the Japanese language as a whole that much easier once you get used to the system.

Of course, a Japanized English word may become meaningless to foreign ears if it is used out of context. Bread, for example, is pronounced buredo (boo-ray-doe); milk is pronounced miruku (me-rue-koo).

Again, the secret to using these pronunciation guidelines to communicate in Japanese is to pronounce the English phonetics for each word and sentence as standard English, practicing each sentence until it comes out in a smooth flow.