Pronunciation of Japanese
Except some rare exceptions, the pronunciation of Japanese is given directly by its writing in Hiragana or Rōmaji, i.e. according to the pronunciation of each Syllabe. And reciprocally, the writing guesses pronunciation.
Phonetic
Consonant S
-
// = apical Consonant
- // = Consonant laminale
- // = side beaten Consonant
Archiphoneme /Q/
/Q/ will be written っ or ッ.
-
// → Japanese 日本 (にっぽん)
- // → katta 買った
- // → itchō 一丁 (いっちょう)
Palatalization of the consonants
-
/m/ + /i/ →: // → umi 海
- /m/ + /j/ →: // → myōga みょうが
- /g/ + /j/ →: // → gyōza ぎょうざ
- …
occlusive/fricative coronale and /h/:
-
/s/ + /i/ →: // → shio 塩
- /s/ + /j/ → ɕ : // → shabon シャボン
- /z/ + /i/ → or: // → gojuu 50; // → jishin 地震;
- /z/ + /j/ → ʑ : // → じゃがいも
- /t/ + /i/ →: // → chijin 知人
- /t/ + /j/ →: // → cha 茶
- /n/ + /i/ →
- /n/ + /j/ → * /h/ + /i/ →: // → hito 人
- /h/ + /j/ → C
Moreover, the addition of the syllables ya , yo and yu into small following a syllable finishing by a I will modify the pronunciation of this syllable:
- みょ will be written myo in Rōmaji and will decide, as in myo sotis ;
- みよ will be written to him miyo in Rōmaji and will be proncera, about like the town of Millau.
On the other hand shi + ( ya , yu or yo into small) gives respectively sha , shu and sho (see below for HS Japanese ).
Of the same chi + ( ya , yu or yo into small) gives respectively cha , chu and cho as for the preceding syllables.
HS Japanese :
The Consonant alvéolo-palatal ɕ , of shi (し/シ) and of its derivative sha (しゃ/シャ), shu (しゅ/シュ), sho (しょ/ショ) and most recent she (シェ), is close to the post-alveolar ʃ (of CH At), which can be regarded as a Allophone. But its place of articulation is closer to the palate.
The case of the ん
The transcription N is only one artifice. The ん has several pronunciations, but note as a whole a Nasale. It can be only after one syllable, and never begins a mot.-
In final position, the ん decides ɴ̩ .
- In front of the Bilabial S p , B , ɸ , m , the ん decides m̩ .
- In front of the Dental consonant S T , D , S , Z , N and their Allophone S, consonants H (and allophones, except ɸ ), ɺ and J the ん decides n̩ .
- In front of the velar K , G , the ん decides ŋ̩ .
- In front of the Vowel S I , ɯ , E , the ん decides according to the following consonant.
- In front of the vowels has , O , the vowel nasalise and the ん decides according to the following consonant.
-
There exists a case where the ん can exist alone, but it then acts more than one onomatopoeia: ん! corresponds to hum! .
The F Japanese
The Consonant bilabial ɸ , present in fu (ふ/フ) and in its derivative modern F (ファ), fi (フィ), Fe (フェ) and fo (フォ), differs from the labiodental F (of F aute). Indeed, it is not produced by pressing its lips against its teeth, but by closing the lips a little bit and into blowing slightly.
Vowel S
Japanese counts five vowels: /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/ and //. // is used to represent a compressed posterior closed Voyelle and not a nonround posterior closed Voyelle, because there does not exist any official symbol to represent the compressed vowel.
Long vowels
The long vowels are explicitly lengthened with the pronunciation, so that in general the long vowels are treated phonetically only like one sequence of two identical vowels. Thus the O long of ありがとう ( arigatō , “thank you”) is phonetically one.
Orthography
Evolution of the pronunciation
Remainders of the old orthography
The particle marking the topic is written today still は but decides wa and not ha . In the same way, the particle へ decides E and not He . In addition the not very frequent kana を, ぢ and づ, which remains in some words, are perfectly homophonous with respectively お, じ and ず.
Accent
Japanese is a language with Pitch. The accent corresponds to an abrupt fall height inside a mot. a word can be accentuated or not. The method of transcription JSL makes it possible to retranscribe in Rōmaji its pitches. ----
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