Pronunciation of Kyoto?

[grandkodiak]

Simple question, but what is the proper way to pronounce Kyoto , as in the city, in Japanese?

Is it 3 or 2 syllables in English? ie. "key yo toe" or "kyo toe"

 

[nice gaijin]

closer to the second. The transliteration of both Kyoto and Tokyo don't take into account the long vowels in the words, Kyouto is the proper romanization of 京都, and Toukyou for 東京.

 

[grandkodiak]

much obliged i took japanese 101 years ago and havent touched a book since... ive recently gotten back into it, and i remember that that always bothered me! i can read hiragana and some kata, but no kanji what so ever. but all of my books spell out kyoto and tokyo as "ki yo to" and "to ki yo" and only one gives a small "tsu" marker for enlongation of vowel sounds...yet it doesnt show for either city!


on a side note...does kanji have a way of being "translated" phonetically or must one simply memorize each and every symbol to a word? ie. if you encounter a new kanji character, can you at least say it outloud by "reading" it into sounds?

 

[nice gaijin]

Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic. Kanji are ideograms, and many have multiple pronunciations, but they can all be written phonetically in hiragana.

京都 → きょうと→kyouto
東京→とうきょう→toukyou

 

[Toritoribe]

all of my books spell out kyoto and tokyo as "ki yo to" and "to ki yo" and only one gives a small "tsu" marker for enlongation of vowel sounds

As nice gaijin-san wrote, ﾂ拗窶ｰﾂｹ[youon] mark in kyoto/tokyo is small "yo." Also, kana for long bowel is "u", not small "tsu.";-)