hatsuon

Basic Japanese pronunciation.

Tip #102 These tips are my lazy explanation for lack of technical terminology. I am a born American and English is my native language. I didn’t start on my path towards Japanese language mastery, until I was 19 years old. I was taught at the University during a 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 pronunciation and the understanding of words

Understand how the English letters L and R are and D are pronounced in English then experiment with variations and cross-mixes by combining the letters as you do red, blue, and green in fine tuning the color or warmth of a television set. 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,ri,ru,re,ro is more flexibly soft when struck against the rooftop of your mouth.
Do you remember making a taco out of your tongue when you were a kid? Well you can make a taco but it is a smaller taco, towards the tip of the tongue and then flapped . Ra is jaw dropping wide from nose to chin. Re is made cheeks wide smile, ru is rounded lips in a circle, ro is both the dropped ja of ra + ooh lala.

Here is more insight I give to serious Japanese wanna speak it correctly soon in my non- technical jargonated language sort of explanation. I hope you can bear this, because I’m sure any linguist out there would kill me for shame and spite, thank you in advance. 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 your mouth was a hot potato and your tongue being separate when 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. Also the r’s in Japanese of which there are but 5 (each corresponding to the vowel sounds, in conjunction with) You can simulate actual native pronunciation by pronouncing your ra ri ru re ro line to yourself. The r’s are often mis-heard as d’s in English. I was saying some words to a junior Japanese language learning apprentice the practicing.

But before you even attempt the ra ri ru re ro line of the syllabary, master the first five syllables which constitute the Japanese vowels. Ah ee ooh eh and oh or short hand a i u e and o.The first 5 syllables are actually the 5 vowels of the Japanese language. If we first master the first 5 first vowels correctly, then pronunciation for all the rest of the syllables shall fall into place in due time. The following is a link to the International Phonetic Alphabet or the IPA http://www.unc.edu/underling/images/ipachart.gif/

a - あ ah as when the dentist says, “say ah.”

i - い ee as in leech or me.

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

e - え eh as in bedhead .( 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 )

also 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 would simply be not however with the addition of the e at the end it somehow takes the o which was pronounced as ah and pulled on it through the letter t to make it the long oh pronunciation.

*It is interesting to note that in Japanese the plosive bilabials pa and ba come from the aspirated ha in written kana in this order: ha pa then ba or ha then ha with the degree symbol then ha with the ten ten marks or a single quotation mark. The order in the dictionary follows that pattern in its other dignified grouping of ta going to da and also ka going to ga in the velar.