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Pronouncing Vowels?

madformoney

後輩
21 Feb 2008
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I've been trying to learn Japanese in my free time, and I know these basic vowels:







But how do you pronounce these? I've been searching for a week but I cant find anywhere that explains it!

Thanks to anyone that can help me.
 
Well that site made no sence to meツ、but i search up hiragana and I found a site.


But when they say pronounced as "aa" or "ee" do they mean long vowels? Or not?
 
Uh, i'll try to explain it I guess:

a = 'a' in 'father'
i = 'ee' in 'meet'
u = 'oo' in 'moon' (but ur lips are spead like saying 'ee' rather then rounded)
e = 'e' in 'met'
o = 'o' in 'no' (but you don't sya the sort of 'oo' sound at the end of the 'o' in 'no')
aa = 'a' but longer
ii = 'i' but longer
uu = 'u' but longer
ee/ei = 'e' but longer
oo/ou = 'o' but longer

basically?

:|
 
I try to avoid equating Japanese vowels to English ones, because they are only similar. Further complicating the matter is the fact that English speakers don't all pronounce them the same way. The best approach is to find actual recordings of native speakers and try to mimic them.

This is the video I was talking about, since the site with hundreds of links to study resources made no sense.

 
I try to avoid equating Japanese vowels to English ones, because they are only similar. Further complicating the matter is the fact that English speakers don't all pronounce them the same way. The best approach is to find actual recordings of native speakers and try to mimic them.

yeah, youre right.
i would have used IPA or x-sampa, but i dunno if he knows that so...
 
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