View Single Post
Old 03-16-2006, 09:31 AM   #5
Josh Reyer
 
Josh Reyer's Avatar
Location: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 646
Japan
Offline
Re: Morihei Ueshiba Pronunciation!

Quote:
Bryan Bateman wrote:
I'm not much good with real phonetics, in Japanese think of the following sounds for pronounciation. If two vowels are together, pronounce the two sounds.

a as in apple not as in hay
Since the original poster is also from the U.K., this is really more for my own edification, as he's more likely to get a good idea of pronunciation from your analogies more than from mine, but I have a question. Is the a in apple like the a in father in the U.K. (generally speaking of course)? Because in American English, the a in apple is generally the same as the a in "mat", and Japanese a is higher and more forward in the mouth. Like father, for example.

Quote:
i as in eat not as in it or like
I like "ink" as an example, but again, that's based off American pronunciation. (Not that "eat" is a bad one.)

Quote:
o as in of not as in oat
I'm assuming another slight difference in pronunciation here. "of" in American English is a schwa. Japanese "o" would be like in "go" or "no". But, as you say, not oat, as that's a diphthong.

Just some musings...

Josh Reyer

Josh Reyer

The lyf so short, the crafte so longe to lerne,
Th'assay so harde, so sharpe the conquerynge...
- Chaucer
  Reply With Quote