Japanese Language Guide for Beginner - Lesson 02, A completely free Japanese language guide is most suitable for self-study learners.
Japanese Pronunciation
Japanese pronunciation seems very easy, but there are a few sounds most people need to improve. R's and F's, for example. Beyond that, there are pronunciation challenges such as long vowels, double consonants, the nasal が, and pitch accent.
Those things are elementary matters, but we have to learn those simple things to speak Japanese perfectly.
Let's see what those simple things are,
Elongate a sound of a letter
In Japanese, words with long sounds create a long pronunciation. Vowels are used to lengthen those words in Japanese.
1. Application of the long letter ‘a’
The character あ(a) is applied after the character is elongated.
Example: おかあさん (okaasan) - Mother
おばあさん(obaasan) - Grandmother
2. Application of the long letter ‘i’
The character い(i) is applied after the character to be elongated
Example: おにいさん (oniisan) - Elder brother
おじいさん(ojiisan) - Grandfather
3. Application of the long letter ‘u’
The character う(u) is applied after the character to be elongated.
Example: すうがく(suugaku) - Mathematics
くうき(kuuki) - Air
4. Application of long letter e.
The character え(e) is applied after the character to be elongated.
Example: おねえさん (oneesan) - Elder sister
つめえり(tsumeeri) - Stand-up collar
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5. Application of long letter o.
The characters う(u) and お(o) are applied after the character is elongated. When lengthened by ‘o’, 99% lengthened by う(u) and 1% lengthened by お(o).
Lengthening of the character う(u)
Example: ぼうし(boushi) - Hat/ Cap
のうみん(noumin) - Farmer
とうきょう( toukyou) - Tokyo
Prolongation of お(o)
Example: とおい(tooi) -Distant
おおきい(ookii) - Big
When writing in katakana, a small dash (ー) is used after the character to be elongated.
Example: メール(meeru) - Email
スプーン(supuun) - Spoon
コンピューター(konpyuutaa) - Computer
Double consonants
In Japanese, “つ” (tsu) is used to double a consonant in a word. Called gemination in phonetics, this results in a clipped sound, or slight pause, when pronouncing the word in Japanese. It’s not the most accessible pronunciation point to get at first, but you will get the hang of it the more familiar you become with the language.
When writing in romaji, you use a double consonant, while in kana you will use the small “tsu” (っ for hiragana and ッ for katakana) in place of the repeated consonant. つ(tsu) is used before the letter to be a double consonant.
Example: がっこう(gakkou) - School
きっさてん(kissaten) - Coffee shop
スイッチ(suichchi) - Switch
チケット(chiketto) - Ticket
Lesson by -
Sathsara Gamage
Japanese Language Coach
