Pronunciation of Japanese terms

[DrStraw]

Well in my own language easily, since in slavic languages you just read as your write.
It's hard to explain it to native English speakers since English is little bit silly.

Well, the problem is that English first printed before it had stopped evolving. So word we fixed in their printed format before their pronunciation became fixed.

That is not true in all other languages, although French can be as much of a nightmare as English. This thread was originally about Japanese (sorry it got hijacked, I had no idea so many people would respond to my paranthetical posting) and it is a language which does no use an alphabet, so it is not really an issue, but even the written character set has been simplified over the years. Russian (a slavic language, you do not say which you speak) had many letters removed from its alphabet around 100 years ago.

[Krama]

Well in my own language easily, since in slavic languages you just read as your write.
It's hard to explain it to native English speakers since English is little bit silly.

Well, the problem is that English first printed before it had stopped evolving. So word we fixed in their printed format before their pronunciation became fixed.

That is not true in all other languages, although French can be as much of a nightmare as English. This thread was originally about Japanese (sorry it got hijacked, I had no idea so many people would respond to my paranthetical posting) and it is a language which does no use an alphabet, so it is not really an issue, but even the written character set has been simplified over the years. Russian (a slavic language, you do not say which you speak) had many letters removed from its alphabet around 100 years ago.

Hmm, this is strange because you actually do. It is not written in latin but in cryllic however direct translation from cryllic to latin and I am able to pronounce russian words exactly how they are spoken. (Tested with google translate and other sites that pronounce russian words)

[Fedya]

Ah, but in Russian you need to know your voiced and voiceless consonants. Враг (transliterated vrag) and врак (transliterated vrak) are pronounced the same, for example. And then there's a word like мозг, transliterated mozg but pronounced mosk since the last two consonants become devoiced.

And let's not get started on vowel reduction.

[DrStraw]

Ah, but in Russian you need to know your voiced and voiceless consonants. Враг (transliterated vrag) and врак (transliterated vrak) are pronounced the same, for example. And then there's a word like мозг, transliterated mozg but pronounced mosk since the last two consonants become devoiced.

And let's not get started on vowel reduction.

Same in Japanese to some extent.

[emdio]

I tried an experiment to help you with your question. I wrote all the words in Japanese and put them into Google translate. There is a "pronunciation" button on the bottom when you put something into Google Translate (little speaker icon). The pronunciation is surprisingly good! So, feel free to copy and past the words below into google translate and getting a good pronunciation.

I am also sharing this link to the Google Translate Page https://goo.gl/g4xKM0 that should give you all the words that you asked for (in the same order, so you know which words are which). You can simply delete the words you are not interested in or copy and paste into a new window for pronunciation practice. Just be sure you select Japanese language in case Google thinks you are typing Chinese. The pronunciation will be different in Chinese.

Edit: I thought I would add a couple of pointers too. On some words, you will extend the 'Oh' sound it is like a double 'ooh'. For example, Byo-yomi is actually written, byo-o-yo-mi in Japanese characters. You don't say Byo then oh. You just extend the Oh sound slightly. When you listen to the pronunciation on the google, you should be able to hear it. Other words you get that same issue are Jouseki and Moyou.

Copy of the words in the same order you listed them:
アタリ
手筋
詰碁
ダメ
ハネ
味
先手
後手
秒読み
セキ
定石
見合い
模様
ノビ
手抜き
碁

This is really good. It can be improved by adding a period after each word.

[gowan]

Some Japanese pronunciation that are difficult for Westerners are the long vowels, like "o" in joseki. Pronounce it jooseki. two "o" sounds. Then there are the syllables like "su" and "tsu" which are not strongly voiced, as in tesuji (tehsji) and tsuke (tskeh). Or Sute ishi (sacrifice stone) steishi. Finally, there are regional pronunciation differences.

[luigi]

Pronunciation of Japanese terms

is really easy. Consonants are pronounced as in English, and vowels are pronounced as in Spanish. This means that

"a" is always pronounced roughly as in "sun",
"e" is always pronounced as in "pet",
"i" is always pronounced as in "pit",
"o" is always pronounced roughly as in "pot", and
"u" is always pronounced as in "boot".

[MikeKyle]

Interesting stuff.

I've been learning Japanese considerably longer than I've been learning go (despite this I'd say I'm about 10kyu at Japanese language(!))
I find it difficult to use Japanese pronunciation once a concept gains currency in an english speaking environment.

This happens commonly outside of go - for example in north England I would always hear karate pronounced something like kuh-rah-ty with a stress on the rah. To speak a sentence in your normal english accent and then pronounce the word more like kah-rah-tey might sound a little pretentious.
I always think that atari for example is too common a part of english go conversations to pronounce in the japanese style. Rarer concepts I would pronounce in the Japanese sound system.

[oren]

Pronunciation of Japanese terms

is really easy. Consonants are pronounced as in English, and vowels are pronounced as in Spanish. This means that

"a" is always pronounced roughly as in "sun",
"e" is always pronounced as in "pet",
"i" is always pronounced as in "pit",
"o" is always pronounced roughly as in "pot", and
"u" is always pronounced as in "boot".

For people familiar with English, I think only the "e" example is correct.

http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/users/furue/jp-pron.html
This seems to have a more accurate one for English speakers.

[luigi]

Pronunciation of Japanese terms

is really easy. Consonants are pronounced as in English, and vowels are pronounced as in Spanish. This means that

"a" is always pronounced roughly as in "sun",
"e" is always pronounced as in "pet",
"i" is always pronounced as in "pit",
"o" is always pronounced roughly as in "pot", and
"u" is always pronounced as in "boot".

For people familiar with English, I think only the "e" example is correct.

http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/users/furue/jp-pron.html
This seems to have a more accurate one for English speakers.

It seems the "u" is correct as well.

[Bill Spight]

Pronunciation of Japanese terms

is really easy. Consonants are pronounced as in English, and vowels are pronounced as in Spanish. This means that

"a" is always pronounced roughly as in "sun",
"e" is always pronounced as in "pet",
"i" is always pronounced as in "pit",
"o" is always pronounced roughly as in "pot", and
"u" is always pronounced as in "boot".

For people familiar with English, I think only the "e" example is correct.

http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/users/furue/jp-pron.html
This seems to have a more accurate one for English speakers.

It seems the "u" is correct as well.

Well, as I pronounce sun, the short u is like the Sanskrit a, not the Japanese a, as in san. {shrug}

[luigi]

It seems the "u" is correct as well.

Well, as I pronounce sun, the short u is like the Sanskrit a, not the Japanese a, as in san. {shrug}

No, I mean

"u" is always pronounced as in "boot".

[Bill Spight]

It seems the "u" is correct as well.

Well, as I pronounce sun, the short u is like the Sanskrit a, not the Japanese a, as in san. {shrug}

No, I mean

"u" is always pronounced as in "boot".

Oh! Yeah, except for being short (lasting about ¼ sec.)

[Fadedsun]

I speak beginner level Japanese and this thread is just confusing to me. I recommend the OP to download any beginner level Japanese app,like Duolingo which has Japanese now or find some website or Youtube video that shows pronunciation of the hiragana. It's much simpler hearing it than reading text that shows how you should pronounce it.

[gamesorry]

Well, as I pronounce sun, the short u is like the Sanskrit a, not the Japanese a, as in san. {shrug}

No, I mean

"u" is always pronounced as in "boot".

Oh! Yeah, except for being short (lasting about ¼ sec.)

Probably there are some differences between British English and American English?

boot:

BE [buːt] (http://www.macmillandictionary.com/pron ... ish/boot_1) AE [but] (http://www.macmillandictionary.com/pron ... can/boot_1)

fool:

BE [fuːl] (http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... ish/fool_1) AE [ful] (http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... can/fool_1)

full:

BE [fʊl] AE [fʊl]