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!