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Note on Japanese Pronunciation

The pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs are approximated as follows:

a	as in	car
e	as in	pen
i	as in	police
o	as in	low
u	as in	sue
ai	as in	sky
ei	as in	bay
au	as in	now

ii There is no English approximation of this sound. There is a slight pause between the first i and the second i.

An e following a consonant is not a hard sound but rather a soft one. This is indicated by an accent mark (é). For example, saké is pronounced “sa-kay,” and Ikéda’ya as “ee-kay-da-ya.” An e following a vowel is also indicated by an accent mark (é) and pronounced similarly. For example, the place name Uéno is pronounced “oo-ay-no,” and Iéyasu as “ee-ay-ya-su.” The long vowel sounds (in which u or o are extended) are indicated by ū and ō, respectively, as in Kaishū and Kondō. There are no English approximations of these sounds. They are included to distinguish between the short u and o, as in Shinsengumi and Edo.

There are no English approximations for the following sounds. They consist of only one syllable.

ryo

myo

hyo

kyo

ryu

kyu

tsu

There are no English approximations for double consonants, including kk (Nikkō), ss (Gesshin’in [temple]), tt (Hokushin Ittōstyle [of fencing]), and nn (Tennen Rishin style [of fencing]). They are distinguished from single consonants by a slight fricative sound.