Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 1

9 Notes on Pronunciation Syllables Japanese syllables are constructed in the following four ways. • a vowel (a, i, u, e, o) • a consonant + a vowel (62 combinations) • a consonant alone (n, t, s, k, p) • a consonant + y + a vowel (33 combinations) The chart below shows all the syllables in Japanese. Table 1. Syllables in Japanese k g s z t d n h p b m y r w a ka ga sa za ta da na ha pa ba ma ya ra wa i ki gi shi ji chi ji ni hi pi bi mi ri u ku gu su zu tsu zu nu fu pu bu mu yu ru e ke ge se ze te de ne he pe be me re o ko go so zo to do no ho po bo mo yo ro kya gya sha ja cha nya hya pya bya mya rya kyu gyu shu ju chu nyu hyu pyu byu myu ryu kyo gyo sho jo cho nyo hyo pyo byo myo ryo Note the following special cases marked with emphasis in the chart: • /s+i/ is pronounced /shi/ • /z+i/ is pronounced /ji/ • /t+i/ is pronounced /chi/ • /t+u/ is pronounced /tsu/ • /d+i/ is pronounced /ji/ • /d+u/ is pronounced /zu/ Long Vowels There are five long vowels in Japanese: /aa/, /ii/, /uu/, /ee/ , and /oo/ . They are “long” in terms of spoken duration. In the writing system, the long versions of / a/, /i/, and /u/ are recognized as the same sound: / aa /, / ii /, / uu /. But the long version of /o/ (with certain exceptions) is represented by / ou / and the long version of /e/