Can anyone give me phonetics for pronouncing these Japanese names:
Hibiki
Takumi
Kaede
Name Pronounciation
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Re: Name Pronounciation
Hee-bee-keyPyrope wrote:Can anyone give me phonetics for pronouncing these Japanese names:
Hibiki
Takumi
Kaede
Ta-koo-me
Not too sure on the phonetics for the last one...
Hibiki isn't hee-bee-key
It's more like Hih-bikky
The ku in Takumi would be shorter than koo.
I recommend listening to the phonetics section of any Japanese course CD. The phonemes are very simple compared to those in English, and once you've got them down (probably only a few hours of practice needed) you can say almost any Japanese word that you see written in English.
Differentiating between su, tsu, tzu and chu though takes years.
It's more like Hih-bikky
The ku in Takumi would be shorter than koo.
I recommend listening to the phonetics section of any Japanese course CD. The phonemes are very simple compared to those in English, and once you've got them down (probably only a few hours of practice needed) you can say almost any Japanese word that you see written in English.
Differentiating between su, tsu, tzu and chu though takes years.
I agree with Big Al that the basic Japanese phonemes are quite simple to pick up, particularly for somebody with a history of watching anime.
But one issue to be aware of is that the way Japanese words are written in English is quite variable and inconsistent. For example Tohru (from Fruits Basket) could conceivably be written Tooru. Letters that are written the same (in English) aren't always pronounced the same: for example, the 'to' sound in Tokyo is long, while the 'to' sound in Kyoto is short.
Actual Japanese writing doesn't have these ambiguities, of course. It's just us.
But one issue to be aware of is that the way Japanese words are written in English is quite variable and inconsistent. For example Tohru (from Fruits Basket) could conceivably be written Tooru. Letters that are written the same (in English) aren't always pronounced the same: for example, the 'to' sound in Tokyo is long, while the 'to' sound in Kyoto is short.
Actual Japanese writing doesn't have these ambiguities, of course. It's just us.
Bah, it's only because most people don't use Hepburn! Tökyö and Kyöto really aren't that hard to write (it should actually be a bar over the o, not a diaeresis, but most fonts don't support it). Or hell, Toukyou and Kyouto if you don't have an international keyboard layout (I really recommend installing the custom UK (International) keyboard layout to anyone that writes european languages). Or hell, stick with the actual Japanese とうきょう and きょうと.sadie wrote: But one issue to be aware of is that the way Japanese words are written in English is quite variable and inconsistent. For example Tohru (from Fruits Basket) could conceivably be written Tooru. Letters that are written the same (in English) aren't always pronounced the same: for example, the 'to' sound in Tokyo is long, while the 'to' sound in Kyoto is short.
Actual Japanese writing doesn't have these ambiguities, of course. It's just us.
Grumble grumble ambiguous lazy bastards.
The trick with the R/L is to make it sound a bit like a D. Start with the movement your tongue makes for a D, and move the tongue backwards so it's striking the ridge on the top of your mouth rather than at the base of your teeth. Don't widen your mouth into an English R sound, keep your gums nice and tight.
