Proper Japanese Pronunciation:
Japanese words are made up of morae (basically syllables, see end note for difference). Each mora should be pronounced for the exact same length of time. There is no stressed mora in Japanese, although some will be pronounced at a higher pitch (which ones depends on the dialect). There are no silent letters.
Each mora has the following form: [Optional Consonant] - [Vowel]. No consonant other than "n" can appear without a vowel after it. No mora contains two vowels or two consonants, although a single vowel or consonant can be lengthened to take up two morae.
Vowels are pronounced like this (double quotes = Japanese, single quote = English):
"a" is like the 'a' in 'father'
"e" is like the 'e' in 'bet'. It doesn't have a 'y' sound after it, although it can sound like this at times to English speakers (e.g. the word "me" is pronounced like the word 'met' without the 't', not like the word 'may').
"i" is pronounced like the 'ea' in 'tea' or 'beat', but shorter in length.
"o" is pronounced like the word 'oh', but shorter in length and without the 'w' sound after it.
"u" is pronounced like the 'ue' in the word 'blue', but shorter in length.
Vowels can be lengthened by writing them twice in a row (e.g. kaa, kee, kii). The exception is the vowel "o" with is lengthened by writing a "u" after it, although it is pronounced like an "o". Lengthened vowels count as two morae (so "kou" is pronounced "ko-o", with the "o" pronounced once but held for twice the time as a normal vowel). Often in English, lengthened vowels are not written (e.g. the first "o" in byo-yomi is long, so it could be written "byou-yomi", pronounced "byo-o-yo-mi").
In academic contexts, lengthened vowels are written with a line over the vowel (e.g. byō, jōseki, etc).
Often, the vowels "u" and "i" in morae such as "shi", "su", and "tsu" are pronounced very softly, and sound as if they are not pronounced at all. So, for example, "hoshi" can sound almost like it is pronounced as 'ho-sh' (still as two syllables).
The vowels "ai", "ei", and "oi" are properly pronounced as two morae: "a-i", "e-i", and "o-i". So, the word "Meijin" in pronounced as four morae: "me-i-ji-n" ("n" being its own mora). At the pace of speech commonly used, these will sound like they are one-syllable diphthongs (so "meijin" sounds like 'may-jean'), but this is not the case.
The consonants are basically pronounced like in English, with a few things to make note of:
The "r" is pronounced with a tongue tap, sort of like a mix between the English 'l' and 'r'. Sometimes, it will sound like an 'l' to English speakers.
When consonant has a "y" after it before the vowel, the mora is pronounced as one mora (e.g. the word "byo" in "byo-yomi" is pronounced as one syllable [ignoring the long "o"], almost like the English word 'yo' with a 'b' before it.). The exceptions is that the "y" is not pronounced with the consonants "J", "Sh" and "Ch", and often is not written in English (e.g. "shya" is pronounced "sha", "jyo" is pronounced "jo", "chyu" is pronounced "chu", etc.). In these cases, the 'y" when written is simply due to the way Japanese hiragana works.
The "h" in the mora "hi" and "hy + vowel (hyo, hya, etc)" is not pronounced an "h", but rather has a whistling sound to it. There is no equivalent sound in English. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for this sound is "ç". An example of a word containing this sound is "hiki".
The "h" (often written as an "f") in the mora "hu/fu" is pronounced like an 'f', but without the teeth touching the lips. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol is "ɸ". An example word with this sound is "kifu".
The "n" by itself as its own mora (e.g. in the word "sanrensei" ["sa-n-re-n-se-i"]) is pronounced like a "m" before a "p", "b", or "m". Often, it will be written as an "m" in these cases. An example word, although not strictly a Go word, is "gambatte" (Good luck/give it your best). Sometimes the "n" will also sound like "ng".
The "n" can also appear with a vowel, such as in the word "Nihon". Sometimes it is unclear in English as to whether or not the "n" is at the start of a mora or its own mora. In these cases, an apostrophe can be used. For example, in "honinbo/honinbou", the first "n" is its own mora, so the word is "ho-n-i-n-bo-o", and not "ho-ni-n-bo-o", and the word can be written as "hon'inbo" to reflect this.
The "ts" in the mora "tsu" is always pronounced like the 't's' in the English word 'let's'.
The morae "dzu" and "zu" are pronounced identically, with a 'z' sound. The difference in writing is simply due to the Japanese hiragana system.
Double consonants are pronounced as a slight pause on the consonant (as two morae).
There are a few other differences, but they are to subtle to mention and can realistically only be learned by copying native Japanese speakers.
Edit: I made an error. The "n" (ん in hirgana) is a mora by itself, and not at the end of a mora. Similar to the "ai/ei/oi" situation, it will often sound as if it is pronounced at the end of the mora, but this is not the case. However, these words are still pronounced as a single syllable. It is situations like these where the mora and syllable are different. Syllables have to do with vowels and groupings of phonemes, whereas morae have to do with timing and rhythm of speech. So, each mora is pronounced for the same length of time, but a syllable might contain multiple morae (lengthened vowels and consonants, and "n" morae). Therefore, words like "san" and "byou" should be pronounced for the same length of time as words like "tsuke" (all are two morae), despite "byou/san" being one syllable and "tsuke" being two. Other example words with differing syllable and mora count are: gambatte (5 morae [ga-m-ba-t-te], 3 syllables [gam-ba-tte]), and toukyou (4 morae [to-o-kyo-o], 2 syllables [tou-kyou]).
"Ai/Ei/Oi", I believe, are both two morae and two syllables in Japanese, as each vowel is properly pronounced distinctly (although rapidly) rather than as a diphthong. I cannot find an academic source confirming this, because syllables are rarely used with regard to Japanese, but it seems to be true based on the definition of a syllable. In English loanwords they are often pronounced as a diphthong and thus as a single syllable. So, Meijin is three syllables (me-i-jin) and four morae (me-i-ji-n), although it would not be wrong for an English speaker to pronounce it as two syllables (like 'may-jean') as a loanword.
Morae are more relevant to pronunciation than syllables in Japanese, so that is what I used above.
|