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ElDraco

 

Japanese Go Pronunciations
    Keywords: Culture & History

Since someone was saying how a page like this would be useful, I (ElDraco) thought I'd have a go at it. I couldn't find any pages that really covered this aspect of go terms. I will quote some parts of my first Japanese language teaching book[1] for the basics of Japanese pronunciation in regard to English speech.

Short vowels

Japanese language has the following basic five vowels: a, i, u, e, o. They are short vowels, pronounced clearly and crisply. If you pronounce the vowels in the following English sentence, making them all short, you will have their approximate sounds. The u is pronounced with no movement forward of the lips.

Ah, we soon get old.
a i u e o

Long vowels

Long vowels are essentially a doubling of a single vowel, like ええ (ee), but most of the time it is written as えい (ei), like in えいご (英語, eigo: the english language). For a, i and u it is always simply a doubling of the single vowel. おう (ou) is the general rule for o but in some words it is traditionally written おお (oo).
Care should be taken to pronounce them as a continuous sound, equal in value to two identical short vowels.

The rest

The rest of the sounds in Japanese language are formed by a consonant and one of the basic five vowels. The consonants are:
k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, n/m

Examples: ka, te, mu, yo, ra, etc.
Exceptions:

  • t + i = chi (ち)
  • t + u = tsu (つ)
  • h + u = fu (ふ)
  • s + i = shi (し)
  • y only combines with a, u and o
  • w only combines with a and o[2]
  • n/m (ん) doesn't combine with anything

Ja, ji, etc. sounds like the 'j' in 'John'.

Fu (ふ) is pretty hard to pronounce for English speaking people, since it's something of a combination of the 'h' and 'f' sound. You breathe out more than when pronouncing 'f' but it's not entirely 'h' either. Try to find an example in an anime show for the correct pronunciation of it. It's similar to the sound you make when you blow out a candle.

The r in Japanese is almost equal to an l sound (they can't hear the difference ;-)) and it's best spoken as a very short 'r' sound with the tip of your tongue slapping down once like when pronouncing 'l'. Yet again, it's a bit of a combination of both, hence the confusion for Japanese people.

The g as in ga, gi, etc. at the beginning of a word is hard (like 'g' in 'garden'), but when it occurs in the middle or in the last syllable of a word, it often becomes nasal, as in eiga (えいが, 映画: movie). However, nowadays many Japanese use a g sound which is not nasal... ;)

N is the only independent consonant not combined with a vowel. When it is at the end of a word it is pronounced nasally. Otherwise it is usually pronounced like the English 'n'. But if it is followed by syllables beginning with b, m or p, it is pronounced more like 'm' and accordingly spelled with an m in romaji (romanized Japanese characters).

Andrew Grant: This used to be true, but modern practice is to use 'n' regardless of pronunciation (it's "honinbo", not "honimbo", for instance; in fact, strictly speaking it's "hon'inbou", but go talk to a brick wall).

ElDraco: Thanks for pointing out, although there are still examples of 'n' turning into 'm' like in "kombanwa" (good evening). At least, my teacher still pronounces it that way. ;-)
Another example of mispronunciation like "hon'inbou" is "kin'en" (ki-n-en, "no smoking") and "ki'nen" (ki-ne-n, "anniversary"). Shows how pronunciation makes all the difference. :)

Examples of go terms and their pronunciations

  • Hane ハネ "hah-neh" 羽?

Unsure as to its meaning. Could be 羽 meaning feather or wing. Maybe it doesn't have a kanji. Bob Myers: Unrelated to feather, and always written in katakana. ElDraco: Thanks. It's probably from another language then.

  • Aji あじ, "ah-ji", 味

flavour,taste

  • Fujite ふうじて, "fhuu-ji-teh", 封じ手

sealed move

  • Hamete はめて, "hah-meh-teh", 嵌め手

trick move, although 嵌め is the stem of the verb 嵌める (hameru) meaning "to put in", "to insert" (and also "to make love" hehe ;)).

  • Karui かるい, "kah-ru-i", 軽い

adjective meaning "light" (also "non-serious" or "minor")

  • Komi コミ, "koh-me"

"me" pronounced as in "look at me". No translation found though (not counting non-literal translations).

  • Moyo もよう, "mo-you", 模様

"moh" is a short vowel, "you" a long one sounding like "your". Means pattern, design, figure.

Common mistakes

Often, Japanese terms are pronounced wrong when one of the syllables should be pronounced with a long vowel which isn't always apparent in the romanized (romaji) version. Ex. Chuban 中盤 (middle stage) where "chu" has the long vowel "uu".

At other times, words are pronounced as in English with long vowel at places where it's actually a short vowel. Ex. Sente where the "te" is often prolonged (like in "sensei") while it's really a short "e" as in "mexico".


[1] [ext] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/4770018827/002-1964544-3966442

[2] wo is actually pronounced o (without the 'w') and written を (used as object marker). It is sometimes pronounced wo in songs.


I hope this page will be of some use.

Author(s):

  • ElDraco
  • <insert your name here if you've made a substantial contribution>


This is a copy of the living page "Japanese Go Pronunciations" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.