Some time ago, a classmate from one of my classes was talking about how one of her teachers kept pronouncing the word kami (Japanese for “god”) as “cammy”. Said classmate almost lost it, while thinking ‘IT’S KAMI, DAMMIT!!’ (“kah-mee”).

That made me think of the time when one of my teachers kept pronouncing the word “Kyoto” as “kye-yo-toh”, which bugged the crap out of me (as well as another student, who is also Japanese).

So while I was in my painting class, I thought ‘I know! I’ll come up with a Japanese pronunciation guide!’ (because of the above two reasons and because I have had time to kill before my next class –I typed it up before my next class, but didn’t post it just yet).

Vowels

If you’re familiar with the Spanish language, the five vowels (a, i, u, e, o) are pronounced the same in both languages:

• a: As in “father” and “palm”
• i: As in “bee” and “meet”
• u: As in “boot” and “loot
• e: As in “met” and “head”
• o: As in “toe” and “no“

And like Spanish, they have a sort of a “pureness” in them (or as some people would say, they have a short sound). So, if you were to say o, it would be just an o sound, no other sounds like “uh”.

And then there’s long vowels (aa, ii, uu, ee and oo), which are just slightly longer versions of the above counterparts. They still retain the pureness as mentioned above. oo can also be written as ou and oh.

More info: Introductory Japanese Lessons: Japanese Pronunciation

Consonants

• r: Sounds a bit like the Spanish r, with less of a roll
• g: Sounds like a hard g, no matter what letter follows it

Misc.

• tsu: Yes, you do pronounce the t in tsu. Japanese for Dummies suggests one way of getting this sound: say “cats” and then “catsu”. And take away the “ca”, so you’re left with tsu. The way I learned it is to put your tongue on the roof of your mouth as though you were going to make a t sound, but instead, say su.
• ryo, kyo, pyo, ryu, kyu, etc.: It’s just a ya/yu/yo sound with a consonant sound in front of it. So if you were going to say kyo, say yo, and then say it again with a k sound in front of it: kyo (I just made that up myself ^_^;). rya, ryu and ryo are a bit harder to say (for me, at least). You’re trying to get the r sound while at the same time, trying to keep the ya/yu/yo in there.

[Edit: Mar. 7, 2008] Tracey suggested another way:

I think of kind of reading the hiragana literally and just saying “riya” “riyu” “riyo” reaaaaally quickly. I hope this helps! Ganbatte!

The letters, l, q, v and x (did I miss any?) don’t appear in the Japanese alphabet(s), so there’s no need to worry about them.

[Edit #2: Apr. 14, '08] Here’s Part 2!