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Japanese has 5, pure vowel sounds that may be short or long. The syllable structure is

simple, generally with the vowel sound preceded by one of approximately 15 consonant

sounds. There are few complex consonant sound combinations such as in the English

words strengthor Christmas. As a result of these differences Japanese E! students find

English hard to pronounce, often insert short vowels between the consonants "ste-rength.

Japanese learners of English may even have difficulty in correctly perceiving what they hear.

Vowel phonemes

IPA Notes

/a/

This is a low central vowel, []; it is most like RP English u in cut, but with the mouth slightly

more open

/i/ This soun!s like the English ee in feet

/u/

This is a somewhat centrali"e! close back compresse! vowel, [ ] listen#help$in%o&,

pronounce! with the lips compresse! towar! each other but neither roun!e! like [u] nor sprea!

to the si!es like [ ]

/e/ This is [e], somewhat like the English e in set

/o/ This is [o] listen#help$in%o&, somewhere between the o in English corean! the o in coke

The vowels o% 'tan!ar! (apanese on avowel chart )!apte! %rom *ka!a #++-.&

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_central_unrounded_vowelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciationhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/U_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_helphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_helphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_helphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_front_unrounded_vowelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_front_unrounded_vowelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_back_rounded_vowelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_back_rounded_vowelhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/O_(Japanese).ogghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/O_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_helphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:O_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:O_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:O_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_charthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#CITEREFOkada1991http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciationhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/U_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_helphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_front_unrounded_vowelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_back_rounded_vowelhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/O_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Media_helphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:O_(Japanese).ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_charthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#CITEREFOkada1991http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_central_unrounded_vowel

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)ll o% the (apanese vowels are pronounce! as monophthongsEcept %or /u/ #an! to a lesser

etent /a/&, the short vowels are similar to their 'panishor 0taliancounterparts

1owels have a phonemic lengthcontrast #ie short vs long& 2ompare contrasting pairs o% wor!s

like ojisan/o"isa / 3uncle3 vs ojiisan/o"iisa / 3gran!%ather3, or tsuki/tuki/ 3moon3

vs tski/tuuki/ 3air%low3

0n mostphonologicalanalyses, all syllables with a short vowel as their nucleus are treate! as

occurring within the time%rame o% onemora,or in other terms, one beat )ccor!ing to tra!itional

conventions, long vowels are !escribe! as a se4uence o% two i!entical vowels 5or

eample, ojiisanwill be ren!ere! as /o"iisa / , not /o"i sa / )nalysing long vowels in this manner is

in accor! with the tra!itions o% (apanese linguistics an! poetry, wherein long vowels are always

consi!ere! separate moras

6ithin wor!s an! phrases, (apanese allows long se4uences o% phonetic vowels without intervening

consonants, pronounce! withhiatus, although the pitch accentan! slight rhythm breaks help trackthe timing when the vowels are i!entical 'e4uences o% two vowels within a single wor! are

etremely common, occurring at the en! o% many i7type a!8ectives, %or eample, an! having three or

more vowels in se4uence within a wor! also occurs, as in aoi3blue/green3 0n phrases, se4uences

with multiple osoun!s are most common, !ue to the !irect ob8ect particle 3wo3 #which comes a%ter

a wor!& being reali"e! as oan! the honori%ic pre%i3o3, which can occur in se4uence, an! may

%ollow a wor! itsel% terminating in an osoun!; these may be !roppe! in rapi! speech ) %airly

common construction ehibiting these is ... (w)o o-okuri-shimasu3humbly

sen! 3 9ore etreme eamples %ollow-

/hoo.o o.o/ [h..] h o() 'Phoenix (Fenghuang)' (direct object)

/too.oo.o .oo.u/ [to.o... ] t o u()

'to cover Eatern Euro!e'

("hi arti#icia$ exa%!$e &ou$d be un$ie$ in

nor%a$ !eech.)

The Japanese language has only 5 vowels:a, i, u, e, o. They are terse vowels,

pronounced clearly and sharply. If one pronounces the vowels in the following

sentence one will have their approximate sounds. Please note: the "u" is

pronounced with no forward movement of the lips.

h !a, we !i soon !u get !e old !o.

htt!//&&&.outube.co%/&atch*v+,g-Fei012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophthonghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophthonghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_lengthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiatus_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenghuanghttp://japanese.about.com/library/blhiraganalesson.htmhttp://japanese.about.com/library/blhiraganalesson.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophthonghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_lengthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiatus_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenghuanghttp://japanese.about.com/library/blhiraganalesson.htm