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VildaHawk

What are the guidelines to pronunication in Japanese?
I'm particularly wanting to know how to determine where to put the emphasis on words.
It seems to me that three syllable words tend to get the emphasis on the first syllable, and four syllable words tend to get the emphasis on the third syllable. Is there any truth to that?
What exactly are the rules?

bevin

I can remember wondering the exact same thing when I was starting in Japanese, actually, but no one could really explain it to me any more than you'd be able to explain where we put emphasis in our words. Basically, I just listened to enough of it that I just started doing it. I doubt that I'm perfect but I'm good enough to know that Uma Thurman's accent in Kill Bill was horrid, anyway. ;) Learning words can help because then you can listen for them in conversation and have a jumping off point to go from, or at least it worked for me. Other people probably have better methods.

–Bevin

Let's see…spoken Japanese consists of simple syllables, generally, consisting of a vowel, or a consonant plus a vowel. Consonant clusters are few in the Japanese language, unlike in English. Some words are also made up of consonants and semi-vowels (eg. ya, yo, yu in Tokyo, Kyoto...etc...). All vowels and consonants have consistent pronunciation. Consonants are crisply pronounced.

You're right about syllabication. But generally, I think it's better to make sure you put the same amount of stress or emphasis on all syllables. For example you pronounce Yokohama as yo-ko-ha-ma, not yo-KA-HA-ma, or Prime Minister Koizumi's name as Ko-i-zu-mi, not koy-zumi, like a I hear a lot of people say. You can almost always use the vowels as a guideline. :)

VildaHawk

What about names? Are there any special rules or exceptions for proper nouns?

Carly

It's true there's not really a stress on syllables, but some syllables are raised/lowered in pitch. 'hashi' is a perfect example:

端　- 'hashi' (the edge of something)
橋 - 'ha_shi_' (a bridge (as in over a river))
箸 - '_ha_shi' (chopsticks)

Note that when I italicize I'm not meaning to imply the syllables are emphasized, but rather which of them is raised in pitch. (even I have trouble with this sometimes; I can almost never get the difference between 変　(he_n) and 辺　(he_n) straight :lol: )

Psycho

Just listen to much of it from different sources and you'll get it right in the end :).

VildaHawk

Would the name Komako be
KO-ma-ko or ko-MA-ko?

And is Kyoto two syllables or three?

fin fish

It'd just be ko-ma-ko without any obvious stress, I think, though KO-ma-ko would probably be closer.

Kyoto is 2 syllables… sort of. O_o.; It's actually 3: Kyo-u-to. But since we tend to make the kyo and u blend together, 2 works. Kyo-to, rather than like.... Ki-yo-to.

Carly

Originally posted by VildaHawk@Mar 12 2005, 08:38 PM
**Would the name Komako be
KO-ma-ko or ko-MA-ko?

And is Kyoto two syllables or three?
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Just a flat 'komako'. Kyoto is 'kyo-o-to' (note that 'kyo' is one syllable, not two; it's not kiyoto :x)

lukia

Yeah there really isn't a definite guide to pronouncing japanese which makes it …hard... ^^;; I almost want to say don't stress any syllables if that makes any sense.... Almost in a monotone... A lot (ok maybe not a lot but some) of words tend to be that way.... I think. Also, the stressing of syllables changes depending on the "dialect" or hougen, so......that makes it all the more confusing I guess >> .

(Carly I like your sig btw....I'm not that much a Tsubasa fan but it's still really nice ^_^)

Carly

Originally posted by lukia@Mar 25 2005, 04:59 PM
(Carly I like your sig btw….I'm not that much a Tsubasa fan but it's still really nice ^_^)
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I think sometimes I'm the only person in the world who likes poor Tsubasa. :lol:

lukia

I think sometimes I'm the only person in the world who likes poor Tsubasa.

Awww … I know ppl who like him tho so it's ok lol. I'm just really not a fan of Takizawa (>_<) and that's why I'm not a fan of Taki Tsuba either...... But if it helps at all I like Tsubasa a lot more than Takki lol

Carly

Well, I like Takki too so it kinda evens out, just not as much as Tsubasa. I just don't think Tsubasa gets enough credit or anything, which is totally stupid. :lol:

lukia

Oh that's cool. Yeah I agree that Tsubasa doesn't get that much attention… I tend to think it's because of Takki but I guess that's ok lol. He did do a dorama (or two?) himself tho didn't he?

Carly

A few, yeah (Haru to Natsu is coming up this fall). I think he's known better for dancing though, esp. from the SHOCK musicals…

Originally posted by Carly@Mar 26 2005, 09:38 AM
I think sometimes I'm the only person in the world who likes poor Tsubasa. :lol:
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i do! i do too! :lol:

Satsuki

I think I was able to get my Japanese pronunciation down by watching gratuitous hordes of anime in japanese with subtitles, and listening to a ton of japanese music. That's really the only way to get your ear in "tune" for the language.

Greg

The rules as to where to go up and down in intonation are different for every word. Take something like ame.

ame ending up on the e means candy.

ame ending down on the e means rain.

This is a pain in the ass and takes careful practice. The best help for pronounciation (read: not grammar)? Living there. The next best? Just keep watching Japanese animation.

Mr. Santoryu

Originally posted by Carly@Mar 9 2005, 09:30 PM
**It's true there's not really a stress on syllables, but some syllables are raised/lowered in pitch. 'hashi' is a perfect example:

端　- 'hashi' (the edge of something)
橋 - 'ha_shi_' (a bridge (as in over a river))
箸 - '_ha_shi' (chopsticks)

Note that when I italicize I'm not meaning to imply the syllables are emphasized, but rather which of them is raised in pitch. (even I have trouble with this sometimes; I can almost never get the difference between 変　(he_n) and 辺　(he_n) straight :lol: )
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I knew it! I knew that some words like 'hashi' had more than one meaning. But I didn't expect it to change depending on pitch. I always thought that it depend on the situation.

Like 'domo' for example. It can mean 'Hi' and can also be used as 'Thanks'. Or am I wrong? Yeah, I'm pretty sure i'm wrong.

Satsuki

Let's not even get into the headache that is "kami" (paper, hair, god).

lukia

Like 'domo' for example. It can mean 'Hi' and can also be used as 'Thanks'. Or am I wrong? Yeah, I'm pretty sure i'm wrong.

Yeah it is used both ways. ^_^

Some words that read the same are also pronouced the same, but others aren't….. like the hashi or ame examples. WIth "kami," paper and hair are pronounced the same (going up at the end) but god goes down at the end lol. Yeah very hard to explain in words...

I do think listening is the best way to learn as well....... but then thing you have to be careful with is the dialects ... Like I mentioned before, different dialects (hougen) have different ways of pronouncing words, like in Kansai-ben, for example, some words that are pronounced with the ends going up in hyoujungo are pronounced with the ends going down. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head (it would help if I knew kansai ben i guess lol) but I know it does vary from dialect to dialect in some cases.