Japanese pronunciation

Intermediate Japanese pronunciation for beginning Japanese learners

RA - ら, RI - り, RU - る, RE - れ, and RO - ろ
This article is on how to pronounce the unfamiliar sounds of this line of syllables and which parts of Japanese pronunciation might give foreign speakers of Japanese trouble we be our focus.

Japanese pronunciation tips – Japanese Grammar Plug and Play #102

These tips are my lazy explanations for an inadequate knowledge of the correct technical terms for what I will be describing in English which describes so gomen ne! Forgive! I am a born American and English is my native language. I did not start my journey towards Japanese language mastery, until I was 19 years of age. It has been said in something I came across in my University linguistics class that after the age of 12, the part of the brain that handles the understanding of languages hardens and solidifies to the point that certain aspects of a language become immovable so that true and native pronunciation cannot be acquired. So that means technically that I won’t sound like a real native speaker of the Japanese language, because I started my study of Japanese later in life. That is to say that I started studying aspects of the language too late in my own physical development to acquire an ability to speak in Japanese and sound like a true native. I must concur,

My advice to anybody who wants to be understood in Japanese is that you must make a concerted effort to pronounce your words correctly. Without good, understandable pronunciation, it will be impossible to get your message or meaning across. Japanese pronunciation is pretty straight forward, but there are 2-3 obstacles that prevent English speakers from sounding more Japanese. As beginning language speakers have less knowledge of vocabulary and less skill with making sentences, how much worse will it be if the pronunciation is not correct also? First understand how the English letters L, R and D are pronounced in English, then experiment with variations and cross-mixes of the letters L, R, and D as you would adjust the colors on your monitor screen’s red, blue, and green. Then we just fine-tune the color or warmth of a television set like we do our pronunciation.

The areas of Japanese RA - ら, RI - り, RU - る, RE - れ, and RO - ろ are pronounced by lightly flicking your tongue on the roof of your mouth at the hard palette area. The tongue it seems to me is softer and wider when flicking and flattening it at the top of your mouth. D is stiff, but “RA - ら, RI - り, RU - る, RE - れ, and RO - ろ" pronunciation is more flexibly soft when struck against the rooftop of your mouth than a “D” pronunciation.

Do you remember making a taco out of your tongue when you were a kid? Make a taco toward the tip of the tongue. It is a smaller taco than the one you played with as a kid. The taco is more towards the tip of the tongue and then flapped in directions as to lay the tongue back down into its normal location in the mouth. Ra is jaw dropping wide from nose to chin. Re is made with a cheeks wide smile, Ru is rounded lips in a circle, ro is both the dropped jaw of ra + ooh lala.

Here is more insight I give to serious Japanese wanna' speak it correctly soon Japanese language learners, in a non- technical manner. I hope you can bear this, because I am sure any linguist out there would kill me for shame and spite, thank you in advance for your understanding. After making a canyon in your mouth or by pushing the tongue, forward to the upper harder palette at the roof of your mouth, pretend as if the walls of your mouth are too hot to touch with your tongue, now with this in mind practice saying the ra RI Ru re ro line in the syllabary and that your tongue must come quickly off the roof of your mouth because it is hot.

The r’s in Japanese, of which there are but five are usually difficult for foreigners or non-native Japanese speakers to get correctly. You can simulate actual native pronunciation by pronouncing the - RA - ら, RI - り, RU - る, RE - れ, and RO - ろ- line to yourself like gooey l's or softened d's. The r’s are often miss-heard as d’s in English. I was saying some words to a junior Japanese language-learning apprentice and she heard the Japanese r’s at first as d’s. So go figure. Instead of promoting more pronunciation confusion, get out their and practice!

One note of caution: before you even attempt the - RA - ら, RI - り, RU - る, RE - れ, and RO - ろ- line of the Japanese syllabary, master the first five syllables of their Hiragana or Katakana. The first five vowels are also the first five letters or syllables in Japanese. 46 syllables which constitute the Japanese vowels.

In pronunciation:
Ah,
ee,
ooh,
eh, and
oh,

In short hand:
a,
i,
u,
e, and
o.

In Hiragana:

あ - a
い – i
う – u
え - e
お – o,

in Katakana:

ア - a
イ - i
ウ - u
エ - e
オ - o

Remember, the first five syllables or morae as they are known in Japanese, are the five vowels used in the Japanese language. If we first master the first five Japanese vowels correctly, then pronunciation for all the rest of the syllables shall fall into place in due time and learning hiragana and katakana should be a little easier to understand and memorize quicker.

The following is a link to the International Phonetic Alphabet or the IPA http://www.unc.edu/underling/images/ipachart.gif/ here you can see all about vowels as seen from the ears and mouth of international phonetic champions.


How to pronounce the 5 Japanese vowels –

a - あ ah - like when the dentist tells you, “Say ah.”

i - い ee - as in “leech” or me.

u - う not exactly ooh, but for beginning pronunciation masters
Stick with pronouncing “u - う” like ooh as in “ooh lala,” or the pooh part of “Winnie the Pooh”.

e - え eh as in bed-head. (Edges of mouth as when smiling corners
of mouth stretched outward.)

And,
o - お oh as in “boat”, or “note” (long, long, closed mid-back)

It is interesting to note that as we have in English the “e” at the end of the word “note”, that if it weren’t there, it would simply be - “not”. However, with the addition of the “e” at the end, it somehow takes the “o” of the word, which was pronounced as “ah”, and pulls on it, through the letter “t” forcing a long – “oh” pronunciation.

*It is interesting to note that in, the plosive bilabials, “pa - ぱ”, and “ba -ば” come from the aspirated “ha -は” in written kana in this order:

HA à PA à then BA.

はà ぱ ( then ば.

Or, ha -は then ha - は with the degree symbol ° (ぱ), then ha - は with the ten ten marks (ば) or a single quotation mark – “. The order in the dictionary also follows that pattern in its other dignified grouping like that of "ta -た" going to "da -だ"; and "ka -か" going to "ga -が" in the velar group.

Makurasuki says “Ganbatte Ne!” 頑張ってね but needs to edit this weird take on Japanese pronunciation, I hope you enjoyed it….

Ganbatte ne!
頑張ってね
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki