Japanese/Pronunciation

Japanese is characterised largely by its small number of vowels and consonants (five and fourteen, respectively). Pronunciation of each syllable is highly regular with the written system and there are only a few exceptions such as vowel devoicing. This is in stark contrast to English where the written and spoken language can differ a great deal (e.g. the vowel digraph "ou" in "noun" and "cough" and the consonant "g" in "goat" and "giraffe").

Apart from a single isolated consonant (the moraic nasal, "n") and double consonants (e.g. "itte" and "kekkon") all consonants must be followed by a vowel to form syllables. Double consonants are always a pair of the same consonant, though vowel devoicing sometimes makes different consonants sound one after the other (e.g. "suki" and "suteki").

Japanese has a great deal of homophones that make correct pronunciation quite important. While language learners may have difficulty hearing the difference between nuances like long and short vowels, native speakers are used to these and might not understand incorrectly pronounced words.

The syllabary
There are five vowels in Japanese, normally transcribed into the English alphabet as: "a", "i", "u", "e" and "o". Spanish and Italian speakers may note that Japanese vowels produce the same sounds as their Spanish and Italian equivalents.

Japanese vowels always represent distinct phonemes and don't form digraphs — i.e. they don't blend together or sound differently when joined. When one vowel follows another they are pronounced separately. Examples are the names Sae (sa.e) and Aoi (a.o.i)

The rest of the syllabary is formed by combining the above vowels with a consonant.

Note that the sound which is written with a "y" is not considered a vowel, but a consonant. This will come as little surprise to German speakers where the same sound is written with a "j".

The -i line (ki, gi, shi, ji, chi, ni, hi, bi, pi, mi, ri) can be combined with the y- line (ya, yu, yo) to create the medial y combinations. These are just like regular consonant + vowel syllables, in that they should be pronounced as one mora (syllabic sound).

From this table one can see that the Japanese syllabary is highly systematic. There are a few exceptions, though, and these have been bolded in the table:
 * "si" becomes "shi"
 * "ti" becomes "chi" and "tu" becomes "tsu"
 * "zi" and "di" become "ji", and "du" becomes "zu"
 * "hu" becomes "fu"
 * "wo" becomes "o"

Mora
Japanese is quite regular in the timing and stress of its syllables. The basic timing unit is called mora. Each mora is pronounced with equal stress and should take about the same amount of time. Two morae should sound twice as long as a single one.

The following take up one mora:
 * a short vowel
 * a consonant followed by a short vowel
 * a medial y
 * a moraic nasal

Whereas these take up two morae:
 * a long vowel
 * a double consonant

Examples
The medial y often takes a long vowel.
 * a-o-i / あおい (e. blue): three morae, each vowel is short
 * mi-do-ri / みどり (e. green): three morae.
 * sha-shu / しゃしゅ (e. car model): two morae.
 * ni-n-ji-n / にんじん (e. a carrot): four morae.
 * ī-e / いいえ (e. no): three morae (note the long vowel "i", denoted by a macron)
 * a-k-ka / あっか (e. to worsen): three morae (note that the double consonant isn't pronounced twice, just twice as long).
 * gyūnyū / ぎゅうにゅう (e. milk): four morae.

Long vowels
A long vowel takes two morae. In rōmaji it's written with a macron: ā, ī, ū, ē and ō.

In hiragana, it's written with an extra "あ" (a), "い" (i) or "う" (u) depending on the vowel. In katakana, it's marked by appending a dash-like symbol "ー".

Devoicing
In standard Japanese the vowels i and u are not usually voiced when they occur between voiceless consonants (k, s, sh, t, ch, h, f). The phenomenon seems to have developed to facilitate the falling pitch intonation in the Kanto dialect. The mouth forms shape of the vowel and lasts for one mora, but the sound is not voiced. For final [su] in 'desu' and '-masu', all vestiges of the vowel have disappeared in standard Japanese, leaving a naked sibilant. Devoicing is not otherwise standard for word terminal i or u. Consecutive devoicing is rare, although exceptions exists (e.g. futsuka, 2nd day of the month, pronounced f-ts-ka). Devoicing can depend on context. E.g. 'Suzuki' has no devoicing; 'Suzuki-san' has a devoiced i: Suzuk-san. Some dialects do not demonstrate devoicing, notably Kansai.

Some examples:

Consonant variation
There are a couple of consonants that are pronounced differently from English: Except for the doubled consonants and the n (which we will cover later), consonants can never end a syllable. They can only begin it.

Moraic nasal
Normally, Japanese consonants must be followed by a vowel except where they double. There is an exception to this: the moraic nasal which is transliterated as n. It is usually found at the end of words, but can be found in the middle of composite words.

The difference between the moraic nasal and the syllables "na", "ni", "nu", "ne" and "no" can be difficult for language learners to spot, while native speakers may have difficulty understanding incorrect pronunciation.


 * kin'en (ki-n-e-n) no smoking vs. kinen (ki-ne-n) commemoration.
 * hon'ya (ho-n-ya-) bookstore (not ho-nya)

The pronunciation of the moraic nasal changes depending on what sound follows it. This is not so much an irregularity as a shortcut to bridge the sounds between the two morae. When followed by the bilabial plosives, "b" and "p", the moraic nasal is pronounced like an "m". An example:
 * "shinbun" is read as: shimbun

(OggVorbis, 151 KB)
 * 1) At the end of a word:
 * 2) *dan 段 "level"
 * 3) *kin 金 "gold"
 * 4) *fun 糞 "dung"
 * 5) *zen 善 "goodness"
 * 6) *hon 本 "book"
 * 7) Directly before a consonant:
 * 8) *banzai 万歳 "hurrah", "long live (the Emperor)"
 * 9) *kingyo 金魚 "goldfish" (pronounced like "ng")
 * 10) *kunrei 訓令 "directive"
 * 11) *zenchi 全知 "omniscience" (pronounced like "n")
 * 12) *honten 本店 "main office" (pronounced like "n")
 * 13) Before m, b, p
 * 14) *genmai 玄米 "unmilled rice"
 * 15) *honbu 本部 "headquarters"
 * 16) *tenpura 天ぷら (battered and fried vegetables or fish)
 * 17) Before a, i, e, y
 * 18) *zen'aku 善悪 "good and evil"
 * 19) *ken'i 権威 "authority"
 * 20) *han'ei 反映 "reflection"
 * 21) *sen'you 専用 "exclusive use"
 * 22) Note that before a, i, e, and y, moraic n is written n' (with an apostrophe). This is to distinguish it from the regular consonant n, which is pronounced differently and can produce different words. Some examples of cases where this becomes important are:
 * 23) *kani 蟹 "crab" vs. kan'i 簡易 "simplicity"
 * 24) *kinyuu 記入 "fill in" vs. kin'yuu 金融 "finances"
 * 25) *konyakku コニャック "cognac" vs. kon'yaku 婚約 "engagement (to be married)"

Consonant doubling (gemination)
There are four consonants that can become geminates (get doubled) in native Japanese words: /p/, /t/, /k/, and /s/. The geminate (represented linguistically as "Q") takes up an extra mora, with the general effect being to insert a pause that sounds as long as a regular syllable with a short vowel. The geminate is /t/ before ch and ts, /s/ before sh.

In the Japanese pronunciation of foreign loan words, the voiced consonants /b/, /d/, /g/, and /z/ can also be doubled.

Simply words

 * (OggVorbis, 75 KB)

Long and double vowels
(OggVorbis, 125 KB) Note in particular that "deiri" and "koushi" are not long vowels since the vowels are split between composite words.

Compound consonants
Audio missing

Moraic nasal

 * (OggVorbis, 91 KB)

Comparisons of similarly pronounced words
(OggVorbis, 190 KB)
 * 1) yuki 雪 "snow" and yuuki 勇気 "courage"
 * 2) soto 外 "outside" and souto 僧徒 "Buddhist disciple"
 * 3) soto 外 "outside" and sotou 粗糖 "unrefined sugar"
 * 4) soto 外 "outside" and soutou 相当 "suitable"
 * 5) soto 外 "outside" and sotto そっと "softly"
 * 6) sotto そっと "softly" and sottou 卒倒 "fainting"
 * 7) maki 巻 "scroll" and makki 末期 "last period"
 * 8) hako 箱 "box" and hakkou 発行 "publish"
 * 9) issei 一斉 "all at once" and isei 異性 "opposite sex"
 * 10) tani 谷 "valley" and tan'i 単位 "unit", "(course) credit"
 * 11) san'en 三円 "three yen" and sannen 三年 "three years"
 * 12) kinyuu 記入 "fill out" and kin'yuu 金融 "finances"
 * 13) kinen 記念 "commemoration" and kin'en 禁煙 "no smoking"

Normal speech
The narration of the following excerpt of Natsume Soseki's classic novel Botchan is spoken at a natural pace which may be difficult to follow for unaccustomed listeners.


 * (OggVorbis, 674KB)


 * Oyayuzuri no muteppou de kodomo no toki kara son bakari shite iru. Shougakkou ni iru jibun gakkou no nikai kara tobiorite isshuukan hodo koshi o nukashita koto ga aru. Naze sonna muyami o shita to kiku hito ga aru kamoshirenu. Betsudan fukai riyuu demo nai. Shinchiku no nikai kara kubi o dashite itara, doukyuusei no hitori ga joudan ni, "Ikura ibatte mo, soko kara tobioriru koto wa dekimai. Yowamushi yaai," to hayakashita kara de aru. Kozukai ni obusatte kaette kita toki, oyaji ga ookina me o shite "Nikai gurai kara tobiorite koshi o nukasu yatsu ga aru ka," to itta kara, "Kono tsugi wa nukasazu ni tonde misemasu," to kotaeta.


 * Shinrui no mono kara seiyousei no naifu o moratte kirei na ha o hi ni kazashite, tomodachi ni misete itara, hitori ga "Hikaru koto wa hikaru ga, kiresou mo nai," to itta. "Kirenu koto ga aru ka, nandemo kitte miseru," to ukeatta. "Sonnara, kimi no yubi o kitte miro," to chuumon shita kara, "Nan da yubi gurai kono toori da," to migi no te no oyayubi no kou o hasu ni kirikonda. Saiwai naifu ga chiisai no to, oyayubi no hone ga katakatta node, imadani oyayubi wa te ni tsuite iru. Shikashi kizuato wa shinu made kienu.