Japan Society of Fairfield County
Tips on Reading Romanized Japanese for Non-Japanese Speakers
(1) Japanese syllables are all of equal time length; most start with a
consonant and end with a vowel; and single vowels are single
syllables(hai is divided ha/i). The syllable "n" not followed by
a vowel stands as a single syllable-the only case of a syllable
not ending in a vowel.
(2) All vowels are pronounced the same: a="a" of "ah" but not long,
i="i" of "ink," u="u" of "ultimate," e="e" of "eminent," o="o" of
"obey" but not long.
(3) Consonant combinations are pronounced: "sh"="sh" in "ship,"
"ch"="ch" in "chip," "ts"="ts" in "Betsy."
(4) Long vowels are pronounced as follows: "aa"=pronounced as "ah",
"ii"=pronounced as "e" of "Edith," "uu"=pronounced as "woo,"
"ee"=pronounced as "e" of "etch" but long. "oo"=pronounced as "oh."
(5) A consonant "r" is pronounced more like "l" and is unique to
Japanese.
(6) Double consonants occurs in a word in which the pronunciation of a
vowel stops suddenly and the following syllable begins with h, k, s, t,
or p. For example, in the word "gakkoo" (school), after you
pronounce "ga," you stop the breath for a second and continue to
pronounce the next syllable "koo." The first syllable such as "k" in
this word is always silent with a time duration the same as one
syllable.
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