I do believe that first thing's first! If you want to learn a language, you must know the basics of how the letters are pronounced, ne? I shall make that the first lesson; several of you, probably from anime or other Japanese sources, know how to pronounce things correctly, but in case you don't...I'll try my best to explain it here. I have a feeling it will be rather hard though! Seeing as you can only read and not listen. As I've said before, I'm not fluent, so I'm no where near perfect...if I say something wrong that you know should be otherwise, please tell me! ^_^ Arigatou~

Let's start with the vowels: A, I, E, O, U. Those are what make up most of the Japanese language. Aside from N and those letters, which can be stand-alone, the "alphabet" is made up of a pairing of 2-3 letters--of vowels and consonants. Now, pronunciation!

• A : "ah" It's a soft "ah" sound, not a hard A sound like in the English alphabet.
• I : "e" Pronounced like the English letter E, like in the word "me."
• E : "eh" or close to the English letter A, just shorter. These sounds are not drawn out like most English letters/words. Pronounced like the E in "leg."
• O : "o" Just like the O in English but shorter. Not "ohhhh."
• U : "ooh" Think like a monkey. It isn't pronounced like "you", it's more like the sound -oo- makes in "food."

[Note: About U, when acting as the vowel in a pair, it may sometimes be omitted from pronunciation, such as in the Japanese word "desu" or "masu." They might sound more like "dess" or "mas." Also, when combined with the letter O, it extends the length of the O sound. Such as "Sousuke" as opposed to "Sosuke," which is also an example for the omitted U-sound--it's not SouSUke.]

Those are the vowels. As I said, in the alphabet, most are combinations of 2 or 3 letters, with at least one vowel. Here is a diagram I found of the alphabet in hiragana (there are 3 writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and Kanji. I can talk about those later). You will notice that letters are missing that we commonly use in English [V, L, & C without H]:

Some of the letters are pronounced slightly different than in English, like the F in "fu," which is more close in sound to an H. And the characters with R sound more like an L or D sound than we're used to. The combos with G are always a soft sound, like in "good," never a J sound like in gerbil. There are other oddities, but I can't really explain them in text! I'm sure you'll figure them out though. :3

I think I taught as much as I could for one lesson...I hope to add more lessons when I can. :D Ganbatte! Jaa, mata ne~

Guide: 06/28/08 | Posted By: Angel Zakuro | 13 comments