Questions tagged [pronunciation]
発音. How the Japanese language is pronounced. For questions about which readings to use for particular kanji, use the "readings" tag instead.
532
questions
4
votes
1answer
119 views
Pronunciation of 世論
It seems that 世論 can be pronounced as both よろん and せろん. Are the meanings identical? Is one pronunciation more common than the other?
7
votes
1answer
201 views
Reading of prefix 大
While reading, I'm finding difficult to understand how to read an initial 大, since it can be read だい (大好物), たい (大使館), おお (大蔵省).
When I can find the word on a dictionary it's not a big problem, I can ...
0
votes
1answer
94 views
は is pronounced differently in two words
In こんにちは(hello), it is pronounced like 'wa'. But in おはよう(good morning) its pronounced like 'ha'. Can someone explain the catch here(Please keep in mind that I'm an absolute beginner)?
1
vote
1answer
98 views
Are there any guiding principles for when to use pauses in longer form sentences?
I was watching this video about a few pointers on achieving more natural Japanese speaking, when it approached how to quick pauses in long sentences, something I've NEVER seen even mentioned in any ...
2
votes
1answer
93 views
「ってた」 pronunciation
I don't know if it's just me but this has been bothering me for a while. I sometimes hear ってた pronounced in a way similar to 「っつう」 or 「っつた」 in fast speech. Do some people really pronounce it that way ...
1
vote
0answers
50 views
is the name Vincent in Japanese ヴィンセント or ビンセント? [duplicate]
I've seen different answers and I am relatively new to learning Japanese, I never knew they had V characters, and would spelling vincent like ヴィンセント change the pronunciation or would it still be with ...
1
vote
1answer
84 views
Meaning, origin and "type" of 多き
I have come across 多き being used in combinations such as
恵み多き宝 or 恵み多き地.
I believe the correct reading is おおき. However, I was not able to find an explanation to the differences, e.g. to 多{おお}い.
Does ...
-1
votes
2answers
173 views
Don't 不吉, 富士通 sound alike? [closed]
Isn't it an issue that 不吉, 富士通 sound alike? At least for non-Japanese speakers. For Western companies, they would avoid any even slight associations with something negative.
2
votes
1answer
139 views
Why is 学校 pronounced as "gakkou" and not "gakukou"
There's only one onyomi reading for kanji 学 and its "gaku", where did "gatsu" come from?
3
votes
1answer
190 views
Pronunciation of 部屋
This is a question I had for some time: can 部屋 be pronounced as "hea", or it's always pronounced as "heya", with an audible YA sound?
I'm asking this because more often than not I ...
0
votes
1answer
95 views
Are there different ways to pronounce お column (or related sounds) like こ, そ, の, etc?
I have noticed two different pronunciations for お column and related sounds (お, の, を）.
For the first one, お is pronounced like aw as in always, の is like no as in British pronunciation of not (nawt).
...
3
votes
1answer
153 views
What is the difference in sound between 'あん' and 'えん'?
かん vs けん, だん vs でん for example. Sometimes, they sound the same to my ears. How to differentiate them? Or are they pronounced the same?
1
vote
1answer
300 views
How do I read pitch accent notation (alternatively, why does my pitch notation in yomichan and OJAD disagree)?
I've installed this Anki plugin that adds pitch accent info. The author has helpfully provided some guidelines about the notation:
Overline: Indicates "High" pitch
Downfall arrow: usually ...
0
votes
1answer
121 views
Pronouncing Karate as kara-te
Karate is pronounced "kara te" and it can be written 空手 (empty hand) or 唐手 (Chinese hand). 手 is the word for hand and is pronounced "te". Now to the tricky part: 空 means sky/...
2
votes
1answer
451 views
Pronunciation of パンツ
In the latest chapter (100作品目) of この美術部には問題がある！ there’s a wordplay episode based on different meanings of パンツ. One character uses it in the sense of pants (trousers) but another understands it as ...
4
votes
2answers
649 views
Why is 木の下 pronounced このした instead of きのした?
Does this pronunciation follow a rule of some sort?
I couldn't find any answers online about this example specifically.
1
vote
1answer
140 views
How to Pronounce a Kanji When Just Reading it by Itself
I'll elaborate the title with a scenario. If I was, say, in a scenario where I was talking about my favorite kanji, and said "Oh, my favorite kanji is 悪" how do I pronounce 悪 in that ...
0
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1answer
93 views
2
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1answer
180 views
働きづめ or 働きずめ? Where does that suffix come from?
While playing a game, one of the characters said (the text is in English and the voice is in Japanese):
君はずっと働きずめだったから、今日はもう寝な。
My conjecture is that the correct written form is 働きずめ, but is that ...
2
votes
1answer
234 views
"Good day" as "良い一日": Yoi ichi-nichi vs Yoi tsuitachi?
Do Japanese say "Good day" as the conventional way of their greetings (?):
良い一日。(?)
Furthermore, it seems that:
Google pronounced this as
Yoi ichi-nichi.
But the Google translator shows:...
2
votes
1answer
226 views
Is the pronunciation of す /sɨ/ or /sɯ/?
The wiki says on 2 separate occasions that it should be /sɨ/, see the pages for Japanese phonology and Gojyuuon.
However, when the endings such as です・ます are pronounced without the reduction of that ...
3
votes
1answer
145 views
To when, and where, did 合拗音 still have a notable presence in Japan, and are there any dialects, however minor, that still preserve the 合拗音 today?
I found a book published in 1886, which contained an interesting statement pertaining to the realization of the 合拗音:
Natives of Tōkiō and the Northern and Eastern provinces omit the w after k and g ...
1
vote
1answer
109 views
Why is 口説く read as くどく?
There's okurigana at the end but for the kanji 口 used onyomi reading "ku" instead of "kuchi"
1
vote
2answers
152 views
How do you tell the difference between 決行 and 欠航?
So apparently
決行-けっこう (to carry out)
and
欠航-けっこう (cancelled)
are pronounced the same way? Or does one of them have a different pitch accent pattern? At least Google translate pronounced them the same.
...
1
vote
1answer
237 views
Is 宵宮 considered 3 syllables or 4 syllables?
I think everyone can agree that 宵宮(よいみや) has 4 mora. But one side says it has 4 syllables because there are 4 vowels.
The other side says "Yoi" is similar to the かあ in 母さん and thus only have ...
3
votes
1answer
115 views
Why is the volitional form of する - しよう, considering the classical post-む pre-spelling reform form was せう which should net *しょう?
Why is the volitional form of する - しよう, considering the pre-spelling reform but post-む form was せう, which according to sound changes and modern kana orthography should become しょう? Especially ...
7
votes
1answer
552 views
Pronunciation of 800 / 八百
A Japanese textbook labels the pronunciation of 800 / 八百 as はっぴゃく, but elsewhere labels the pronunciation of 5,800 / 五千八百 as ごせんはっびゃく (emphases added). Should the first syllable of 百 be ぴゃ or びゃ ...
0
votes
0answers
65 views
Kanji after gairaigo pronunciation [duplicate]
For instance, in "アカウントにサインイン中です。" How is "中" pronounced?
At a purely mental level, I've always maintained the idea that how you read is up to you, which seems to be backed by ...
8
votes
1answer
525 views
What is the correct reading of 火防女?
I was playing around in the Japanese version of Dark Souls, and i came across the word 火防女 , which in english they translated as "Firekeeper".
I have not been studying japanese for long, but ...
1
vote
0answers
61 views
Pronunciation of おう: long sound (chouonpu) or two separate vowels [duplicate]
Google Translate's pronunciation for the word 思う sounds like /omou/ with two separate vowels sounds /o/ and /u/ at the end:
https://translate.google.com/?sl=ja&tl=en&text=%E6%80%9D%E3%81%86&...
0
votes
1answer
126 views
ロンドン橋落ちた is pronounced はし or ばし? [duplicate]
ロンドン橋落ちた (London bridge is falling down) is pronounced はし or ばし?
I heard this from a girl singing in the Guilty Crown episode 1 (8:30 mark). When I went to look it up, Google translate and ichi.moe ...
0
votes
3answers
188 views
How many ons does さとる have?
I'm a beginner at Japanese, and I've thought I'd learn the Hiragana alphabet by learning the Japanese words that are most important to me.
Naturally, I started with the word "enlightenment", ...
1
vote
3answers
489 views
Hiragana chart: yi, ye, wu - where and how?
A very naïve but logical question:
Why are these missing in the Hiragana chart?
yi,
ye,
wu
If there are, where can I find them? How to write them?
7
votes
2answers
143 views
Does Japanese mark restrictive and non-restrictive relatives differently?
I was wondering whether Japanese distinguishes restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses in some way, either structurally or prosodically.
English, for example, marks the distinction ...
1
vote
1answer
197 views
波比不部保 ([B] sounds) → はひふへほ ([h] or [f] sounds)
Hiragana (平仮名 or 平假名) has its cursive form originated from the Chinese cursive form 草書. You can read from https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D. Also https://www.hana300.com/aakana....
1
vote
1answer
126 views
Distinguishing meaning of 「 庭」 and 「には」aurally
In the sentence, 「私の家の庭には小さな池があります」 the sound 「には」 appears twice in a row. When listening but without any writing to inform interpretation, how will I know whether to interpret the first 「には」 sound as ...
2
votes
1answer
110 views
Distinguishing polite form and potential form in speech
Not sure if this question is opinion based, but I think it's worth trying to ask.
Can native/fluent speakers easily distinguish the sound difference between the polite and potential forms of a verb in ...
1
vote
1answer
118 views
What's the etymological linkage of 「眉{まゆ}」and「繭{まゆ}」?
I found the etymology of 「眉{まゆ}」 from 眉／まゆ - 語源由来辞典
眉は目の上にあることから、「マノウヘ（目の上）」もしくは「マウヘ（目上）」の意味と考えられる。
ただし、古くは「マヨ」と言い、「マヨ」が音変化して「まゆ」となっている。
そのため、「マノウヘ」「マウヘ」が直接音変化したものではなく、「目の上」の意味を表す言葉に「マヨ」があり、...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
How does one pronounce ≒ the symbol for "approximately"?
It appeared simply as "縮尺：≒1/82" and the meaning is quite clear (="approximately 1/82 scale").
Jim Breen's wwwjdic does not seem to contain an entry for the symbol.
jisho.org ...
2
votes
2answers
235 views
What is the pronunciation and meaning of 乙って?
I was in the middle of reading a light novel, and I've come across "乙って" at least twice so far. I can't really figure out what it means nor how it's pronounced.
I found it in this sentence ...
1
vote
2answers
196 views
How to read 艶肌 in 艶肌メイク
Question: How is the 艶肌 in 艶肌メイク ("glossy skin make-up") pronounced?
Context: An Instagram influencer used 艶肌メイク in one of their posts.
Background: I struggle with newly coined Japanese ...
1
vote
1answer
213 views
Pronunciation of long o (e.g. in Street Fighter)—"oo" or "ou"?
I have very little knowledge regarding Japanese, but I'm curious about the pronunciation of the long o. In Street Fighter, according to my basic research, the "ō" in "hadōken" is ...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
How to explain the katakana spelling for a foreign name with a long vowel?
Apologies in advance if the title of my question is unclear. Please edit if you can think of a better way to phrase it!
From time to time, you need to explain how a foreign name is spelled in ...
3
votes
1answer
289 views
「気にはなれない」- Pronunciation and Parts
I recently came across the term,「気にはなれない」, which seems to align with the phrase "cannot bring oneself to..." in English per the following examples from jisho.org:
私は彼の話を信じる気にはなれない。
I can't ...
1
vote
1answer
129 views
宿命 Pronunciation [duplicate]
How do you pronounce “宿命”? Google says it is pronounced “しゅくめい“ but I listened it being pronounced as “さだめ“ in a song, which also is “定め”
5
votes
1answer
189 views
Usage of the sound ウェ ''we'' in Duolingo
Duolingo introduces the sound ''we'' as ウェ.
According to my phonetics chart this should be ''ue'' read as one mora, not ''we''.
I did a bit of research and discovered that ゑ and ヱ used to exist for ...
5
votes
1answer
567 views
頭【かぶり】を振る and 頭【かしら】を横に振る, why the change in pronunciation?
As the title suggests, why is there a change in pronunciation between 頭【かぶり】を振る and 頭【かしら】を横に振る? As far as I can see, there is no difference between the meanings of the two—デジタル大辞泉 even lists the ...
0
votes
0answers
55 views
Double/ordinal number expression [duplicate]
I would like to know the pronunciation for these following expressions:
i) (1, 2日), (6, 7日), (7, 8日), (8, 9日), (8, 10日), (18~20日)
ii) 第2日, 第3日, 第4日, 第5日, 第6日, 第7日, 第8日, 第9日, 第10日, 第20日
1
vote
1answer
213 views
contradictory evidence for 何に as (1) なんに and (2) なにに
is 何に pronounced (1) なんに or (2) なにに here: お飲み物は何になさいますか。?
(1) www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU-hnuSM098 @0:20 provides evidence (NB: despite the possibly incorrect ローマ字 (roumaji) found there and in the &...
3
votes
2answers
214 views
Pronunciation of bird counters: 三羽 and 四羽
We have:
一羽 いちわ
二羽 にわ
but it seems the pronunciations of the counter for 3 and 4 are irregular. In each case, are both pronunciations acceptable, or we must use the former?
三羽 さんば、さんわ
四羽 よんば、よんわ
...
