Q & A 1

Posted on June 30, 2005

During the second session, there was a question about pronunciation.

Here is a great quote from "Japanese for Busy People I" Revised Edition by Association for Japanese-Language Teaching: "Ah, we soon get old."

Japanese vowels: remember by "Ah, we soon get old"
Ah, = a
we = i
soon = u
get = e
old = o

During the second session, I introduced how Japanese sounds are transliterated. V=vowel, C=consonant
V ( i = stomach)
CV (ki = tree)
C (end only with "N") (CVC - hon = book) (VC - en = yen or circle)

There are exceptions: (These do not follow V, CV, CVC, and VC combination.)
1) double consonants: "kk," "pp," "ss" and "tt"
For example, kitte = stamps
2) modified syllables: some sounds are described as "kya," and "pyu."
3) Some people prefer to use different romanized letters in order to represent the sounds accurately. For example, they may write "kampai" instead of "kanpai." This is because "assimilation" occurs when "N" is followed by "B." "N" will sound like "M" although in writing, the letter "N" is used.
かんぱい(kanpai)
かんぱい(kampai)

Here is a fantastic website from Wikipedia regarding Japanese phonology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology

Q & A 2

Posted on June 30, 2005

There was another question raised during the second session.
'Is there a program which reads aloud what you type in?"
I am not familiar with this program, but try looking into "WebUD." This was created for disabled or elders. It would be great for language learning as well!