Search results
The phonology of Japanese features a phonemic inventory of five vowels ( /a, e, i, o, u/) and 15 or more consonants (depending on how certain sounds are analyzed). The phonotactics are relatively simple, allowing for few consonant clusters.
- Contents
- Why Study Japanese Phonetics?
- 9 Key Things to Remember About Japanese Phonology
When I began studying Japanese, I was told that Japanese pronunciationwas very easy. In fact, we only spent one class period on pronunciation for the following reasons: 1. The language is atonal.It’s not like, say, Mandarin Chinese where the way you pronounce certain words changes their meaning and the character you use to write them. For example, ...
1. ん Counts as One Mora
If you’ve tried shadowing Japanese speech, you might’ve seen that each of its mora(the building blocks of syllables) gets one beat and has the same length. In other words, one mora is basically one kana (excluding small kanas like the ょ in ぎょ). So if you’re practicing pronunciation by clapping, the number of claps should correspond to the number of kana in a given word. As most Japanese sounds are “consonant + vowel” pairs, the language itself sort of forces you to have a relatively consisten...
2. All Five Japanese Vowels Are Pronounced the Same
Japanese has five vowel sounds: Aside from the fact that /i/ and /ɯ/ become voiceless when surrounded by certain consonants,these five vowels are always pronounced the same. When I say “voiceless” in this context, it means your vocal cords don’t vibrate when producing these sounds. This is easier to understand when you feel it, though. Put your fingers on your neck as if you were checking your pulse. Say the phrase “Who are you?”out loud and then whisper the same phrase. Do you notice the dif...
3. Avoid Turning Single Japanese Vowels into English Diphthongs
If you compare the IPA pages of English and Japanese I linked under “Why Study Japanese Phonetics?,” you’ll notice one staggering difference between the two: the English vowel section is huge compared to its Japanese counterpart. One reason is that English has more vowel soundsthan Japanese. There’s also the fact that English can be sneaky about the diphthong, a sound where there are two vowels in a single syllable. For example, take the English word “no.” Say it as you normally would, then s...
Feb 23, 2012 · Focussing on modern standard (Tôkyô) Japanese, with occasional excurses into major dialectical variations and historical backgrounds, the book offers both a critical synthesis of Japanese phonology and new analyses on some of its central features.
Apr 18, 2024 · Phonology. Old Japanese is widely believed to have had eight vowels; in addition to the five vowels in modern use, /i, e, a, o, u/, the existence of three additional vowels /ï, ë, ö/ is assumed for Old Japanese. Some maintain, however, that Old Japanese had only five vowels and attribute the differences in vowel quality to the preceding ...
- Masayoshi Shibatani
The Phonology of Japanese offers a comprehensive overview of the phonological structure of modern Japanese from its segmental to its prosodic and accentual structure. The purpose of the book is twofold.
Feb 16, 2012 · Professor Labrune presents a critical overview of current Japanese phonology and new analyses of the central features of Japanese phonology, including segment inventory, the phonology of voicing,...
The Phonology of Japanese. By Laurence Labrune, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012, xiii+296pp. M. asahiko. M. utsukawa. Nanzan University* Keywords: phonology, Japanese, Tokyo Japanese as a mora language, inte-gration of kokugogaku and Western scholarship. 1. Introduction The book under review is the seventeenth book in the series of . The Pho-
