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Pronunciation

VOWELS

The Japanese language has five vowels: a, i, u, e, and o. The vowels are pronounced as follows:

a as in father

i as in eat

u as in rule

e as in met

o as in solo

In spoken Japanese, the i and u vowel sounds are often weak. This occurs in words like shika (deer), which may sound like shka, or desu, which may sound like dess.

Long vowels are pronounced twice as long as regular vowels and are marked ā, ū, ē and ō. In this book the double ii is used instead of a macron.

CONSONANTS

Most Japanese consonants are pronounced like English consonants. One exception is the Japanese r, which sounds like a combination of the English r and l.

As shown in the following table, each consonant is followed by a vowel, by a y and a vowel, or by an h and a vowel. Each syllable is clearly pronounced; thus haru (spring) is ha-ru; kyaku (customer) is kya-ku; and shumi (hobby) is shu-mi.

When n is followed by a vowel within a word, an apostrophe is used to show the break between syllables. Examples of this include kin’en (nonsmoking) and man’in (no vacancy).

Double consonants (kk, pp, ss, tt) are pronounced as follows: Nikko (a famous tourist spot) like the k sound in “book-keeper”; rippa (fine) like the p sound in “top part”; issō (more) like the s sound in “less sleep”; kitte (stamp) like the t sound in “hot tub”.

Here is a table of all the sounds in Japanese. It is recommended that you practice the sounds aloud at least two or three times.

TABLE OF SOUNDS IN JAPANESE
a	i	u	e	o
ka	ki	ku	ke	ko
ga	gi	gu	ge	go
sa	shi	su	se	so
za	ji	zu	ze	zo
ta	chi	tsu	te	to
tsa*	ti*	tu*	tse*	tso*
da	di*	du*/dyu*	de	do
na	ni	nu	ne	no
ha	hi	fu	he	ho
ba	bi	bu	be	bo
pa	pi	pu	pe	po
fa*	fi*	—	fe*	fo*
ma	mi	mu	me	mo
ya	—	yu	—	yo
ra	ri	ru	re	ro
wa	—	—	—	—
n	—	—	—	—
kya	—	kyu	—	kyo
gya	—	gyu	—	gyo
sha	—	shu	she*	sho
ja	—	ju	je*	jo
cha	—	chu	che*	cho
nya	—	nyu	—	nyo
hya	—	hyu/fyu*	—	hyo
bya	—	byu	—	byo
pya	—	pyu	—	pyo
mya	—	myu	—	myo
rya	—	ryu	—	ryo

* These sounds are used only in loanwords, that is, words derived from other languages.

PITCH

Japanese pronunciation is not very difficult once you get used to putting a vowel after every consonant, except “n.” What might puzzle learners is the difference between its high and low pitches. For example, when you say, hashi, pronouncing ha with a high pitch and shi with a low pitch, it means “chopsticks” (hashi), whereas if the pitches are the other way round, it means a “bridge” or an “edge” (hashi). Listen to the audio recordings, and follow the native speakers’ pitch as closely as you can.

For e.g.

Good morning.

Ohayō gozaimahss.

おはようございます｡