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Japanese Pronunciation GuideThis guide is going to look at Japanese pronunciation with a Romanization of the letters, because that's what my computer likes to type. I've played around with installing a Japanese keyboard and it did work, but right now it's just easier to go with Romaji. Maybe later I'll work on adding the actual Kana and Kanji to the site. For now, I'm more looking to tackle a ton of vocabularly and Romaji will work fine in this regard. Vowel SoundsJapanese vowel sounds have absolute pronunciations. Unlike in English, where each vowel's sound can change depending on the word in question, in Japanese each vowel will always sound the same, no matter which word it's in. I love this, because it makes reading Japanese so much easier. Here is a quick look at each vowel, with some sample words to help you pick out the correct sound. A - Ah (like akward, awesome) I - Ee (like me, we, be) U - Oo (like oops, coupe) E - Eh (like bay, say) O - Oh (like oh no!) Keep in mind that certain words have vowels that are held extra long. In such cases, they are written as aa, ee, uu, ee, and ou. I'm not sure why oo became ou, but apparently, that's the way it us. When you encounter a word containing aa, ee, uu, ee, or ou, simply hold that sound for twice as long. Also note that when multiple vowels are written in a row, you sound out each vowel separately, except for in the case of ou as mentioned above which just sounds like oo. Japanese Learning Links |