Manga Pronouncing names

[Lava Lamp]

hi everyone....
im not proud to admit this,
but i cant pronounce Japenese names!
i always pronounce it some weird way.
would someone tell me how?

[TigerFantasy17]

[COLOR=DarkOrange]Actually,even though I'm japanese myself I find that it's quite hard pronouncing names when I look at translated graphic novels because they are translated and written in romaji. Well, I can make out the right pronounciationby looking at it and see if it sounds right or not. One tip is that since japanese letters are sounds and they are usually,if written in romaji two letters would equal one japanese sound.And also,the sounds always end in a short a,e,i,o,u.So if the name was Hideki(which most people pronounce hide key when they first look at it.) It would be pronounced...Hi,the I pronounced like with but a bit longer but not as long as he. De,E pronounced like dent.Ki pronounced like Hi. You'll get used to it once you see alot of names. Hopefully. If you have questions feel free to contact me!! [/COLOR]

[Chikara Kokoro]

[url]http://www2.gol.com/users/issott/JRHome/Convention/Pronounciation.html[/url]

That's a pretty straightforward guide, so hopefully it will help you. It's also worth mentioning that, for the most part, any 'u' at the end of a Japanese word will be silent.

[cancer]

[COLOR=Purple][SIZE=1]Yes, most u's are silent at the end of Japanese words. The thing about Japanese pronunciation is that it's very simple. The o is pronounced as it is in go. The a is pronounced as it is in dawn. The e is pronounced as it is in lend. The i is pronounced as a straight e. The u is pronounced as it is in you. That covers the vowels. When pronouncing an f, it is very lightly spoken. You sort of blow through your lips. The rest is pretty simple. Hope I've been able to help.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Monkatraz]

While your on the subject, has anyone been watching Eureka 7? They pronounce it like Elreka and it is bugging the crap out of me. Seriously, whats how did they get an 'l' out of a 'u'?

[eleanor]

[color=dimgray] Tell me if I'm being too blunt, but western people just aren't good with pronouncing asian names. Unless you aren't western, and I'm being dumb. I'm not Japanese, but I know Korean like a second language, so the pronunciation comes easily. It's just that the asian languages differ so greatly from the romantic or germanic ones.

It goes for the native-born Asians, too. Asians from their motherland have an accent as bad as any white guy trying to pronounce Asian words.
[/color]

[Kei]

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray'] Tell me if I'm being too blunt, but western people just aren't good with pronouncing asian names. [/color][/quote]

[color=darkblue][size=1]...I'll have to disagree with you there, heh. My Japanese professor says my pronounciation is one of the best she's heard for a non-native. ^^;

Anyhow, cancer's small guide will help you get on your way. It takes a lot of practice in order to get it somewhat decent and you'll probably always have a slight foreigner's accent no matter what, but as the old saying goes, "practice makes perfect."[/color][/size]

[eleanor]

[QUOTE=Lady Katana][color=darkblue][size=1]...I'll have to disagree with you there, heh. My Japanese professor says my pronounciation is one of the best she's heard for a non-native. ^^;
[/color][/size][/QUOTE]

[color=dimgray] Well, I'm talking about the majority. I also have a friend who's quite good with pronouncing Korean words, but it's just sort of rare. The only fool-proof way for a non-native who isn't naturally gifted is to actually live in the respective foreign country. [/color]

[Kei]

[color=darkblue][size=1]I certainly understand where you're coming from, heh. There are still people who will be going into 3rd Year with me next year that have trouble pronouncing things even with furigana.

But anyway, you're correct in saying that the majority has some issues with foriegn pronounciation. I just misinterpreted what you said, thinking it was a bit unfair to say that everyone has trouble with it. ^^; Forgive me.[/color][/size]

[Sara]

[color=#b0000b][size=1]It isn't an inherent problem with pronunciation, it's just what people are used to hearing, I think. You can't pronounce things correctly if you don't hear them correctly. That sounds a little silly, but it's true. Not all languages have the same sets of common sounds, so when a speaker of English comes across an unusual sound (or a sound in an unusual place), they'll simply approximate it with the closest English equivalent.

I know this was an issue for a lot of people in my early German classes. No one was used to hearing or saying the [x] sound in [i]ich[/i], so they'd just go with the closest thing they knew-- [k]. They couldn't figure out the difference by listening, so they couldn't replicate the sound when speaking.

Incidently, if anyone is trying to improve their accent in anything, I highly recommend learning the International Phonetic Alphabet. It will help you make distinctions between similar sounds.[/color][/size]

[GTK]

[quote name='Monkatraz']While your on the subject, has anyone been watching Eureka 7? They pronounce it like Elreka and it is bugging the crap out of me. Seriously, whats how did they get an 'l' out of a 'u'?[/quote]

I don't watch Eureka 7, but in japanese r and l are pretty much pronounce the same (example... my name is Liz, in Japanese it becomes Rizu). I think you may just be hearing it wrong ^^; because there wouldn't be both an L and R sound

[PaganAngel]

For me it's not the pronunciations themselves that trip me up but the stress. I always want to stress the middle syllable, then I see the anime and it sounds totally different from how I've been reading it in my head in the manga. From what I've learned, all the syllables have equal stress, but being the westerner I am I keep wanting to stress it in the middle. It's a habit I just can't shake.

[Andrew]

*Raises hand* I'm guilty of that too!

I can remember how I used to pronounce Asuka and Sakura before watching NGE and Naruto respectively. It's a bit daunting at first, thinking about another language (despite me wanting to learn a new language for a really long time), but after watching a lot of Anime with their original Japanese VA's and subs, it's not too hard to pick words up here and there.

Now that I've addressed the asked topic, I was kinda hoping (since it seems a lot of you know about the langauge) if anyone could possibly point out some websites or books I could pick up to help me learn Japanese (I was thinking something akin to "Japanese for Idiots/Beginners" ^_^).

[GTK]

[QUOTE=Andrew]
Now that I've addressed the asked topic, I was kinda hoping (since it seems a lot of you know about the langauge) if anyone could possibly point out some websites or books I could pick up to help me learn Japanese (I was thinking something akin to "Japanese for Idiots/Beginners" ^_^).[/QUOTE]

I think there's a CDRom type thing you can buy that is sorta decent (you play games or something to learn... I saw it at Best Buy... a friend of mine owns it). I recomend getting something that allows you to -hear- it though, as that makes a huge difference. I learned by taking a class though ^^;

[Guest aoi_ame_tenshi]

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray'] Tell me if I'm being too blunt, but western people just aren't good with pronouncing asian names. [/color][/quote]
[COLOR=Indigo]Well, I'd have to say that it really depends on the person and how familiar you are with the language. My Japanese tutor pretty much raves about my pronounciation of the Japanese language. I am American.

In my experience, in the Japanese language, all vowels sound one way and all of the counsants are pronounced the same way as we pronounce them, with the exception of r which is a cross between the English d, l and r. There are also silent i's, e's and u's, but, mostly, the sounds are the same.

a sounds like the a in papa.
i sounds like the ea in tea.
u sounds the the o's in moo.
e sounds like the e in pet.
o sounds like the oe in toe.

Hope that was at least a little helpful. [/COLOR] :catgirl:

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656446][SIZE=1]INPUT!

Um, you know how the English "go" is pronounced as if it has a "-w" in the end (and ends up sounding like "know" and "hoe")? That happens 'cause the lips go into a semi-purse and form the "-w" sound.

Going by what I observe in J-doramas (significant!), Japanese pronounciation of "go" and many other syllables entails little lip motion. Try holding your lips in place while pronouncing "go". The -w sound is diminished, yeah?

Indeed, this probably is the reason why the simple open-close mouth action we see on anime characters works so well with Japanese dubbing.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Sara]

[QUOTE=Delta][COLOR=#656446][SIZE=1]INPUT!

Um, you know how the English "go" is pronounced as if it has a "-w" in the end (and ends up sounding like "know" and "hoe")? That happens 'cause the lips go into a semi-purse and form the "-w" sound.

Going by what I observe in J-doramas (significant!), Japanese pronounciation of "go" and many other syllables entails little lip motion. Try holding your lips in place while pronouncing "go". The -w sound is diminished, yeah? [/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE][color=#b0000b][size=1]I was going to post about diphthongs, but I thought it might be a little too nerdy... =]

A lot of people around here actually say [b]go[/b] as guh-OH. The two sounds blend into eachother, and you would never notice it unless you were really thinking about it for some reason.

But yeah, a lot of vowels in American English (at least) are diphthongs--combinations of two sounds. If you don't pronounce both parts of the sound, people will still understand what you are saying... but they'll probably assume you're from Canada or something. :p

Not all languages have diphthongs where we do, though. If you pronounce a non-diphthong "o" as "uh[i]OH[/i]," you're doing it wrong. And you probably would never realise why, or even hear the difference.[/size][/color]