Etiquette Guide to Japan. Boye Lafayette De Mente

Etiquette Guide to Japan

tah chee t’sue tay toe NA NI NU NE NO nah nee nuu nay no HA HI HU HE HO hah hee who hay hoe MA MI MU ME MO mah me moo may moe YA I YU E YO yah ee yuu eh yoe RA RI RU RE RO rah ree rue ray roe (In Japanese, the letter R sounds a bit like the English letter L and often requires a slight trilling sound. You should also roll the letter R a bit when saying Japanese words.) GA GI GU GE GO gah ghee goo gay go ZA ZI ZU ZE ZO zah jee zoo zay zoe DA JI ZU DE DO dah jee zoo day doe (Note that ZI and JI sound virtually the same.) BA BI BU BE BO bah bee boo bay boe PA PI PU PE PO pah pee puu pay poe

Combined Syllables

The following syllables are combinations of some of the ones appearing above. Two syllables are combined into one simply by merging them, and they are pronounced as “one” syllable, not two. Biyu (spelled byu in its combined form), for example, should be run together and sound like the Beau in Beulah.

RYA	RYU	RYO
re-yah	re-yuu	re-yoe
MYA	MYU	MYO
me-yah	me-yuu	me-yoe
NYA	NYU	NYO
ne-yah	ne-yuu	ne-yoe
HYA	HYU	HYO
he-yah	he-yuu	he-yoe
CHA	CHU	CHO
chah	chuu	choe
SHA	SHU	SHO
shah	shuu	show
KYA	KYU	KYO
q’yah	que	q’yoe
PYA	PYU	PYO
p’yah	p’yuu	p’yoe
BYA	BYU	BYO
b’yah	b’yuu	b’yoe
JA	JU	JO
jah	juu	joe
GYA	GYU	GYO
g’yah	g’yuu	g’yoe

I suggest that you practice saying these syllables for several minutes until you are able to say them smoothly and without hesitation. Soon you will be able to recognize individual syllables in the Japanese words you see and hear. The word arigato (“thank you”), for example, is made up of four syllables: a-ri-ga-to (ah-ree-gah-toe). Don’t forget to trill the ri syllable a bit, as if it were Spanish. (In fact, most of the primary syllables outlined above are pronounced almost exactly the way they would be in Spanish.)

The letters H and G are pronounced hard, as in ho and go. There are no true L or V sounds in Japanese, so they are not on the list of syllables. As these sounds are unfamiliar, Japanese people trying to pronounce English words that include them often say R instead of L and B instead of V.

Long vowels in Japanese syllables are pronounced twice as long as regular vowels and are indicated by a straight line, or macron, placed above them: ā, ī

Скачать книгу