Japanese Pronunciation Essentials: A Beginner's Guide

Here is a beginner-friendly guide on Japanese pronunciation:

Basic Japanese Pronunciation Guide for Beginners

• Vowels: Japanese has five simple vowels: a (as in “father”), i (as in “machine”), u (as in “flute”), e (as in “met”), o (as in “note”). They are short, clear, and consistent in sound. Each vowel is pronounced distinctly without diphthongs.

• Consonants: Most consonants are pronounced similarly to English, but there are some differences. For example, the Japanese “r” sound is between an “r,” “l,” and “d” sound, produced by a quick tap of the tongue on the ridge behind the upper teeth.

• Syllables/Mora: Japanese is mora-timed, meaning each syllable (mora) takes approximately equal length. Typical syllables are consonant + vowel (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko) or just a vowel alone.

• Double Consonants: Indicated by a small tsu (っ), they cause a pause or gemination, such as “kitte” pronounced with a double “t” sound.

• Pitch Accent: Unlike stress accent in English, Japanese uses pitch accent, where the pitch rises or falls within a word to distinguish meaning. This is important but can be learned progressively after mastering basic sounds.

• Pronunciation Tools: Using audio and pronunciation guides with sound examples is essential for beginners to get accustomed to the clear, distinct sounds in Japanese.

This basic framework helps learners grasp the fundamental aspects of Japanese pronunciation for beginner study and practice.

References

• First Hundred Words in Japanese

• Oxford starter Japanese dictionary

• Kodansha’s furigana English-Japanese dictionary

• Beginner’s Japanese

• Kodansha’s Hiragana Workbook: A Step-by-Step Approach to Basic Japanese Writing

• 연구논문 : 20세기 초 러시아 동방학원의 한국어 학습서「조선어독학(朝鮮語獨學)」에 대하여

• Sustanaible Methods of Improving Kanji Learning Skills for Japanese Language Learners at Basic Level at FPT University

• Lexical Category and Downstep in Japanese

• JSUT corpus: free large-scale Japanese speech corpus for end-to-end speech synthesis

• Formation of the skill of perception of pitch accent at the initial stage of learning the Japanese language

• The Utilization of the “Tsutaeru Hatsuon” Online Media in Learning Japanese Accents and Intonations

• Powerful and Effective Pronunciation Instruction: How Can We Achieve It?

• Japanese Accent Pronunciation Error by Japanese Learners in Elementary and Intermediate Level

• Japanese linguistics, The Japanese language I

• Representing the moraic nasal in Japanese: evidence from Tōkyō, Ōsaka and Kagoshima

• Basic study of kanji recognition patterns in non-kanji-background Japanese learners based on eye-movement analysis

• Japanese Native Speakers’ Perception on Learners’ Pronunciation of Double Consonant Sounds in Japanese Adverbs (Fukushi)

• Nihongo Speech Trainer: A Pronunciation Training System for Japanese Sounds

• The Phonics Method to Increase English Pronunciation for Young Learners

• The Kanji Code: See the Sounds with Phonetic Components and Visual Patterns