(1)About Japanese pronunciation and Writing System in english(alphabets)
In Japan, there is a writing system called "Roma-ji Writing" that uses alphabets to write Japanese words. However the pronunciation system for the "Roma-ji Writing" is different from that of English since it was created for Japanese sounds.
Let's see the "Roma-ji Writing" and the pronunciation system!
Japanese has only 5 vowel sounds, which are
a=/a/=far
e=/e/=fell
i=/i/=fill
o=/o/=fold
u=/u/=cool
There are also fewer consonants than in English. We don’t use L, Q, V, and X since they don’t fit to Japanese sounds. The letter F is close to one of our sounds so we do use it. The rule of the pronunciation system is simple: words are broken into syllables with a consonant and a vowel, or just a vowel, in one syllable.
When you read Japanese words in english(alphabets), try to pronounce each syllable separately, like /A/ri/ga/to/u/ (this means “Thank you” ), then it will be very clear for Japanese people.
I'll show all sounds in Japanese in the table below.
If you are interested in learning about Japanese language more, please check my another site "Yuko's Japanese Class" though it would be closed when I'm using it for my lesson.
Tutoring lesson is available via Skype. For farther information, please feel free to contact me! (There is a contact form on my other blog "Yuko Takayama")
