Yokoso!
Welcome to my Japanese Lessons.
Have you ever watched an
old Japanese samurai movie
on the late show? Chances
are you thought that everyone
was always angry at everyone
else and spent a lot of time
yelling in monotonous staccato
tones. I felt the same way.
It was all unintelligible
blabber, not a real language.
Well, guess what? It is actually
possible to make some sense
out of the nonsensical language
that you hear on Japanese
movies, etc. With a little
understanding of how the language
works, you will be on your
way to sounding just like
those yelling, sword-swinging
samurai of yore.
What I would like to do is
provide you with a basic understanding
of the Japanese language.
It is not meant to replace
formal study at an institute
of higher learning. Not everything
can be covered, but I will
do my best to provide language
tips that will help you develop
your Japanese language skills.
I will be working mainly
with "conversational"
Japanese in nature; something
that you can use right away
in certain situations. Learning
to read and write can take
years.
Of course in order to truly
become fluent in any foreign
language it is always desirable,
if at all possible, to immerse
oneself in the language and
culture (like what I did -
threw away a life in biotechnology
for a brave new world). Coming
to Japan will do wonders for
your language ability if you
ever have the chance. I understand
that this is not feasible
for most people, so I will
strive to do my best to provide
you with current lessons and
examples for study.
Pronunciation in Japanese
Maybe you have recently had
a phrase translated for you
with the corresponding pronunciation
written in roman characters.
Or how about a tattoo in kanji
(Japanese characters)? That
is rather popular these days.
But how do you pronounce it
so it sounds close to natural?
Fear not for help is on the
way! In this lesson you will
learn a bit about the history
of the language and how the
language sounds. So sit back,
take out your notebook and
enjoy the first lesson Japanese
Lesson series.
Let's get down to business.
In Japanese there is no clear
stress on syllables in words
as there is in English. A
non-Japanese speaker would
pronounce the city of Yokohama
as "Yoko-HAA-ma"
and the family name Yoshida
as "Yo-SHEE-da".
In English, stress tends to
be placed on the second last
syllable of longer words.
Not so in Japanese. All syllables
are spoken with equal strength
and length. A Japanese speaker
would say "Yo-ko-ha-ma"
and "Yo-shi-da"
without stressing any parts.
Try saying the following
words without putting any
extra strength or stress on
any of the syllables:
1. Yokohama 2. Kawasaki 3.
Nagasaki 4. Hiroshima 5. Amerika
6. Osutoraria 7. koohii 8.
Nippon 9. beesubooru 10. koppu
Some texts say that there
are long and short syllables
in the Japanese language.
I disagree. In most cases
the longer sound of a syllable
is due simply to an extra
vowel placed after the previous
syllable. For example Tokyo
is actually pronounced like
To-u-kyo-u and Kyoto is Kyo-u-to
(note here that the final
to in Kyoto sounds shorter
than the middle to but it
is just because it lacks the
additional u which makes the
sound appear to be longer.
Pronounced carefully, the
"long" syllable
takes twice as long to pronounce
as the "short" syllable.
Practice these sounds:
1. biiru 2. biru 3. konpyuuta
4. konpyuutaa 5. koka koora
6. Toukyou 7. Kyouto 8. suteeki
9. ginkou 10. waapuro
There are five vowels in
the Japanese language: A,
I, U, E, O. These vowels have
one sound apiece. Unlike the
English "a" which
can have the sounds found
in cat, crawl, cape, the Japanese
A sounds like the vowel found
in the word cup. And as a
matter of fact, all of the
syllables in Japanese are
very short and clipped (Suzuki
sounds more like S'z'ki).
Remember that whenever you
see a vowel in a Japanese
word it will always have the
following sound:
Vowel: a i u e o
Sound: up heat soup left slope
Most consonants sound as
they do in English with a
few exceptions worth noting:
K, G, S, Z, D, T, P, B do
not have the puff of air that
is associated with same consonants
in English. The N is also
a very unusual sound as it
can actually take on four
different sounds, depending
on where it is found in the
word.
If it precedes a vowel (as
in no) it has the normal N
sound found in English. Before
t, ts, d, n, ch, j it also
posses the normal n sound.
If it is found before p,
b, m it takes on an m sound.
If it is found before k and
g it sounds like ng as in
finger.
If it is found at the end
of a word, or before all other
sounds, it has a nasal sound,
similar to the French n as
in pain (bread).
There is one other sound
that we need to discuss. It
is the most difficult sound
for foreigners to pronounce
correctly. It is the R sound.
This sound is not found in
the English language. It is
a somewhere between the English
L, D, R and is a rather short,
chopped sound. In this case
the tongue quickly flicks
the roof of the mouth just
in front of the soft upper
pallette. This sound takes
a lot of practice to get right
and in order to pronounce
it correctly you need to hear
it to be able to reproduce
it.
The following chart shows
all the possible combinations
of consonants and vowels in
the Japanese Language. Note
that in almost every case
(except for n by itself) all
consonants are followed by
a vowel. This makes the language
very easy to pronounce.
a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra
wa wo n
i ki shi chi ni hi mi - ri
- - -
u ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru
- -
e ke se te ne he me - re
- - -
o ko so to no ho mo yo ro
- - -
There are some other sounds
which are not quite as common,
but are actually a slight
variation of the main sounds.
They are the Secondary Sounds:
ga za da ba pa
gi ji - bi pi
gu zu - bu pu
ge ze de be pe
go zo do bo po
There are situations where
two consonants are together
with a vowel.
They produce the following
Tertiary Sounds:
kya gya sha ja cha nya hya
pya bya mya rya
kyu gyu shu ju chu nyu hyu
pyu byu myu ryu
kyo gyo sho jo cho nyo hyo
pyo byo myo ryo
Now that you are armed with
the correct sounds for the
language, why don't you pull
out your Japanese Name or
Phrase and give the pronunciation
a try? with a bit of practice
you should be able to get
the sounds just right.
One last thing to mention
that I found really helps
with getting the pronunciation
right. Almost all of the sounds
can be said without the use
of the lips. Think of yourself
as a ventriloquist, speaking
from a puppet. Don't move
your lips, and keep them relaxed.
It should help. And practice.
Here are a few simple sentences
that you can use for pronunciation
practice and begin to memorize
for your future use:
Practice Sentences:
1. Watashi no namae wa Ken
desu. (My name is Ken.)
2. Kono biiru wa ikura desu
ka? (How much is this beer?)
3. Toire wa doko desuka?
(Where is the toilet?)
4. Mata ne! (See you later!)
5. Ohisashiburi desu ne.
(Long time no see.)
6. Ohayou gozaimasu. (Good
morning.)
7. Konnichi wa. (Hello.)
8. Konban wa. (Good evening.)
9. Oyasumi nasai. (Good night.)
10. Koko wa doko desu ka?
(Where am I now?)
---------------------------
The Culture Pocket: A Brief
History of the Japanese Written
Language
Most scholars believe that
prior to the introduction
of Kanji from China, there
was no formal written language.
No one is certain when the
script first came to the islands
but some believe that it could
have been around the first
century AD. In the early third
century, artifacts have been
recovered that depict some
form of writing.
Kanji was first used as a
system of writing sometime
in the late 5th century or
early 6th century. It is difficult
to set an exact date because
of the writings being based
on the Chinese calendar which
is difficult to interpret.
More than likely, Chinese
or Koreans who came to the
islands to live began using
the characters.
In the beginning kanji was
more than likely used to represent
sounds (phonetics) for loan
words from other cultures.
Also, the introduction of
Buddhism into China and eventually
Japan prompted translations
of the scripts using the script.
Buddhism probably had the
greatest influence on the
development of the language
due to the huge influx of
people from the mainland to
build temples, translate documents,
make statues, tiles, copy
sutras, etc.
Around the seventh century
it seems that the Japanese
people began mastering the
language themselves and started
to do some work of their own.
The language began to make
some changes as it took on
more than just a phonetic
reproduction of foreign words
(KUN reading). Eventually
it began to be used to represent
ideas and concepts.
Chinese and Japanese are
completely different. In terms
of structure, Chinese is actually
closer to English than it
is to Japanese. And yet, the
Japanese, in their amazing
ability to adapt things to
their own ideas, were able
to take the Chinese and add
marks so that it would conform
to the Japanese word order.
Then the kanji began to take
on a second reading, known
as the ON reading, as mentioned
above. It may be that the
Korean language had influenced
the development of the Japanese
language as both have similar
word orders and also use honorific
auxiliaries.
In the Nara period (710-784)
there was an explosion of
Japanese literature. It seems
that much of the oral tradition
of passing on history was
translated into script for
the future generations. The
language began to become more
and more complex.
Hiragana began to be developed
around the Nara period as
well. It has its roots in
the simplification of a cursive-style
of writing kanji. This cursive
style was mainly used privately
among individuals to make
notes, letters and other personal
documents. For about 1400
years the hiragana had a very
large set of letters. In 1900
it was standardized in brushwritten
and woodblock-printed forms,
mainly for artistic purposes.
Because of this, hiragana
tends to have a roundish,
flowing style and shape.
Officials and scholars continued
to use classical Chinese for
their work for many hundred
years. As the language developed,
it became necessary to add
notes next to the text to
aid in the reading of the
texts. This began in the Heian
period (794-1192). Because
space was limited, scholars
began using a shorthand version
of the kanji used for pronunciation.
This was the beginning of
Katakana. In the beginning
it was not entirely different
from hiragana but over time
developed a more square appearance,
more scholarly. Eventually
the katakana script evolved
such that it began to be used
solely for writing foreign
loan words, or concepts that
did not exist in the native
Japanese language.
Reference: Japanese Correspondence
Course for JET Participants,
1993
- Cameron Switzer, Fukui,
Japan
