5.1. Basic Japanese Pronunciation Rules: Hiragana

The Japanese language is one of the richest and most complex in the world, with several writing systems, including Hiragana. Hiragana is one of the three Japanese writing systems, along with Katakana and Kanji. In our entry-level Japanese course, you'll start by learning Hiragana, which is the foundation for correct Japanese pronunciation.

Hiragana is made up of 46 basic characters, each representing a distinct sound. These sounds are composed of a vowel, a consonant followed by a vowel, or a single consonant. For example, the first five characters of Hiragana are あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), お (o).

One of the first things you should know about Japanese pronunciation is that, unlike English, every sound is pronounced consistently, regardless of where it appears in a word. This makes Japanese pronunciation relatively easy to learn, as once you've learned the basic sounds, you can pronounce most words correctly.

In addition, Japanese pronunciation is almost always flat, with each syllable given equal emphasis. There are no tonic accents like in English or Portuguese. This means that the word 'sakura' (cherry tree) would be pronounced with the same stress on each syllable: 'sa-ku-ra'.

Another important rule of thumb in Japanese pronunciation is that some consonants are pronounced differently than you might be used to in English. For example, the consonant 'r' is pronounced similarly to the consonant 'l' in Portuguese. Also, the consonant 'f' is pronounced softly, almost like a breath of air.

Regarding vowels, Japanese has only five vowels, which are: 'a', 'i', 'u', 'e', ​​'o'. These vowels are pronounced similarly to vowels in Portuguese. However, one important difference is that vowels in Japanese are always short and clear, and are never reduced to a schwa sound (the 'uh' sound in 'the' in English).

A unique feature of Hiragana is the existence of characters that represent combined sounds. These are formed by adding two small dashes, called 'dakuten', to the top right corner of a character, or a small circle, called 'handakuten'. For example, the か (ka) character can be changed to が (ga) by adding dakuten, and the は (ha) character can be changed to ぱ (pa) by adding handakuten.

Finally, Hiragana also has a set of characters called 'yoon', which are combinations of a basic character and one of the three characters 'ya', 'yu', 'yo'. For example, the き (ki) character can be combined with the や (ya) character to form きゃ (kya).

In summary, Japanese pronunciation can seem challenging at first, but with practice and patience, you'll soon be pronouncing Japanese words with confidence. The Hiragana writing system is a key tool for this, providing the foundation for correct pronunciation in Japanese.

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40Basic Japanese Pronunciation Rules: Katakana

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