ra ri ru re ro or la li lu le lo??!!

[eemaan]

hi minasan, just wondering what the exect pronounciation is for what's i s normally written in romaji as ra ri ru re ro.
my sensei pronounces very la li lu le lo, does it differ from place to place how strong the R or L is or is it generally somewhere in the middle??
yoroshiku ne!

 

[nice gaijin]

it is actually neither; the Japanese R is an alveolar flap/tap, which is related to but not the same as the English R or L. Because of its similarity (and the lack of a proper R and L), the Japanese R is used in lieu of R or L in loanwords or place names like Rotterdam or London.

To make it easier to visualize, try the rolling R sound like in the Spanish word "perro." The Japanese R is almost identical to that, but your tongue only taps the roof of the mouth once (the major difference being the rolling R requires you to relax the tongue and use your aspiration to create the sound, whereas the tap still uses the tongue muscles, similar to a D).

 

[bakaKanadajin]

nice gaijin you made a good point, the sound is quite similar to a 'd'. When speaking quickly, if you find your LR's are coming with difficulty, the 'd' will get the point across nine times out of ten. Sometimes when drinking this becomes a god-send; words conjugated in the passive like 食べられる quickly become muddled after X number of Asahis. If you're speaking slowly or emphasizing something though, the tongue flap is more necessary.