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About the pronunciation Hatsuon

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The Pronunciation of the Japanese Syllabic Systems

The pronunciation of Japanese is rather simple.
Most of the syllables contain a single consonant and a single vowel.

chart Syllabic Systems gojuuon-hyo

	a	i	u	e	o			a	i	u	e	o			a	i	u	e	o
k	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko		g	ga	gi	gu	ge	go		ky	kya		kyu		kyo
s	sa	shi	su	se	so		z	za	ji	zu	ze	zo		sh	sya sha		syu shu		syo sho
t	ta	chi	tsu	te	to		d	da	ji	zu	de	do		ch	cha		chu		cho
n	na	ni	nu	ne	no		b	ba	bi	bu	be	bo		ny	nya		nyu		nyo
h	ha	hi	hu fu	he	ho		p	pa	pi	pu	pe	po		hy	hya		hyu		hyo
m	ma	mi	mu	me	mo									my	mya		myu		myo
y	ya		yu		yo									ry	rya		ryu		ryo
r	ra	ri	ru	re	ro									gy	gya		gyu		gyo
w	wa				o									j	ja		ju		jo
					n									by	bya		byu		byo
														py	pya		pyu		pyo

• The basic five syllables (Vowels)

  a

  is the sound "a" in "father', but shorter.
  

  i

  is similar to the vowel "ee " in "bee", but shorter.
  

  u

  is similar to the vowel "oo" in "look", but lips are not rounded,
  but spread.
  

  e

  is similar to the vowel "e" in "egg", but the mouth is not opened
  as wide.
  

  o

  is similar to the first part of the "o" in "go" with less lip-rounding.

• Long vowel syllables
  Each of the long syllables is pronunced by simply extending the short vowel. Here are examples.

  aa

  e.g. mother okaasan

  ii

  e.g. good ii

  uu

  e.g. air kuuki

  ee

  e.g. movie eega

  oo

  e.g. big ookii

• Syllabic consonants

  n is pronunced as follows.

  • Before the consonants n, t and d, it is pronunced "n" as in "night".
    e.g. problem mondai
    
  • Before the consonants m, p and b, it is pronunced "m' as in "moon'.
    e.g. pencil enpitsu
    
  • Before the consonants k, g and ng, it is pronunced "ng" as in "sing".
    e.g. music ongaku
    
  • Before the vowels and other consonants not mentioned above, it is pronunced as a nasal vowel.
    e.g. teacher sensei

  Double consonants pp, tt, ss, kk

  • pp is similar to the "p" sound in the English word "shopping".
    e.g. one minute ippun
  • tt is similar to the "t" sound in the English word "cutter".
    e.g. stamp kitte
    
  • ss is similar to the "s" sound in the English word "dressing".
    e.g. straight massugu
    
  • kk is similar to the "k" sound in the English word "booking".
    e.g. the forth day of the month yokka

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