How words and characters in Japanese sound when spoken aloud.
6
votes
2answers
242 views
Encountered な with ten-ten
I am currently reading a manga for studying Japanese and encountered something strange. A girl exclaims「な゛?!」
The situation is that she has just had water squirted up her nose, so I am guessing it's ...
17
votes
4answers
1k views
What differences should I look out for between male vs female speech?
I was told a story where a male westerner learnt Japanese from his girlfriend and ended up speaking more like a female. The storyteller thought this was hilarious.
What important differences should I ...
7
votes
5answers
3k views
I am looking for an online Japanese dictionary with audio pronunciations
Does anyone know any online Japanese dictionary which provides audio reading?
16
votes
5answers
1k views
Pronouncing が as 'nga'
I'm a beginner and am learning from CD (Pimsleur). There are two native speakers going through the dialogue. One, the man, pronounces が as I would expect - 'ga'. The other (female) pronounces it as ...
2
votes
1answer
131 views
Does all kana in the う line rhyme?
I've heard many people pronounce す, つ, く, and る as if く and る rhyme, す and つ rhyme, but not any other pair. It seems as if す is sometimes pronounced [sɨ] and く is pronounced [ku]. This doesn't seem to ...
1
vote
2answers
155 views
What's the pronunciation of 1点差?
Intuitively, I would guess it's 「いってんさ」, but I could image 「いちてんさ」just as well.
For bonus points: is there any reference or dictionary that explains the pronunciation of numbers with counters ...
4
votes
2answers
197 views
Should I use On reading or Kun reading for numbers?
I've just started to learn Japanese, and I've been looking at the Joyo Kanji. Most of the words have On reading and Kun reading. I was wondering, which one is most popular and when should I use one ...
3
votes
1answer
159 views
pronounciation of じょ and よ
Spanish is my mother tongue and I almost can't differentiate じょ and よ sounds.
Maybe the same thing happens to english native speakers. How do you solve that problem in english... are there a common ...
3
votes
2answers
124 views
What is the difference between the wave dash 〜 and long vowel marker ー when marking long vowels?
I know that the wave dash 〜 can be used in place of the long vowel marker ー sometimes, but I'm not exactly sure what the differences are.
Is there any difference in pronunciation? I read once that ...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
Is む sometimes pronounced more like ん?
I'm curious what the relationship is between む and ん. I have the feeling that sometimes, む is pronounced more like ん:
むむむ: is this really /mumumu/? Or does it become /mmm/?
うむむ: is this really ...
9
votes
1answer
107 views
「はは」(母) and ハ行転呼
It occurred to me the other day that if ハ行転呼 had affected all applicable environments without exception, 母 /haha/ (or I guess properly it was /ɸaɸa/, right?)should have become /hawa/.
The Japanese ...
6
votes
2answers
131 views
Help translating よなも in a song
This is from a Trigun soundtrack, song called Sound Life (lyrics), 3rd line:
３つ目の夜に ワルツの子は世界面にウエーブを 打つ
The 世界面 is translated as "world face", however pronunciation is given as よなも.
I can't find ...
4
votes
0answers
142 views
Which readings are used for 漢文？
If I am reading a Chinese text to a Japanese audience, how can I know which reading to use for each character? Of the 音読み, there can be 呉音, 漢音, and 唐音 to choose from.
Also for pronunciation, would ...
3
votes
1answer
114 views
How is the name “河内” pronounced, コーチ or コウチ?
How is the name 河内 pronounced, is it コーチ like 講師 = コーシ, or コウチ, like 子牛 = コウシ? I have checked this word in the 三省堂明解アクセント辞典 but cannot find it.
0
votes
2answers
209 views
How are し, ち, and じ pronounced differently than in English?
I know that sh, ch, and j are pronounced differently in Chinese than in English, but what about Japanese? I have read that し, ち, じ are pronounced slightly differently than they would be in English ...
9
votes
1answer
178 views
What is the proper pronunciation for 十分/１０分? じっぷん or じゅっぷん?
My Japanese textbook only lists じゅっぷん. Our Japanese sensei (a quite old woman) says じっぷん but notes that it's optionally じゅっぷん. Our TAs all say じゅっぷん.
I understand that Middle Chinese 十 was "jip" and ...
12
votes
3answers
344 views
Why is “Xy” pronounced as “Ki Shi” in Xylitol「キシリトール」?
Why is "Xy" pronounced as "[Ki Shi]{キ シ}" in [Xylitol]{キシリトール}?
I believe "Xy" can pronounced as "Zai", which is probably a valid sound in Japanese.
I would like to know its etymology too, if there ...
12
votes
2answers
378 views
What is the more common pronunciation for the romaji letter 'Z' in Japanese?
I was on the phone with NTT the other day and things were going well (or as good as they could), until I had to spell some email address for the customer rep, and fell upon the letter 'Z'.
...
4
votes
1answer
269 views
What are the pronunciation differences between speaking and singing Japanese? [closed]
I've noticed that some pronunciation is different in singing than in speaking. For example, I often hear を pronounced as /wo/ rather than /o/.
What other pronunciation differences are there?
7
votes
1answer
233 views
Pronunciation of しゃししゅしぇしょ
Now I understand that although all the morae mentioned in the title are written in Hepburn as "sha shi shu she sho", they are actually palatalized and sound quite different (the little や makes it ...
11
votes
5answers
340 views
Except for pitch, what are the differences in pronunciation between Kansaiben and Tokyoben?
I have tried to ask people this type of question on many occasions and the answer is always the same, but people are notoriously bad at evaluating their own language, so I ask here:
Apart for pitch, ...
9
votes
2answers
302 views
How do you write the sound “wu”?
As in "Wu Tang" or something similar. Would it be something like ウゥ? I know that "wool" is written as ウール, but 1) the "woo" sound is pronounced slightly differently than "wu", and 2) ウール doesn't ...
1
vote
1answer
130 views
Why is 仕事 pronounced as こと [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why are some lyrics words written in kanji whose usual reading is not how it is sang?
So, we were reading Hunter X Hunter manga in Japanese (page 16 if you're ...
6
votes
2answers
317 views
Rules for emphasizing by lengthening sounds
Sometimes, sounds are lengthened for emphasis. For example, see "とっても versus とても".
What are the rules governing this process?
Are there restrictions on where lengthening can be inserted?
とっても or ...
4
votes
2answers
254 views
How is アェ pronounced?
A video game I've been playing has the following word in it:
アェウクス
I'm not familiar with アェ. Does it represent a specific sound? If so, what sound?
If it makes sense to do so, please include ...
3
votes
2answers
136 views
Insertion of “y” sound between vowels
I was watching some anime today, and I heard "y" sounds in places I didn't expect.
Here's a sound clip (MP3) and my transcription:
私の世界へようこそ。
今やこの世界をコントロールできる唯一の人間だ。
There are two "y" ...
22
votes
3answers
1k views
What are the differences between じ and ぢ, and ず and づ?
The Japanese hiragana and katakana syllabaries can mostly be described as phonetic. But there are two exceptions, the two pairs of syllables modified to be voiced with the dakuten diacritic which ...
1
vote
1answer
73 views
Open /o/ and closed /e/ - what are these allophones?
Some speakers, mainly middle-aged and older males, sometimes pronounce ねえ as [ne:], i.e. with a more closed variant of the usual /e/-sound, let's call it [ɛ]. There are also speakers for the same ...
8
votes
4answers
467 views
What changes are made to the pronunciation of gairaigo?
What changes are usually made to the pronounciation of gairaigo?
I notice that vowels are often added between multiple consonants and to the end of words (eg "programmer" => "puroguramaa" (プログラマー)), ...
3
votes
4answers
635 views
Why do Japanese speakers have difficulty pronouncing “L”?
Why is it that native speakers of Japanese have a hard time pronouncing "l"? Whenever a western word contains "L" I see that they pronounce it "ru", "ra", "ro", "ri", or "re".
12
votes
3answers
573 views
Why is 「昨夜」 pronounced as 「ゆうべ」 {yuube} and 「今日」 as 「きょう」 {kyou}?
「ゆう」 is neither the kun'yomi nor on'yomi of 「昨」 and 「べ」 is not a pronunciation of 「夜」 either. The same can be said about the pronunciation 「きょう」 for 「今日」.
So how come the pronunciations of the two ...
7
votes
1answer
208 views
Difference between うーん and ううん
What is the difference between うーん and ううん?
In a comment on Pronunciation of ううん, paullb said that he usually sees the negative interjection ううん written as うーん. This confused me, because I thought ...
12
votes
1answer
298 views
Voiced or unvoiced syllables in compound words
Examples first.
First example: 空 {そら}. Almost all compound nouns for which 空 is the second component pronounce it as ぞら (zo ra): 青空 {あおぞら}, 夜空 {よぞら}, 星空 {ほしぞら}. There is at least one exception ...
4
votes
1answer
144 views
Pronunciation of ううん
The pitch contour of the interjection ううん has been described as high, low, middle. Alternatively, it has been described as a falling-rising tone. In either case, this appears to be unique in ...
16
votes
3answers
533 views
How 「えい」 should be pronounced in the words like 英語, 先生, etc?
P.S.: I heard that 「生」 (せい) in the word 先生 can be pronounced either as [sei] or as [see]. If it is so, is there any semantic difference between these variants?
5
votes
1answer
160 views
How do Japanese pronounce microseconds (μ秒)?
From this sentence I read:
これらの手法はクリティカルセクションが（例えば100μ秒以内などの）一定時間以内に終わるよう精密にプログラミングすることを要求する。
How am I supposed to pronounce μ秒 ? Should I pronounce it as "mu byou"? or "micro byou"? I also ...
4
votes
1answer
160 views
Pronunciation of 日 in compound words
I learnt from my teacher that the days of the month from 1 to 10 use kun and irregular pronunciations:
一日: ついたち (irregular)
二日: ふつか (kun)
三日: みっか (kun)
...
十日: とおか (kun)
But for words like 一日目, 二日間 ...
7
votes
2answers
525 views
Why is the Japanese currency pronounced “yen” in English?
I'm wondering what the reason for the mispronunciation of 円 in English came to be "yen". I can understand how some words like 東京 became "Tokyo", but "en" to "yen" seems strange. On a side note, why is ...
14
votes
2answers
895 views
What does the little っ (tsu) signify when at the end of a word?
The small っ (tsu) is usually used before a consonant to indicate gemination, less technically known as doubled consonants, which is how they are transliterated in romaji.
I have seen it at the end of ...
8
votes
3answers
268 views
Repeating the vowel sound of the mora that precedes gemination in songs
I noticed in songs, the vowel sounds of the morae that come before geminations are sometimes repeated.
For example, the first lyric line of “マジカルちょーだいっ” is sung as しらんぷりをしたあって where the line is ...
7
votes
3answers
346 views
[父]{ちち} vs. [乳]{ちち} — father vs. breast
Can one differentiate by pronunciation between [父]{ちち} and [乳]{ちち} (as for 雨 and 飴)?
If not, does anyone have a reasonable explanation for why 父 and 乳 have the same pronunciation? It seems unlikely ...
12
votes
3answers
651 views
Actual phonetic realization of “devoiced” vowels
Descriptions of Japanese phonology (such as Wikipedia's) usually describe high vowels between voiceless consonants (or word-finally) as "devoiced". For example, the pronunciation of ⟨圧⟩ 'pressure' and ...
6
votes
2answers
251 views
Utterance initial [ɾ]
According to The sounds of Japanese (Vance 2008):
When /ɾ/ is the first phoneme in an utterance, the tip of the tongue is already resting lightly on the alveolar ridge, and /ɾ/ is produced by ...
7
votes
2answers
383 views
Are there many words that have the same pronunciation ambiguity as Nihon/Nippon?
Wikipedia says that 日本 can be pronounced either [にっぽん]{nippon} or [にほん]{nihon}.
Does this ambiguity in pronunciation happen with other words? If so, does it only happen with words that originated ...
4
votes
4answers
461 views
How do you pronounce を after a subject?
For example :日本語を勉強します.
Do you pronounce ni hon go wo or ni hon go---
5
votes
1answer
102 views
クラウド上で - pronunciation?
I've seen 上で quite a few times recently, in contexts like:
In the cloud
クラウド上で
and：
On the computer
コンピュータ上
In this case, is it pronounced うえ, as in クラウドうえで, or じょう?
Silly ...
1
vote
1answer
233 views
“Mari” or “wari” ? Is this a consonant sound that changes with inflection?
In my audio learning, I hear the beginning consonant sound of the same word spoken by two different speakers to be as a "w", as in "wari", or to be an "m", as in "mari". While it seems clear that the ...
2
votes
2answers
225 views
Can genki be pronounced as henki?
I've watched a few anime and keep coming across a word that sounds like "henki". In the subtitles, the sentences are like "Are you ok?", "How are you feeling?". With those translations, I'd expect the ...
6
votes
2answers
251 views
How to say 24 divided by 8 equals 3
Pretty sure you have to use 割 but I don't know which pronunciation to use and how to say "equals" in this context.
14
votes
4answers
433 views
とっても versus とても
I've had a teacher flatly tell me that とっても is incorrect, but I do see it written here and there and I'm pretty sure I hear it as well. Is it just so informal relative to とても that I should never use ...
