in this tutorial, we will learn how to pronounce japanese vowels. compared to other languages like english and french, japanese has a relatively small number of vowels. this might make you think that learning japanese vowels is easy. however, this is not necessarily the case.
How To Address A Letter Japanese, some aspects of japanese vowels are still challenging, for natives speakers of languages with many vowels. one example of these challenges is the distinction between short and long vowels, which we will cover in another tutorial video.
in this video, we will focus on the 5 short vowels. japanese has 5 vowels. these vowels are shown in the first column of the 46 basic sounds of japanese. they are a, i, u, e, o. now, let’s start with a. the japanese a is called a low central vowel. as you can imagine from the name, when you pronounce this sound, your tongue is positioned at a lower level on the vertical dimension, and at a central region along the front-to-back dimension.
this sound is similar to the sound of the letter “aâ€, in the english word “fatherâ€. the second vowel is i. japanese i is called a high front vowel. again, as the name tells you, when you pronounce this sound, your tongue is positioned at a higher level on the vertical dimension, and at a front position on the front-to-back dimension. this vowels is similar to the sound of the double “eâ€, in the english word “feetâ€.
the third vowel is u. the japanese u is called a high back vowel. when you pronounce this sound, and at a back position on the front-to-back dimension. this vowel is similar to the sound of the double “oâ€, in the english word “cookâ€. this fourth vowel is e. the japanese e is called a mid front vowel. your tongue is positioned at a middle height on the vertical dimension,
this vowel is similar to the sound of the letter “eâ€, in the english word “petâ€. but, the japanese e might sound a bit more open. this is probably one of the reasons why some students sometimes confuse e and a in some words. for example, it is commonly seen that the word “benkyo†(to study) is mispronounced as “bankyoâ€, or the word “eiga†(movie) is mispronounced as “aigaâ€. the last vowel is o.
the japanese o is called a mid back vowel. this vowel is similar to the sound of the letter “oâ€, in the english word “soâ€. in this video, you have learned the five vowels of japanese: a, i, u, e, o, along with some english words that have similar sounds.
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