Phonetics of the Japanese Language: Pronunciation, Pitch Accent, and Writing System

Lessons 3-6 are introductory. Their purpose is to prepare you for the lessons in the “Minna no Nihongo” textbook. Just like the alphabet lessons, the main goal is to be able to read and write. The rest of the information in these lessons is for your familiarization; if you can’t remember it right away, don’t get discouraged—you will encounter it again in the main lessons.

Structure of the Minna no Nihongo Lessons

• grammar
• word formation
• vocabulary
• intonation
• writing system
• texts
• kanji (Chinese characters)
• vocabulary for texts and exercises
• commentary on texts
• tasks and exercises to reinforce:
• grammar
• vocabulary
• kanji
• development of oral speech

Attention! Each lesson is very rich in information, but nevertheless, it will be presented on a single page. You don’t need to try to learn the entire lesson at once. Divide it into as many parts as is comfortable for you to memorize the information.

All vocabularies are built according to the same scheme:

• left column - words written in the form they appear in the given lesson;
• second column - transcription of words written in hiragana;
• third column - translation, for example:

入れる - いれる - to put in..., to insert

If a word in a given lesson is not provided in kanji writing, the second column in the vocabulary is absent.

If the vocabulary contains a borrowed word written in katakana, the second column provides the original word from which it was derived, for example:

ミルク - milk - milk

In the kanji dictionaries, each kanji is provided with its on-yomi (Chinese reading, written in katakana) and kun-yomi (Japanese reading, written in hiragana).

If the meanings of the on and kun readings are different, they are given separately for on and kun; if they coincide, they are given only for the on reading.

The radical number and its stroke order are also provided. In some lessons, lists of common everyday expressions are given.

The lesson commentary includes explanations of speech etiquette rules, the specific governance of verbs, and the translation of phraseological expressions.

The main lessons are structured in such a way that learning starts with the introduction of new grammar. Each section is accompanied by examples based on the vocabulary already covered, which helps in the initial consolidation of the material.

The section “Tasks and Exercises” begins with exercises to practice phonetic skills, followed by word formation exercises.

Grammar exercises are arranged by topics in an order corresponding to the introduction of these topics in the “Grammar” section. New vocabulary from the lesson is introduced in these exercises, contributing to its reinforcement. For each grammatical topic, there is an exercise for written translation from English to Japanese, which can also be done orally.

The grammar reinforcement exercises are followed by exercises for the consolidation and activation of vocabulary and the development of oral speaking skills. Illustrations for the lesson topics are also provided here. This section concludes with exercises for reinforcing kanji.

All unfamiliar words and kanji encountered in the texts and grammar explanations can be looked up in the vocabulary.

In some cases, hovering the mouse over a kanji brings up a tooltip with the reading of that kanji or word combination.

For example: 大学

Introduction to Japanese Phonetics

1 長音 - Long vowels

Long vowels sound twice as long as the regular vowels from the Japanese Gojuon syllabary table: あ, い, う, え, and お.

If we take the duration of the vowel お as one unit, the duration of the long vowel おお will be equal to two.
This means that the length of the sound お is one mora, and the length of the sound おお is two morae.

A MORA is a unit of time or timing.

One mora represents the time required to pronounce a short syllable.
At the same time, the duration of a long syllable is considered to be two morae.

In the Japanese language, a mora is a syllable with a short vowel or just a single short vowel. A syllable with a long vowel is represented as a combination of two morae.

For example, the word 日本 (“Japan”) contains three morae (ni-ho-n - にほん) or four morae (ni-p-po-n　にっぽん).

The difference in vowel length alters the meaning of words in the Japanese language.

The length of each vowel character has its own notation, namely:
the length of a vowel in writing is usually conveyed by the same character... see below.

Listen to the examples of pronouncing long sounds (they are highlighted in red)

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Note

1. Writing long vowels in hiragana
   Long syllables of the あ row
   The あ character is added to the hiragana character from the あ row
   Examples:
   
   • ああ - a: - ah! oh!
   • かあ - ka: - caw! (crow’s sound)
　
2. Long syllables of the い row
   　 The い character is added to the hiragana character from the い row
   Examples:
   
   • いい - i: - good
   • みい - mi: - three (abstract counting)
   • ひい - hi: - one (abstract counting)
　
3. Long syllables of the う row
   The う character is added to the hiragana character from the う row.
   Examples:
   
   • うう - u:
   • こふう - kofu: - old customs
   • くう - ku: - air; sky
　
4. Long syllables of the え row.
   The え character is added to the hiragana character from the え row.
   Examples:
   
   • ええ - e: - yes,
   • ねえ - ne: - isn’t it,
   • おねえさん - one:san - older sister;

Remember that い after え forms a DIPHTHONG, i.e., えい is a diphthong which is read as E:, meaning a long E.

In modern Japanese, the long E: is most frequently written as a combination of the vowels えい.

5. Long syllables of the お row
   The う character is added to the hiragana character from the お row. However, in some words, the lengthening is indicated using the お character.
   Examples:
   
   • おおきい - o:kii - big, large,
   • おおい - o:i - hey!, listen!, over here!
   • とうい - to:i - far; distant
   • おう - o: - interj. oh!, ah!, o!;

2 Writing long vowels with the Japanese alphabet - katakana

The character “ー” is added to a syllable of any row.

3 発音 - Pronunciation of ん

ん is never used at the beginning of a word. This sound constitutes one mora by itself. Its pronunciation changes depending on the sound that follows it.

1. It is pronounced as /n/ before syllables of the た-, だ-, ら-, and な- rows.

For example:

• はんたい - opposite
• うんどう - physical exercise/sports
• せんる - rails
• みんな - everyone
2. It is pronounced as /m/ before syllables of the ば-, ぱ-, and ま- rows.

For example:

• しんぶん - newspaper
• えんぴつ - pencil
• うんめい - destiny
3. It is pronounced as /ng/ before syllables of the か- and が- rows.

For example:

• てんき - weather
• けんがく - field trip/tour

Listen to the examples of pronouncing the ん sound (highlighted in red)

4 促音 - Pronunciation of つ

The small character っ is used before syllables of the か-, さ-, た-, or ぱ- rows.

When writing foreign words in katakana, it is also found before syllables of the ザ, ダ- rows, among others. The consonant sound following this character becomes doubled; thus, its addition forms an extra mora.

Listen to the examples of pronouncing double consonants (highlighted in red)

5 拗音 - Pronunciation of combinations with や, ゆ, or よ

The characters き, ぎ, し, じ, ち, に, ひ, び, together with the small characters や, ゆ, or よ make up one mora.

Listen to the examples of pronouncing palatalized vowels (highlighted in red)

6 Pronunciation of the consonant in syllables of the が row

If a syllable of this row is at the beginning of a word, the consonant sound in it is pronounced as /g/. In other cases, it is usually pronounced as /ng/.

Lately, some Japanese people do not distinguish between /ng/ and /g/ and always pronounce it as /g/.

7 Reduction of vowels [i] and [u]

The vowel sounds [i] and [u] are reduced and practically inaudible when they stand between voiceless consonants.

The vowel [u] in the final syllable [su] in ~です (desu) or ~ます (masu) at the end of a sentence is also reduced.

For example:

• すき - like
• したいです - want to do
• ききます - to listen

8 アクセント - Pitch accent

The Japanese language has a pitch accent system. This means that some morae in a word are pronounced higher, and others lower. Words are divided into two types depending on whether the pitch falls or stays high in them.

In turn, words with a falling pitch are further divided into three types depending on where the pitch drop occurs. Standard Japanese accent is characterized by the fact that the first and second morae always have different pitches, and also that if the pitch drops in a word, it does not rise again.

Listen to the examples and pay attention to the pitch patterns of the words.

1. にわ - garden; なまえ - name; にほんご - Japanese language
2. ほん - book; てんき - weather; らいげつ - next month
3. たまご - egg; ひこうき - airplane; せんせい - teacher
4. くつ - shoes; やすみ - rest/holiday; おとうと - younger brother

There are dialectal differences in pitch accents. For example, the accent in the Osaka area differs quite noticeably from the standard. Below are examples of such differences.

Listen to the examples and notice the difference in word pronunciation between the Tokyo and Osaka dialects.

東京アクセント - 大阪アクセント

Tokyo accent - Osaka accent

1. flower 2. apple 3. music

9 イントネーション - Intonation

There are three intonation patterns:
1. flat
2. rising
3. falling

Interrogative sentences are pronounced with a rising intonation. Other sentences are usually pronounced with a flat, but sometimes falling intonation. A falling intonation can convey shades of meaning such as agreement or disappointment, etc.

Listen to the examples and pay attention to the intonation of the sentences.

佐藤: あした　友達と　お花みを　します。[→]

ミラーさんも　いっしょに　行きませんか。[↑]

ミラー: ああ、いいですね。[↓]

Sato: Tomorrow I am going to view cherry blossoms with my friends.
Mr. Miller, would you like to come with us?

Miller: Oh, that sounds great.

Source: nihongo.aikidoka.ru - Introductory lesson I

The Phonetic System of the Japanese Language

The phonetic system of the Japanese language has a number of specific features, which we will briefly discuss now:
It is useful to begin a conversation about Japanese phonetics with the method of recording sounds in writing—transcription. In English-speaking environments, the standard system for transcribing Japanese sounds is the Hepburn romanization (Romaji).

In these lessons, the Latin alphabet will be used, which is called “ROMAJI” in Japanese, and the transcription of Japanese words will follow the standard Hepburn system.

The transcription adopted in these lessons has the following features.

1. Long vowels are indicated by a colon “:” after the character being lengthened: bo:shi, supi:ka:.
2. Double consonant sounds are indicated by doubling the corresponding letter, as in the words kitte or ippiki, and by adding a t or s before the corresponding syllable to double ch, sh, or ts: tch, ssh, tts.
3. In compound words, a hyphen might be encountered, though it must be said that the concept of a “compound word” in Japanese is quite flexible.

So, what exactly is the phonetic structure of the Japanese language?

In modern Japanese, there are 14 consonants, 2 semivowels, and 5 vowel sounds:

1. consonants k, g; p, b; t, d; ts, z; r; s, h; m; n; j.
2. semivowels y, w.
3. vowels a, i, u, e, o.

Consonant sounds can be voiceless and voiced. Voiceless consonants are very often voiced when, for example, a word starting with a voiceless consonant becomes the second component of a compound word, and h in such cases turns into p or b.

For example:

• yamа + sakura - yama-zakura,
• ishi + hashi - ishi-bashi.

Vowel sounds of the Japanese language [a], [i], [u], [e], [o]

There are five vowel sounds in the Japanese language - [a], [i], [u], [e], [o]. They can be short and long.

• The vowel [a] sounds similar to the English [a] in words like father or car.
• The vowel [i] is pronounced like the English “ee” in the word meet. All consonants preceding [i] are palatalized (softened).
• (!) The vowel [u] (IPA [ɯ]) is similar to the English “oo” in food, but it is not rounded: the lips are not pushed forward or rounded—they stay relaxed and slightly spread. The tongue is pulled back, giving the sound a quality partway between English “oo” (as in boot) and the “u” in put. The upper lip is raised slightly.
• The vowel [e] is pronounced clearly, preceding consonants are not softened, and this sound is similar to the English “e” in the word pet.
• The vowel [o] is always pronounced clearly; it should not be reduced to an [ə] (schwa) sound in unstressed positions. It is similar to the “o” in short, but shorter and without rounding the lips too much.

Long vowels in the Japanese language

In Japanese, long vowels differ from short ones only quantitatively, meaning they have a longer duration of sound.

Vowel length plays a meaning-distinguishing role, so one must pay attention to the length of the sound when pronouncing a word.

Diphthongs in the Japanese language

A vowel and a semivowel sound pronounced one after the other can form one syllable. Such a combination of sounds is called a diphthong. The following diphthongs exist in the Japanese language:

ai, oi, ui, ei.

All diphthongs in Japanese are falling, meaning the first vowel is strong and the second is weak.

Keep in mind that in the modern language, ei is often pronounced as a long e:, although it is transcribed as ei in most dictionaries and textbooks.

It should be noted that the combinations of the vowels [a], [u] with the vowel [i] do not always form diphthongs. In some cases, each of the vowels forms its own syllable, for example:

KAI - shellfish, but KAI - lower rank.

Repeat the examples:

aOi, kuROi, shiROi, hiROi, saMUi, waRUi, hiKUi, taKAi, naGAi, chiISAi, gaKUSEE, seNSEe, toKEe, maRUi.

Pitch accent and tonal emphasis

Syllables in the Japanese language are open; almost all of them consist of a consonant and a vowel sound (or just one vowel). For instance, the word hana consists of two syllables: ha-na, and the word paipu consists of three syllables: pa-i-pu.

Stress accent (dynamic stress), characteristic of English, is absent in Japanese. Instead, its role is fulfilled by pitch accent (tonal accent), meaning that one or more syllables in a word are pronounced at a higher or lower pitch relative to the other syllables.

The rising or falling of pitch can extend over several syllables. The shortest unit capable of carrying an accent is a mora, which is equal to a short syllable or half of a long one.

In modern Japanese, three main pitch patterns are distinguished for isolated words:

• rising, characterizing words in which the first mora is pronounced with a low pitch, the rest with a mid-high pitch, and there is no noticeable drop in pitch towards the end of the word.
• falling, characterizing words in which the first mora is pronounced with a high pitch, and subsequent ones with a mid-low pitch, showing a gradual drop in pitch towards the end.
• falling-rising (hill-shaped), characterizing words where the second and subsequent morae are pronounced at a higher pitch before dropping again.

A rise or fall in pitch can play a role in distinguishing meaning. The syllable or syllables that should be pronounced with a higher pitch are written in uppercase letters in Romaji texts, and are highlighted in red in Japanese texts.

For example:

The Japanese phonetic system lacks some sounds present in English, for example, the [l] sound. In borrowed words, the [l] sound changes to [r], for example:

Reduction (weakening) of a vowel will be highlighted in blue (in text written in Romaji). The color highlighting will apply to the entire syllable whose vowel undergoes reduction.

In Japanese text, a vertical bar will be placed to the right of such a sound - |

Length of sounds can also play a role in distinguishing meaning.
The length of a vowel sound will be indicated by the “:” symbol.

For example:

A special place belongs to the velar nasal sound n, which is syllabic. Thus, the word pan consists of two syllables: pa-n, and the word shimbun consists of four syllables: shi-n-bu-n.

Some Japanese sounds do not correspond exactly in their articulation to English sounds; for instance, when pronouncing the vowels [o] and [u], the lips are engaged much less than when pronouncing the English [o] and [u].

Throughout all of Japan, a single standardized language, Hyojungo, is used in its written and spoken forms, dictating standard phonetic rules, but in everyday life, Japanese people speak their native dialects.

Four main groups of dialects are distinguished:

1. Eastern (eastern part of Honshu Island),
2. Western (western part of Honshu Island and Shikoku Island),
3. Southern (Kyushu Island),
4. Ryukyuan (Ryukyu Archipelago).

Dialectal differences do not pose a serious hindrance in Japanese society because mandatory education is conducted in Hyojungo in Japan, and almost all Japanese people are fluent in this standardized form of the language, which is based on the Tokyo dialect (part of the Eastern dialect group).

Japanese Writing System: Kana and Kanji

Orthography, in the conventional sense, does not exist in Japanese. For example, the word norikumiin - “crew member” can be written in the following ways:

1. のりくみいん
2. のりくみ員
3. 乗り組み員
4. 乗組員

Each of these methods is correct in its own way, but according to school rules, the last one is considered standard.

This “disregard” for orthography stems from the fact that the Japanese write using kanji (Chinese characters) and the kana syllabary, which in turn is divided into katakana and hiragana.

Such mixed kanji-syllabic writing is called KANJI-KANA-MAJIRI-BUN. Often, Latin script (romaji) is mixed in, typically used to write abbreviations.

Due to the fact that during the developmental stage of the literary language, the Japanese overcame enormous difficulties trying to optimally express a multi-syllable system using Chinese kanji characters (which carry both ideographic and phonetic weight simultaneously), they selected a finite number from a huge pool of characters and derived the hiragana syllabary from their cursive writing forms.

Hiragana is used both independently and in combination with kanji—to denote separate words, case particles, postpositions, and verb/adjective endings.

Katakana - is also a syllabic writing system, whose characters contain no more than three strokes and were obtained by simplifying the regular script forms of kanji. In the past, the sphere of application for katakana was the same as that for hiragana. Nowadays, katakana has limited use. Each alphabet originally consisted of 48 characters.

Each KANA character is a graphic symbol assigned to each syllable. Thus, kanji takes on the role of semanticization (it writes the root, or stem, of the word). Kana denotes endings, suffixes of words, as well as copulas, particles, etc., meaning it plays an AUXILIARY-FUNCTIONAL, yet very important, role in turning a graphic symbol into a word and indicating its place in a sentence.

For example:

In the exact same way, the kanji - 上 - “up/above”, depending on what is written after it in kana, can mean:

• in 上がる - agaru - “to go up”;
• in 上げる - ageru - “to raise”;
• in 上る - noboru - “to climb (a mountain)”.

In writing, there are no rules for separating words and (or) phrases from each other (no spaces). There are also no hyphenation rules. There are no uppercase and lowercase letters in Japanese.

The traditional method of writing is “top to bottom, right to left”, although lately, Japanese people increasingly resort to the European tradition of horizontal writing from left to right (which is largely due to the ubiquitous use of word processors/computers, waapuro).

There are practical transcriptions for Japanese based on both Latin and other alphabets. Most English-Japanese dictionaries use the Hepburn romanization system.

Phonetic Kana Alphabet and the Gojuon Table

The phonetic kana alphabet is based on a syllabic principle. Kana consists of 46 characters organized into the Gojuon table. The table has 10 main rows, plus five additional rows to denote syllables with voiced consonants. All modern Japanese phonetic dictionaries and reference books are structured according to the Gojuon principle, so you need to know it by heart.

The alphabet is used in two variants:

• hiragana and
• katakana.

Both alphabets originated from kanji, but katakana characters are parts of individual kanji or whole kanji in an unchanged or slightly modified form, while hiragana characters are heavily modified (cursive) forms of whole kanji.

Hiragana

The syllabary (one character serves to denote a combination of consonant and vowel sounds) hiragana is used to write words of native Japanese origin (wago) for which there is no kanji designation, onomatopoeic words (sound-symbolic words, etc.), and the inflections of conjugated parts of speech—such as verbs, adjectives, etc.
In addition, it is preferable to write pronouns, adverbs, conjunctions, as well as animal and plant names in hiragana.

Katakana

Katakana is used much less frequently. Katakana is used to write borrowed words - gairaigo, as well as names of animals and plants in elementary school textbooks. Additionally, katakana is used to write:

• telegrams
• some Japanese words, mainly slang and idiomatic expressions
• Japanese words and expressions that are emphasized in the text by the author for some reason
• some books for children, usually with the goal of reinforcing katakana reading skills

Romaji

In general writing, Latin letters can be encountered relatively rarely, but common abbreviations and measurement units are still written in Latin letters, for example:

• kg, Tel, PR (public relations),
• RP (radio-press),
• OL (office lady), etc.

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, romaji is used to transcribe Japanese speech in Japanese language textbooks intended for foreigners.

Japanese Kanji Characters: On-yomi and Kun-yomi

According to some sources, the Japanese language has up to 48,000 kanji characters; nevertheless, the number of the most commonly used ones ranges from 5 to 10 thousand. However, after World War II, the Japanese government approved the so-called “Kanji Minimum” (Toyo Kanji), which included 1,850 kanji necessary for writing school textbooks, drafting official documents, and printing newspapers and magazines. Later on, the number of kanji included in the Minimum was revised upwards: in 1981 (Joyo Kanji), it reached 1,945, and it was further updated to 2,136 characters in 2010. The commonly used minimum now stands at over 2,000 characters and tends to increase.

Generally, each kanji has two “readings”:

1. ON, or “on reading” - on-yomi - (the “reading” of the character adapted to the phonetic features of the Japanese language, brought to Japan from China back in the day).
2. KUN, or “kun reading” - kun-yomi, i.e., the native Japanese word for which the kanji “arriving” from China was adopted as a graphical representation.

Often, one kanji has several kun and (or) on readings, which is why one kanji can have multiple (sometimes many) meanings. Many kanji have no kun reading at all, only an on reading. A few kanji—very few, these are the so-called “Japanese kanji” (kokuji)—have only a kun reading.

Writing Alphabet Characters and Rules of Recording

Writing the A Row

English Transcription - A, I, U, E, O.
Romaji Transcription - a, i, u, e, o.
Hiragana - あ、い、う、え、お。
Katakana - ア、イ、ウ、エ、オ。

Click on a character to view the animation.

Writing Syllables with Long Vowels

Long sounds do not have a single common mark to denote vowel length across all scripts. The length of each vowel has its own notation in hiragana, namely:

• the length of [a] in writing is conveyed by the character あ, that is - ああ、かあ;
  
• the length of [i] - by the character い, that is - いい、きい;
  
• the length of [u] - by the character う, that is - うう、くう;
  
• the length of [e] - by the character え, that is - ええ、けえ;
  
• the length of [o] - mainly by the character う, that is - おう、こう, but in some words, lengthening is conveyed using the character お, so おお is also possible.

In modern Japanese, the long [e:] is most often written as a combination of the vowels えい.

In practical Latin transcription (Romaji), long vowels are also often denoted by the “:” sign (or a macron), and a long [e:] may be transcribed as ei or e.

Punctuation Marks in the Japanese Language

The symbol “。” marks the end of a sentence and corresponds to a full stop (period) in English.

The symbol “、” corresponds to a comma in English, but the punctuation rules for commas in Japanese are not very strict.

The symbols “。” and “、” are placed to the right and slightly below the word they follow.

Quotation marks have the form 「」 - for horizontal writing. For vertical writing, the first mark is placed at the top right (vertically it looks like this: ￢), above the first word being quoted, and the second one at the bottom left (└), after the last quoted word.

In Japanese orthography, there is also an iteration mark—reduplication—々. Reduplication in Japanese means repeating the same word twice in a row.

For example:

• 人 (hito) – person, 人々 (ひとびと - hitobito) – people.
• 山 (yama) – mountain, 山々 (やまやま - yamayama) – mountains.

You should memorize the shape of this mark so that if you encounter it later, you will understand what it means.

Dictionaries usually provide the reading for such kanji combinations.

Phonetics Tasks and Exercises

1. Read aloud the words written using the HIRAGANA syllabary, paying attention to the pitch rise.

ああ、あお、いえ、いえ、あい、あう、いい、いいえ、いう、うえ、

いえ、うお、ええ、おおい、あおい、おおい

2. Read aloud the words written using the KATAKANA syllabary, paying attention to the pitch rise.

アア、アオ、イエ、イエ、アイ、アウ、イイ、イイエ、イウ、ウエ、

イエ、ウオ、エエ、オオイ、アオイ、オオイ。

3. Make sure that you have practiced writing the A row until it is completely automatic. If not, review Lessons 1 and 2.