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Japanese pronunciation? | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Thantophobia Groupie United States Joined 5163 days ago 49 posts - 66 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 1 of 5 11 December 2010 at 6:18am | IP Logged | ||
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In desu and words like that, how do you pronounce the u? I've heard those sounds completely ignored, but then why would people even acknowledge them? Please give details on how to pronounce it.
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 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5806 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 5 11 December 2010 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, you ignore the u. You have to review the hiragana. Consonants other then n always
take a vowel after. The su in the beginning of words can be either light or more pronounced. I.e. 'sumimasen' is more pronounced; but, 'sukoshi' is more like an s. You will find the same thing with 'tsu'. These are only a few exceptions compared to other languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 3 of 5 11 December 2010 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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First, you must acknowledge that the Japanese u is not the same as the English or Spanish
one. It's much less rounded. Second, while it's indeed not usually pronounced in desu, it sometimes is and people will even use a long u in statements like "a, sou desuuu". I used to ask about that and some people would say it was a matter of regional accent or dialect, but I've heard everywhere I went in Japan, wherever people were from, so I'm convinced it's not. i and u sometimes behave funnily in Japanese and after s/sh or ts/ch, or even k, the high vowels are sometimes inaudible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6473 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 4 of 5 11 December 2010 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you're pronouncing it properly, you don't ignore the "u". You just say it really quietly, or not at all, but your lips still make the same "u" shape. Try saying "dess" and then saying "desu" with a silent "u" shape, and you can hear that it does affect your pronunciation slightly -- you're less inclined to hold the "s" sound and it sort of transitions to this nonexistent "u".
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| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6950 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 5 of 5 12 December 2010 at 4:22am | IP Logged | ||
This is a matter of voiced vs. voiceless consonants. In 'sumimasen', there is a voiced consonant (m) next to the u, so the u is voiced as normal. In 'sukoshi', the u is between two voiceless consonants, so the u is also optionally devoiced to match its environment. In 'desu', the u is between a voiceless consonant and the end of the word, so it can optionally be devoiced. However, if the next word begins with a voiced consonant (as in 'desu yo'), the u will be voiced. Notice that I say 'devoiced' and not 'dropped' or 'deleted' or anything like that. This is because the syllable (technically 'mora', which is equal to one kana) count is very important in Japanese, and must be preserved. If you pronounce 'sukoshi' as 'skoshi', without 3 distinct, equal parts, it will sound off to them even though it might not sound any different to us. By the way, the same thing goes for long vowels and doubled consonants: 'a-ri-ga-to-o' vs. 'a-ri-ga-to', 'ni-p-po-n' vs. 'ni-po-n', etc. Edited by Lucky Charms on 12 December 2010 at 4:25am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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