Question about Hiragana - "He"

JesterDev · 21 Oct 2008

I am reading through Remembering the Kana and attempting to learn Hiragana. I have been learning Japanese for awhile now, and thought that I had the pronouncication down, however, I have now hit a wall. In the book the hiragana symbol for "Ke" (and in addition to the one for for "He") says that it is pronounced like Ca in cape (and as in Hay).

Is this a typo, or just part of how the Hiragana works? From everything that I have been taught about the pronouncication it should be pronounced as He as in Help, i.e. a eh sound.

If this is correct, then is there a list of differences that I can reference to keep me on track?

Mikawa Ossan · 21 Oct 2008

Well, the answer is both and neither.

The vowel sound of "he" is a long "a" as in cape or may, but due to the nature of the Japanese language, the length of the vowel (in terms of time) is short, similar to the short "e" as in bet and hem.

Hope this helps.

grapefruit · 21 Oct 2008

JesterDev said:
I am reading through Remembering the Kana and attempting to learn Hiragana. I have been learning Japanese for awhile now, and thought that I had the pronouncication down, however, I have now hit a wall. In the book the hiragana symbol for "Ke" (and in addition to the one for for "He") says that it is pronounced like Ca in cape (and as in Hay).
Is this a typo, or just part of how the Hiragana works? From everything that I have been taught about the pronouncication it should be pronounced as He as in Help, i.e. a eh sound.
If this is correct, then is there a list of differences that I can reference to keep me on track?

If you referring to the whole diphthong [ei], it is incorrect. It should be the first vowel of the diphthong [ei]. I agree with Mikawa Ossan's examples of "bet" and "hem."

Question about Hiragana - "He"

JesterDev

後輩

Mikawa Ossan

いかんわ！

grapefruit

先輩

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