We can find 16 consonants in the Japanese alphabet and language:
B, D, F, G, H, J, K, M, N, P, R, S, T, W, Y, Z
Most of the consonants sounds are pronounced as they are in English. A few differences:
[ts] - usually appears only before the vowel [u]. There are only a few examples where it comes at the beginning or middle, like "tsunami" and "tsetse fly".
[g] - pronounced as in "get", "go" or "gain".
[w] - pronounced as in "want". Pratice saying [wa] without rounding your lips, as with [u] and [o].
[h / f] - [h] is written before [a, i, e, o, y] and [f] is written before [u]. But [f] is pronounced with only a slight amount of friction between the upper and lower lips. Examples: "Fuji" sounds like who-ji; "Futari" sounds like "who-tari".
[r] - represents a sound which is halfway between "L" and "R".
[n] - before [t, ts, ch, s, d, j, z, n, r] represents a nasal sound held for one beat. ex: nonda, pronounced no-n-da. Same happens to [m] before [p, b, m] and to [ng] before [k, g, ng].
Sometimes you'll see words with double consonants in the middle, like "atta", "kippu", "gakkoo". As with the vowels, these doubled sounds should be held for twice the lenght of a single sound: a-t-ta, ki-p-pu, ga-k-koo.
No comments:
Post a Comment