Japanese language with translation. Insidious transcription of Japanese words and their pronunciation

reservoirs 25.09.2019

reservoirs

Everyone good day and good mood! We replenish our vocabulary, yes, probably today I will write about the rules for pronouncing the sounds of the Japanese alphabet, and then we will continue to learn Japanese words that are often found in everyday speech. If you are already familiar with the alphabet and a, then you noticed that the entire phonetic system is based on five vowel sounds:

あ - A
い - And
う - Wu
え - E
お - Oh

the remaining syllables are formed on their basis, for example:

か(ka) き(ki) く(ku) け(ke) こ(ko)
さ(sa)　し(shi)　す(su) せ(se)　そ(so)
た(ta) ち(chi)　つ(tsu)て(te)　と(to) and so on

except for ん (n), which itself is a sea-forming sound. When studying the Japanese language, such a concept as a mora (measure) is used - a unit of longitude of sound. This tact is very important to observe, since the use of a long or short sound changes the meaning of the word ゆき (yuki) - snow, ゆうき (yūki or yu: ki) - courage, courage.

On the vowels of the first row "あいうえお" and the row "やゆよ " I won’t stop, since there are no differences with Russian pronunciation, with the exception of う - y, when pronouncing, the lips do not stretch, as in Russian sounding, and therefore the sound is similar to the middle sound between “y” and “y”.
Always remember about the length of the sound, if it is written あ "a" this is one mora, if ああ, then two mora, or a syllable ending in "a" - かあ - 2 mora - kaa. General rule when a vowel is lengthened: the same vowel that ends the syllable is added to the hiragana sign from a certain series, for example, to a sign from the series あ (か- ka さ- sa た - that な - on は - ha ま - ma ら - ra ) is added あ . For example: おばさん (obasan) is an aunt and おばあさん (obāsan) is a grandmother. To the sign from the row い (き- ki し-shi ち-chi に-ni ひ-hi み-mi り-ri) is added い. For example: おじさん (ojisan) is uncle and おじいさん (ojii-san) is grandfather. And so with all sound series. In writing, a long character is written in two ways: ゆうき (yū ki or yu: ki), in katakana, a long sound is written with the character "ー"
The reduction of the vowels "y" and "and" occurs when they stand between voiceless consonants, the sound "u" "i" is practically not heard during pronunciation. In the word すき (suki, u- reduced -ski), beloved. The vowel "u" in the final syllables ます and です at the end of a sentence is also reduced.
The sound range やゆよ is combined with the signs き, ぎ, し, じ, ち, に, ひ, び, ぴ, み, り. This combination of two characters gives one mora, that is, one sound, きゃきゅきょ for example: ひやく( hi ya ku), jump and ひゃく (hya ku), one hundred.
In the kana alphabet, there is a special character sokuon っ (in katakana ッ), which is a shortened version of the character つ (in katakana ツ). The sign っ is used before a row かさたぱ , in this case, the sound following the sign is doubled and read as a separate mora, i.e. how many signs, so many sounds, for example: きって (kitte) - brand. In katakana, in foreign (loan) words, the sign ッ occurs before any consonants.
Reading the sound ん (n). I heard many variants on this topic, the first is that there is no letter m in the Japanese alphabet, there is only the sound range ma-mi-mu-me-mo, so the pronunciation of ん in other languages as “m” occurs only as a result of transcription of the language and accordingly, the pronunciation of the sound is incorrect. But when the Japanese themselves explain in what cases ん is pronounced like “m”, it remains only to learn. ん - one mora, never used at the beginning of a word, its sound depends on the sign that follows it and can be n m ŋ.

Sound n pronounced before syllables rowただらな, for example: みんな (minna) - all
Sound m pronounced before syllables rowばぱ and ま, for example えんぴつ (em̩pit͡su) - pencil
Sound ŋ pronounced before syllables row かが , for example てんき (teŋki) - weather

With the rules for pronouncing the sounds of Japanese alphabets, that’s all for today, the table below shows the words of the Japanese language (a very small part) used in everyday speech.

Hiragana	Romaji	Russian
いいですか。	ii desu ka?	Can?
...はい、いいです	hai, ii desu	Yes, you can
いいえ、だめです	iīe, dame desu	No
いいです。	ii desu	Good
だめです。	lady desu	not good / not right
なまえ	namáe	Name
おなまえは	o nàmáe wa?	What is your name
つぎ	tsugi	Next
ともだちかのじょ	tomodachi kanojo	Friend Friend
みてください	mitekudasai	Look please
もういちど	mō ichido	Again please
わかりますか	wakarimasu ka?	Clear?
はい、わかります	hai wakarimasu	Yes it is clear
いいえ、わかりません	iīe wakarimasen	No, it's not clear
ちがいます	chigaimasu	Wrong
ことば	kotoba	Word
かいわ	kaiwa	Dialogue, conversation
あなた	anata	You you
あのひとあのかた	ano hito ano kata	He she He, she (polite form)
なんさいおいくつですか	nansai? o-ikutsu desu ka?	How many years? How many years? (politely)
～ごほんごロシアご	go nihongo rosiago	Language Japanese Russian language
ほん	hon	Book
そうですかほんとう	sō desu ka? honto?	Really? (simplified) Truth?
また	mata	Again, again
もうすこし	mōsukoshi	Some more
ゆっくり	yukkuri	Slowly
どういたしまして	dō itashimashite	My pleasure
ただいま	tadaima	I have just returned home (I'm home)
おかえりなさい	okaerinasai	welcome home
すごい	sugoi	Excellent, amazing Great
ひさしぶり	hisashiburi	Long time no see
だいじょうぶですかだいじょうぶです	daijōbu desu ka? daijōbu desu	Everything is fine? Everything is fine

Japanese words on various topics will be published gradually, under the rubric

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Transcription of Japanese words - furigana, romaji and pitch

Japanese phonetics may seem easy for beginners to learn Japanese. There are only 5 vowels in Japanese, Japanese consonants do not differ much from Russian ones. However, there is something about the Japanese language that causes difficulty for almost all students. It... pitch accent! What it is?

Pitch stress means that the vowels in Japanese words ah pronounced with different height tones(high and low tone). To better understand this phenomenon, let's compare Japanese with Russian. In Russian, stress is forceful - stressed vowels are pronounced louder unstressed. In some cases, the position of the stress changes the meaning of the word. Compare:

There was a beautiful castle on the hill.
He put a big padlock on the door.

If a foreigner who is starting to learn Russian utters one of these phrases, putting the stress in the wrong place, the interlocutor will, of course, understand him, but will chuckle. The same phenomenon exists in Japanese, where pitch accent helps to distinguish words, which look the same when written canoe(Japanese alphabet). If a person speaks Japanese with the correct pitch accent in words, then his speech sounds natural and is much easier to understand.

Now I would like to talk about various types phonetic transcription in Japanese. There are several ways to record how Japanese words are pronounced, namely:

romaji- writing Japanese words in Latin letters,
furigana is a small kana printed next to kanji (Japanese characters),
international phonetic alphabet (IPA),
Polivanov system- writing Japanese words in Cyrillic.

Here, for example, is the phonetic transcription of the Japanese word 発音 (pronunciation):

hatsuon (romaji),
発音 (はつおん) (furigana next to kanji),
(international phonetic alphabet),
Hatsuon (Polivanov system).

Let's now return to the question of why pitch is so difficult to learn. I believe that the main problem is not that pitch is difficult to reproduce for Japanese beginners. The problem is that pitch stress is very often not marked in any way in Japanese dictionaries and textbooks. And as a result, most students (and sometimes even their teachers) consider this aspect of the Japanese language unimportant. When you start learning Japanese, you are warned in the first chapter of the textbook that Japanese has pitch accents, so if you want your speech to sound right, listen to the audio recordings and repeat. And most of the time, that's where the discussion ends! In my opinion, this is a very superficial approach!

Unlike some other pitch-accent languages (such as Chinese), it is rare in Japanese that the position of the accent in a word completely changes its meaning. If a person, speaking Japanese, puts the stress in the wrong place, he is understood (often with great difficulty). The average student concludes: "If I am understood, then why learn these accents?" But not everything is so simple. Compare the following three phrases (colors indicate high and low tones):

端を見る ha shi o mi ↧ ru – to see the end,
箸を見る ha ↧ shi o mi ↧ ru – to see Food sticks,
橋を見る ha shi ↧ o mi ↧ ru – to see bridge.

As you can see, the position of the stress completely changes the meaning of the phrase. If you want to sound natural when you speak Japanese, sooner or later you will have to learn pitch! Why put it off on the back burner?

I hope this online translator of Japanese text (hieroglyphs + kana) to transcription help change the situation. He highlights different colors syllables that are pronounced in a low or high tone.

A special option emphasizes the reduced vowels /i/ and /u/. In these cases, the reduced syllable will be replaced by a circled katakana. For example: 惑星わ㋗せい. Given that the ピ and プ characters in the circle do not exist, they will be replaced by ㋪° and ㋫°, respectively.

An additional option highlights the nasalization of the consonant [ɡ]. In these cases, the normal dakuten badge (for voicing) will be replaced with a handakuten badge. For example: 資源し ↧ け°ん .

To create a translator, I used a morphological analyzer for the Japanese language MeCab, NAIST Japanese Dictionary and a CSS file to support furigana. I took information about pitch stress in Japanese words from the following dictionaries:

Modern Japanese-Russian Dictionary, B.P. Lavrentiev.

Color highlighting common Japanese words

The online tool on this page allows you to color-code Japanese words you need to know in order to JLPT Japanese Proficiency Exam :

This way you can quickly find the Japanese words you need to learn in order to prepare for the required JLPT level.

Maximum text length (number of characters):

unregistered users - 50,
language pack "frequent user" - 10,000,
language pack "polyglot" - 10,000.

Note: To correctly display Japanese text (kanji, hiragana, katakana, furigana) use latest version your internet browser and select the Unicode (UTF-8) encoding to display this page. This translator is available only online and cannot be downloaded to your computer.

Romaji and Pitch in Japanese - Online Resources

Updates to this word to transcription translator

Big update of the translator of Japanese characters into transcription

Over the past few weeks, we have been hard at work improving the Japanese word to transcription translator. Here is a list of the most important updates: Significantly improved the quality of the translation of hieroglyphs into transcription. Now the tonal stress is marked in ...

It is good that when you come to the country, you can freely communicate with the locals in their native language - this is perfect option. But not everyone and not always has such knowledge, and although I believe that simply memorizing individual phrases, without a general knowledge of the language, will not lead to mutual understanding with the locals, perhaps some phrases may still be useful.

I know from my own experience that a foreigner's attempt at least common phrases such as good morning, thank you, goodbye, say it in the local language, always elicits a kind response.

In order not to read everything written on the screen, if you need these hint words for a trip to Japan or to communicate with Japanese friends download them for yourself for free, print and use. On this page the words are published in part, as good example what you see in the electronic version.

And more for correct pronunciation words, it is better to read a couple of articles, since in Japanese there are such concepts as reduction - reduction, and as a result, words are not pronounced as they are written. This is especially true for words with the ending - です - desu, します - shimasu, in fact, the sound "u" is not pronounced.

Useful words and expressions of the Japanese language.

Greetings:

ohayo gozaimasu - good morning!

konnichiva - hello (good afternoon)!

konbanwa - good evening!

hajimemaschi - nice to meet you

douzo yoroshiku - nice to meet you

o-yasumi nasai - good night

sayunara - goodbye!

Polite formulas:

namae-o oshiete kudasai - what is your name?

then moishimasu - my name is ...

sumimasen - sorry

o-genki des ka - how are you?

genki des - thanks, good

ie - no

arigatou - thank you

doumo arigatou godzaimas - thank you very much

douitashimashite - not worth a thank you

onegai ... - please (at an informal request) ...

douzo - please (when invited) ...

kekkou desu - no thanks

chetto matte kudasai - please wait

shitsurei shimashita - sorry (for disturbing)

itadakimasu - bon appetit

gochisou-sama deshita... - thanks for the treat

Expression of basic needs:

onaka-ga bitch - I'm hungry

nodo-ga kawaku - I'm thirsty

koohi-o kudasai - give me a cup of coffee, please

tsukareta - I'm tired

nemuy des - I want to sleep

o-tearai-wa dochira desu ka - where is the toilet?

Doko desu ka - where is...

are-o misete kudasai - please show me this...

Communication in stereotypical situations:

douschitan des ka - what happened?

daijoubu desu ka - are you all right?

daijoubu desu - it's all right

ikura desu ka - how much does it cost?

dochira no go shushshchin desu ka - where did you (arrive)?

Sagashite imas - I'm looking for...

michi-ni mayoimashita - I got lost (in the city)

koko-wa doko desu ka - where am I?

eki-wa doko desu ka - where is the train station?

basutei-wa doko desu ka - where is the bus stop?

Ginza-wa dochi desu ka - how to get to Ginza?

nihongo-ga wakarimasen - I don't understand Japanese

wakarimasu ka - do you understand?

wakarimasen - I don't understand

shchite imas - I know

shirimasen - I don't know

kore-wa nan desu ka - what is it (is)?

kore-o kudasai - I'll buy it...

eigo-o hanasemas ka - do you speak English?

roschiago de hanasemasu ka - do you speak Russian?

eigo no dekiru hito imasu ka - does anyone here speak English?

nihongo-de nanto iimasu ka - how would it be in Japanese?

eigo-de nanto iimasu ka - how would it be in English?

grovesyago de nanto iimasu ka - how would it be in Russian?

mou ichi do itte kudasai - please say it again

yukkuri hanashite kudasai - please speak more slowly

E itte kudasai - please take me to... (in a taxi)

Made ikura desu ka - how much will it cost to travel to...

aishiteru - I love you

kibun-ga warui - I feel bad

Questions:

Dare? - who?

nani? - what?

daughters? - which the?

dore? -which?

itsu? -when?

nanji desuka? - what time is it now?

doko? - where?

naze - why?

The basic formulas of a telephone conversation:

power-power - hello!

Tanaka-san-wa imasu ka - May I have Mr. Tanaka?

donata desu ka - tell me, please, who is on the phone?

Ivanov desu - Ivanov on the phone

rusu desu - he is not at home

gaishyutsu shieldeimasu - he left the office

denwashimasu - I'll call you

bangouchigai desu - you dialed the wrong number

Main health complaints:

onaka-ga itai - my stomach hurts

kaze-o hiita - I caught a cold

kega-o shield - I hurt myself

samuke-ga suru - makes me shiver

netsu-ga aru - I have a high fever

nodo-ga itai - my throat hurts

kouketsuatsu - my blood pressure has risen

kossetsu - I have a fracture

haita - my tooth hurts

shinzoubyou - my heart worries

zutsuu - my head hurts

haien - I have pneumonia

Mochewen - I'm having an appendicitis attack

yakedo - I have a burn

hanazumari - I have a runny nose

gary - i have diarrhea

arerugia - I'm allergic

Most used nouns:

juusho - address

kuukou airport

ginkou bank

yakkyoku - pharmacy

beuin - hospital

okane - money

bangou - number

keisatsu - police

yuubinkyoku post office

jinja - shinto shrine

otera - buddhist temple

eki - station

denwa - phone

kippu - ticket

denschya - electric train

sakana - fish

yasai - vegetables

kumono - fruits

niku - meat

mizu - water

fuyu - winter

haru - spring

natsu - summer

aki - autumn

ame - rain

Most used verbs:

kau - to buy

dekiru - to be able

kuru - to come

nomu - to drink

taberu - to eat

iku - to go

uru - to sell

hanasu - to talk

tomaru - rent (a hotel room)

wakaru - to understand

aruku - to walk

kaku - write

Pronouns:

vataschi - me

watashitachi - we

anata - you, you

kare - he

kanojo - she

karera - they

Most used adjectives:

ii - good

warui - bad

ookii - big

chiisai - small

You can also get acquainted with the phonetics of the Japanese language, learn the pronunciation of adverbs, colors, numerals, indicate directions, see the spelling of useful hieroglyphs denoting the days of the week, month, announcements and signs, the names of cities and regions, you can download a Japanese phrasebook for free. I would be glad if he will help you navigate when visiting Japan. Additionally, I recommend reading an article about in Japanese and about

To get a Russian-Japanese phrasebook, you need to subscribe to receive an electronic version of the phrasebook located in the sidebar of the blog.

Among people who study Japanese, the transcription of words is a real quarrel. Which is better to write: “ti” or “chi”, “si” or “shi”? Why does when a Japanese person sees that an anime character's name is "Senjougahara", blood starts to flow from his eyes? You will learn about the types of transcription and how to pronounce Japanese sounds in this article.

Before directly studying the signs of the Japanese alphabet, it is necessary to understand how certain sounds are pronounced and by what means they are transmitted in writing in other languages. We will consider three recording options:

1) Hepburn's system (Latin);

2) kunrei-shiki (Latin);

3) Polivanov's system (Cyrillic).

Hepburn system
(The Hepburn romanization system)

James Curtis Hepburn (March 13, 1815 – September 21, 1911) was a physician, translator, teacher, and Protestant missionary. In 1867, he published a Japanese-English dictionary in Shanghai. Later, the Japanese society "Romajikai", developing projects for the romanization of Japanese writing, borrowed and slightly modified English transcription Japanese words used in the second edition of this dictionary. In 1886, in the third edition, published in Tokyo, Hepburn presented a new version of the transcription, which completely coincided with that created by the Romajikai society.

After World War II, Hepburn's transcription quickly gained popularity. The Japanese use it to write names in passports, place names on road signs and company names. Japanese textbooks for foreigners also use Hepburn's transcription. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that the characters of the Latin alphabet convey the sound of Japanese words from the point of view of native speakers. of English language, without taking into account how sounds are perceived by the Japanese themselves.

Kunrei-shiki (訓令式)

This transcription variant was created in 1885 by Professor Tanakadate Aikitsu (September 18 - May 21, 1952). The presence of two ways of writing Japanese words in Latin letters at once caused controversy and confusion, so it was decided to choose only one of them. Thus, in 1937, the kunrei-shiki system was established as the nationwide transcription standard.

This notation is more scientific. It is most often used by the Japanese themselves and linguists studying the Japanese language. Most primary schools Japan in the classroom mother tongue explains exactly this way of writing Japanese words.

Kunrei-shiki is a more accurate transcription in terms of the language system, reflecting the sounds as they are perceived by the Japanese themselves. Ohowever, a non-Japanese native speaker may be able to pronounce words incorrectly because of it (more on this later).

Polivanov system

Evgeny Dmitrievich Polivanov (March 12, 1891 - January 25, 1938) - Russian and Soviet linguist, orientalist and literary critic. He was engaged in the study and research of various dialects of the Japanese language, phonology, as well as teaching and political activities. In 1917, he proposed a system for writing Japanese words in Cyrillic, which is widely used in our time.

In its structure, the Polivanov system is similar to kurei-shiki: it is scientific and logical, but it can lead to a misunderstanding of the rules for pronouncing some Japanese sounds. Therefore, at present, there are many disputes, as well as discrepancies in the Cyrillic notation of Japanese words.

Polivanov's recording method conflicts with the so-called "folk" transcription, which, due to its unsystematic nature, will be considered in this article only in comparison with Polivanov's.

Consider all three transcription methods in a comparison table:

Comparative table of transcriptions

Pay attention to the syllables in bold. It is they who always cause confusion when writing Japanese words in Cyrillic or Latin.

You may have noticed that the Russian transcription, for example, does not use the letter "sh". That's why knowledgeable people outraged that the word "sushi" is written that way, and not as "sushi". There is no letter "e" in the Cyrillic transcription. However, many words like "sushi", "geisha" and "anime" have already become firmly established in this modified form.

Several factors contribute to the incorrect writing of Japanese words in Cyrillic. For example, when translating English-language texts that contain Japanese realities, people, not knowing about the existence of the Polivanov system, will write words in Russian based on their Latin version. Accordingly, "sh" can easily turn into "sh", "j" into "j", etc.

But one more, the most main factor- this is the perception of the sounds of the Japanese language by ear and, accordingly, their different recording. So how are they pronounced?

Japanese pronunciation

In general, for a Russian person, Japanese pronunciation will not seem difficult. Some confusion may arise from attempts to read the transcription in the manner of the Russian language. Below will be described how certain sounds are pronounced in the syllables of kana. However, for a better understanding of the pronunciation, we advise you to use the Internet to listen to Japanese pronunciation. For example, here you will find , and here . The resource provides an opportunity to listen to the pronunciation of the syllables of the Japanese alphabet by clicking the mouse.

A - similar to Russian a; pronounced the same as in the Russian word "sam".

And - sounds like a Russian sound in the word "peace"; if And stands in a word after a vowel sound (except uh), it starts to sound like th.

U - lips do not round and do not stretch forward, as when pronouncing Russian at, but on the contrary, they are slightly stretched, as when pronouncing and. The Japanese sound y resembles a sound average between Russian at and s.

E - sounds like a Russian sound uh in the word "these"; does not soften the preceding consonant (therefore, it is incorrect to convey it in writing with the Russian letter “e”, as is often the case in “folk” transcription).

Oh - pronounced like a Russian sound about, however, the lips are not stretched, but only slightly rounded.

K and G - these sounds in all syllables are pronounced the same as Russian to and G.

S - in the syllables SA, SU, SE, SO is pronounced the same as the Russian sound With. In the syllables SI, SYA, SYU, SYO, the first sound is a soft hissing and is pronounced like a sound, the average between Russian camping and sch(accordingly, there can be no question of transcribing it with the letter “sh”).

DZ - in the syllables DZA, DZU, DZE, DZO sounds like a fusion of sounds d and h(that is, you do not need to say first d, and then h). In the syllables DZI, DZYA, DZYU, DZYO, the first sound has no analogue in Russian. It can be described as a fusion of sounds d and soft and.

T - in the syllables TA, TE, TO coincides with the Russian sound t. In the syllables TI, TYa, TYu, TYo is pronounced as a sound, the average between Russian be and h.

D - in the syllables DA, DE, DO coincides with the Russian sound d.

Ts - pronounced the same as the Russian sound c.

N - in the syllables NA, NI, NU, NE, BUT, NYa, NYU, NE is pronounced the same as in Russian.

X - in the syllables XA, XE, XO is pronounced quieter than the Russian sound X; in the syllable HI it is pronounced the same as in the Russian word "giggle".

F - sound, middle between X and Russian f.

P and B - pronounced the same as Russian sounds P and b.

M - matches the Russian sound m.

Р - sound, average between Russian sounds l and R(pronounce the Russian sound p, but so that your tongue does not vibrate). Due to the lack of sound l the Japanese use sound instead R in borrowed words. So, for example, Russian names BUT l ina and BUT R ina they sound the same in Japanese.

The syllables I, Yu, Yo are pronounced the same as Russian i, yu, yo. They are called syllables because they consist of two sounds: a consonant (th) and a vowel (а/у/о).

V - represents a sound, the average between Russian in and at. The syllable O (を/ヲ), once part of the series BA, in modern language does not read like in, but coincides with the Russian sound about.

Н (in the syllable ん/ン) - at the end of words or before vowels, it is pronounced as a nasal sound (as if you are saying the sound n not with your mouth, but with your nose); before the sounds b, p, m reads like a Russian sound m; in all other cases it is pronounced like a Russian sound n.

1) Hepburn's system (Latin);

2) kunrei-shiki (Latin);

3) Polivanov's system (Cyrillic).

Hepburn system
(The Hepburn romanization system)

James Curtis Hepburn (March 13, 1815 – September 21, 1911) was a physician, translator, teacher, and Protestant missionary. In 1867, he published a Japanese-English dictionary in Shanghai. Later, the Japanese society "Romajikai", which develops projects for the romanization of Japanese writing, borrowed and slightly modified the English transcription of Japanese words used in the second edition of this dictionary. In 1886, in the third edition, published in Tokyo, Hepburn presented a new version of the transcription, which completely coincided with that created by the Romajikai society.

After World War II, Hepburn's transcription quickly gained popularity. The Japanese use it to write names in passports, place names on road signs and company names. Japanese textbooks for foreigners also use Hepburn's transcription. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that the characters of the Latin alphabet convey the sound of Japanese words from the point of view of native English speakers, without taking into account how the sounds are perceived by the Japanese themselves.

Kunrei-shiki (訓令式)

This notation is more scientific. It is most often used by the Japanese themselves and linguists studying the Japanese language. In most elementary schools in Japan, this way of writing Japanese words is explained in the lessons of the native language.

Polivanov system

Polivanov's recording method conflicts with the so-called "folk" transcription, which, due to its unsystematic nature, will be considered in this article only in comparison with Polivanov's.

Consider all three transcription methods in a comparison table:

Comparative table of transcriptions

Pay attention to the syllables in bold. It is they who always cause confusion when writing Japanese words in Cyrillic or Latin.

You may have noticed that the Russian transcription, for example, does not use the letter "sh". That is why knowledgeable people are outraged that the word "sushi" is written that way, and not as "sushi". There is no letter "e" in the Cyrillic transcription. However, many words like "sushi", "geisha" and "anime" have already become firmly established in this modified form.

But another, the most important factor is the perception of the sounds of the Japanese language by ear and, accordingly, their different recording. So how are they pronounced?

Japanese pronunciation

In general, for a Russian person, Japanese pronunciation will not seem difficult. Some confusion may arise from attempts to read the transcription in the manner of the Russian language. Below will be described how certain sounds are pronounced in the syllables of kana. However, for a better understanding of the pronunciation, we advise you to use the Internet to listen to Japanese pronunciation. For example, here you will find hiragana, and here you will find katakana. The resource provides an opportunity to listen to the pronunciation of the syllables of the Japanese alphabet by clicking the mouse.

A - similar to Russian a; pronounced the same as in the Russian word "sam".

And - sounds like a Russian sound in the word "peace"; if And stands in a word after a vowel sound (except uh), it starts to sound like th.

Oh - pronounced like a Russian sound about, however, the lips are not stretched, but only slightly rounded.

K and G - these sounds in all syllables are pronounced the same as Russian to and G.

T - in the syllables TA, TE, TO coincides with the Russian sound t. In the syllables TI, TYa, TYu, TYo is pronounced as a sound, the average between Russian be and h.

D - in the syllables DA, DE, DO coincides with the Russian sound d.

Ts - pronounced the same as the Russian sound c.

N - in the syllables NA, NI, NU, NE, BUT, NYa, NYU, NE is pronounced the same as in Russian.

X - in the syllables XA, XE, XO is pronounced quieter than the Russian sound X; in the syllable HI it is pronounced the same as in the Russian word "giggle".

F - sound, middle between X and Russian f.

P and B - pronounced the same as Russian sounds P and b.

M - matches the Russian sound m.

The syllables I, Yu, Yo are pronounced the same as Russian i, yu, yo. They are called syllables because they consist of two sounds: a consonant (th) and a vowel (а/у/о).

V - represents a sound, the average between Russian in and at. The syllable O (を/ヲ), once part of the BA series, is not read in the modern language as in, but coincides with the Russian sound about.