Lesson 3: (Japanese Pronunciation)

                                                                                                                     Copyright 2014


Lesson 3:  (Japanese Pronunciations)

       

Before we continue, let’s stop briefly to learn how the Japanese Alphabet characters are pronounced.  Let’s refer to the Japanese Alphabet Chart.

The characters in the English alphabet are:         The characters in the Japanese alphabet are:

                                      English                                   Japanese

                                    A B C D E                                a     i    u     e    o          

                                   

                                    F G H  I  J                               ka   ki   ku  ke  ko                      

                                   

                                    K L M N O                             sa  shi  su se   so

                                   

                                    P Q R S T                              ta  tchi tsu te   to

                                   

                                    U V W X Y                            na   ni  nu  ne   no

                                   

                                    Z                                            ha   hi  fu   he   ho

                                                                              

                                                                                 ma mi mu  me mo

                                                                                  ya         yu        yo

                                                                                  ra   ri    ru   re   ro

                                                           

                                                                                 wa                    wo

                                                                                                                           n

               

The first row of the Japanese Alphabet is pronounced as follows:

                                                               

a             i           u             e              o         

                                Pronounced:         (ah)        (ee)       (oo)        (e)          (oh)

                                             As in:       (taught)  (see)     (true)    (met)      (toe)

                All the following rows of letters are similarly pronounced:

                                                                            

ka           ki           ku          ke          ko

                                pronounced:          (kah)      (kee)      (koo)      (ke)      (koh)

as in:                (caught) (key)     (coup)    (keg)    (coast)

                          sa           shi          su          se            so

                                pronounced:         (sah)      (shee)    (soo)      (se)        (soh)

                                                as in:      (sought) (sheet)  (soup)   (set)       (soak)

                               

etc.

Note: 

1. The characters of the Vertical Columns of the Japanese Alphabet Chart all have the same
    Vowel sounds! 

(Example- the ‘ah’ in ka & sa )

b.)  The characters of the Horizontal Rows (except for the first row) all start with the 
        same Consonant sound!

                                                (Example- ‘m’ in ma & mi )

               c.)  ‘n’     is an irregular letter:     n

                              pronounced simply:    (n)               

                                                       as in:    (fan)

The great thing about the Japanese alphabet is that the characters are pronounced the same as the name of the characters. The character ‘a’ (ah) is pronounced as ‘a’ (ah).  The character ‘i’ (ee) is pronounced as ‘i’ (ee).  And so forth.              

For example, the Japanese word sushi is pronounced as su-shi (from the Japanese Alphabet characters named su & shi ).

***  Please take a moment to memorize the Japanese Alphabet Chart.  ***

The Japanese Alphabet Chart is ESSENTIAL to learning the language.

Japanese Alphabet Chart:

                                                                                   a     i    u    e    o    

                                   

                                                                                              ka   ki   ku  ke  ko                      

                                   

                                                                                              sa  shi  su  se  so

                                   

                                                                                              ta  tchi tsu  te  to

                                   

                                                                                             na  ni   nu  ne  no

                                   

                                                                                             ha  hi   fu   he  ho

                                                                              

                                                                                             ma mi  mu me mo

                                                                                             ya         yu       yo

                                                                                             ra   ri    ru   re  ro

                                                           

                                                                                             wa                    wo

                                                                                                                             n

One last thing, the Japanese Alphabet is Case-Insensitive…there is no difference between capital letters and lower case letters.  But, we’ll just write Japanese like we usually write English…capitalizing like we normally do in English.

English:                He           ate         the cake.

                                                     Subj      Verb          Object

               

Japanese:            He             cake             ate.

                                                     Subj         Object            Verb

Review: 

        1.)  the Columns all have the same Vowel sounds.

                     2.)  the Rows (except for the first row) all start with the same Consonant 
                             sounds.

                     3.)  ‘n’ is an Irregular letter

                     4.)  the name of the character is also how to pronounce it
                     5.)  the Japanese language is Case-Insensitive.