The character pronunciations, in this section, are intended to help people understand a few of the sometimes difficult-to-comprehend pronunciation concepts within the Japanese language and the IconKana program.

The Japanese language is composed primarily of 5 vowels and 41 syllables. Examples of the primary vowel and syllable sounds are as follows.

あ	a	as in	father	fawn	fall
い	i	as in	ink	meal	dream
う	u	as in	cool	moon	raccoon
え	e	as in	eight	cake	egg
お	o	as in	home	cone	only

か	ka	as in	karate	car	kana
き	ki	as in	key	keep	keen
く	ku	as in	cool	raccoon	cuckoo
け	ke	as in	cake	cape	Katy
こ	ko	as in	coat	coconut	cone

Exceptions

Exceptions to the primary vowel and syllable sounds are as follows.

ん

nnn

as in

runnn

bannned

nnnever

Variations

Two small brush strokes or a small circle may be added to the upper-right corner of the following kana characters to change their sounds.

---

― The bold line that you will see in many katakana words acts to stretch the preceding vowel sound. Notice how the vowel sounds are stretched in the following words.

ケーキ	kee-ki	cake
ゲーム	gee-mu	game
ヨーヨー	yoo-yoo	yoyo
モーターバイク	moo-taa-ba-i-ku	motor bike
ローストビーフ	roo-su-to-bii-fu	roast beef

Small Characters

In Japanese writing, you will notice small characters within the text. To many students, these small characters can seem a little confusing.

As an example, if every character in the word “fish” were pronounced with equal emphasis, it would be pronounced,

フィッシユ

fu-i-tsu-shi-yu

The Small Character "tsu"

To break down the pronunciations in a way that makes a little more sense to English speaking people, think of the small tsu character in the middle of the word, the same way that you would think about the letter " T " in the word catch.

The letter T, in the word catch is not specifically pronounced but acts to insert a brief pause in the middle of the word and puts a slight emphasis on the ch sound that follows.

In this case, tsu acts the same as the letter T in the word catch.

Notice the written emphasis in the following words.

マッチ	ma-tsu-chi	ma-cchi	match
ナッツ	na-tsu-tsu	na-ttsu	nuts
ヘルメット	he-ru-me-tsu-to	he-ru-me-tto	helmet
ハンドバッグ	ha-n-do-ba-tsu-gu	ha-n-do-ba-ggu	handbag

Other Small Characters

Additionally, how about the shi - yu?

When you see a large kana character followed by a small kana character, (other than tsu), it indicates a blending of the sounds. In this case, the blending of shi and yu, takes on the sound, shyu. Notice the blending of the sounds in the following words.

チェリー	chi-e-rii	che-rii	cherry
ソファー	so-fu-aa	so-faa	sofa
シャツ	shi-ya-tsu	shya-tsu	shirts
テディーベア	te-de-ii- be-a	te-dii be-a	teddybear
フィッシュ	fu-i-tsu-shi-yu	fi-sshyu	fish

Learn to recognize the small characters in Japanese writing. Remember, the small tsu often acts as a brief pause and puts a slight emphasis on the sound that follows. When you see a large character followed by a small character, (other than tsu), it indicates a blending of the two sounds.

When you practice working with the small characters, you will recognize how they interact with the larger characters. You will also begin to appreciate how the characters (fu - i - tsu - shi- yu) blend to form the word fish.

Lastly

Hiragana is used to write Japanese words whereas Katakana is used for words that are foreign to the Japanese language. All of the Hiragana characters in IconKana will refer to a Japanese word with one exception, wo as in whoa.

Additionally, all of the Katakana characters will refer to a word that is foreign to the Japanese language.

© Copyright, All Rights Reserved.

Contact us: td0806@gmail.com