Basic Sounds
Japanese is a pretty simple spoken language. All the sounds are for the most part similar to sounds that we have in our language. There are only a few sounds that are completely different from our own. Also unlike in Chinese, Japanese doesn't have any tones. Tones are probably the second biggest problem in learning Chinese, and fortunately, Japanese doesn't have them.
VOWELS
There are 5 vowels in Japanese. They are all are similar to the vowels in Spanish.
A as in father or as in law
I as in machine
U as in lunar
E as in explorer or as in game
O as in broken
* For U and O, don't round your lips
Weak Vowels
The letters I and U are called weak vowels. Sometimes in the middle or end of a word, they are merely whispered.
suki da (I love you) is pronounced like "ski da"
shimashita (I did it) is pronounced like "shi mashta
ikite iru (It is alive) is pronounced like "ikte iru"
CONSONANTS
Most of the consonants are very close to the sounds in English. Note that all consonants except N` (different from N) must be followed by a vowel.
K as in king
G as in gear**
S as in soon
Z as in zoo**
SH as in shoot
J as in jam
T as in tan
D as in dog
CH as in chair
TS as in tsunami**
N as in noon
H as in hope
F as in fan**
B as in bear
P as in poke
M as in mad
Y as in yoke
R ***
W as in win**
N`***
Notes on Consonants
** These sounds are slightly different from English
G- Some people pronounce this like NG in the middle of a word.
Z- This is sometimes pronounced DZ.
TS- This, though not truely occurring in English, is very easy to pronounce. This is normally only followed by a U.
F- This is pronounced by rounding your lips and then trying to pronounce F. This sound is normally only folled by U
W- Like U and O, don't round your lips to pronounce this.
*** These are sounds that are very different from English.
R- The Japanese R is nothing like our R. It is very close to the Spanish R. It is more similar to the English L. You use the tip of your tongue and tap (don't hold) it on the roof of your mouth, right in front of your upper teeth. If you can't get it, start off by pronouncing it like dl in English. Listen to some Japanese songs or anime to hear the actual pronounciation and try to mimick it.
N`- This is different from N. It also has a different character in the Japanese "alphabet." It's a nasal sound.It makes different sound depending on what consonant follows it
N`+(M, B, or P) sounds like m
N`+(T, D, or N) sounds like n
N`+(vowel or end of word) makes the preceding vowel a nasal sound. If you don't know how to pronounce it correctly, just pronounce it as an N. N` is usually romanized as "n" except when it is followed by a vowel or "y" sound. In those cases, you add an apostrophe after it. Some people also like to romanize it as "m" when it comes before a "b" or "p."
Dipthongs
A dipthong is a sound where two vowels are slured together. Once you know hiragana this will be more clear. All dipthongs in Japanese consist of a consonant (besides N`) plus YA, YU, or YO. However, not all dipthongs combos are possible. You will learn more about these when you learn hiragana.
Glottal Stops
In Japanese, there are many words with a glotal stop or, in simpler terms, a double consonant sound. We have the same sound in English, but it isn't such a fundamental part of our language. It occurs in between the words "book keeping." Notice how one word ends in K and the next one begins with a K. Having two of the same consonants together signifies this sound. To pronounce it, position your mouth for the next letter, but wait one syllable before you actually speak it.
It is romanized by simply writting the consonant twice. In the case of "sh" it becomes "ssh," in the case of "ts" it becomes "ttsu," and in the case of "ch" it becomes "tch."
TIMING
Japanese is a timed language. It is important to make each syllable last for one beat. You will often see words with two of the same vowel in succession. This is called a long vowel sound and that vowel is held for 2 beats instead of one. If you mess these up, you sometimes create a different word, but you will usually be understood if you mess up.
Obasan = aunt, middle-aged lady
Obaasan = grandmother, old lady
In colloquial speech, many words are often shortened or enlonged for ease of speech or out of excitement.
ACCENTS
Accents in Japanese are a little different from English accents. In English, we have a STRESS accent system. This means that each word has one syllable which is pronounced LOUDER, LONGER, and MORE CLEARLY than the rest. Japanese has a PITCH accent system. This means that in each word, each syllable is either pronounced high or low. Since I wasn't taught learning much about this, I won't present much of it in my site. Your brain will pick it up unconsciously as you progress and listen to actual Japanese.
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