All About Japan – Lesson 4
Learn Japanese Pronunciation
Remember the song you say po-TAY-to, I say po-TAH-to, you say to-MAY-to, I say toMAH-to? Have you ever debated which way is the correct way to pronounce these words?
Well, the Japanese would never need to have such a debate, because these issues don't
exist in their language-in Japanese, each vowel has only one sound! The same is true of
other words with the same spelling but different meanings depending on which syllable you
stress. For example, take the word "present." If you stress the first syllable, it means "gift"
or "existing," but if you stress the second, it means, "to offer." The same is true of words
like "contract" and "object." The Japanese simplified our lives by eliminating the stressed
syllables. All syllables are created equal and receive the same amount of stress-none! Talk
about stress-free!
This Japanese All About lesson will help you with your Japanese pronunciation skills. You'll
learn about the fourteen Japanese consonants and five vowels you'll need to know and
about how to handle words with multiple syllables-with no stress! Visit us at
GengoLanguages.com where you will find many more fantastic Japanese lessons and
learning resources! Leave us a message while you are there!
Basic Japanese Pronunciation
It's often said that Japanese pronunciation is one of the easiest aspects of the language.
And guess what - it's true! But it still takes some practice, and we're here to help you with it.
We'll introduce you to the ins and outs of Japanese pronunciation and show you how it
differs from English pronunciation.
Sounds and Syllables
Let's first take a look at how Japanese sounds work. Compared with other languages,
Japanese has a relatively small set of sounds, with only fourteen consonants (k, s, t, n, h,
m, y, r, w, g, z, d, b, and p) and five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u). In Japanese, there are no
such words as the English word "strength," which has clusters of three or more consonants.
Japanese is made up of syllables, which are made up of a consonant and a vowel. The
only exceptions are the vowels and the n sound, which stand alone.
Stress
Let's think about stress in English for a moment. Try saying the words "important" and
"interesting" aloud. When you say these words aloud, you're putting emphasis, or stress, on
a certain syllable. In "important," the stress is on the "port" syllable. In "interesting," the
stress is on the "int" syllable. If you haven't studied phonetics before, it's probably
something that just comes naturally that you've never noticed! Because correct English
pronunciation emphasizes certain syllables, English is known as a stress language.
Japanese, on the other hand, doesn't have stress! It's a stress-free language! (Until you
start learning kanji, perhaps...) In Japanese, each syllable is held the same length of time
and given equal stress. Stressing only certain syllables will sound unnatural, so keep this in
mind when pronouncing Japanese.
Let's take a look at a word in Japanese and compare how it is pronounced in both
Japanese and English. Let's take the word teriyaki, the name of a cooking technique where
meat is marinated.
English pronunciation: [ ter-uh-YAH-kee ] Note how the third syllable is stressed.
Japanese pronunciation: [teh-ree-yah-kee ] In Japanese, each syllable receives the same
amount of stress.
This might sound like a lot to consider, but remember that learning good pronunciation is
one of the easier aspects of learning the Japanese language!