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RE: Just Another Gaijin Studying Japanese - Lesson One
At the elementary school I attended in Sitka, AK, we were offered Japanese in the 5th grade, and I enjoyed it. However, the teacher was not there next year, and I never learned any more Japanese afterwards.
"あ - pronounced like our short 'a' sound, as in 'car' or 'fart'"
So, the short 'o' sound, as in 'cot', rather than the short 'a' sound, as in 'cat'?
The 'r's confuse me.
Also, I pronounce 'route' 'rowt'. Must be an Alaska thing..
Yeah, my pronunciation examples are inherently flawed I now realize since not everybody says stuff the way I do in the Midwest. For me, 'route' (as in a way of travel) is pronounced like 'root', while 'rout' (as in complete defeat of one side in a battle) is pronounced like 'rowt'. Apologies for the confusion. :)
あ is basically an 'ah' sound, very much like the 'o' in 'cot', yes. :)
Oh yeah, there'll be a post on the 'r' sounds at some point too. Amusingly enough, one of the classroom assistants even has problems with some of the combinations, and he's native Japanese. It's easily the most complex and difficult 'sound' I've had to learn for a language. :)
They way our instructor described the 'r' sound (which isn't exactly an 'r' sound) was as a combination of 'r' and 'l'..kind like an 'r' with a short roll...but not exactly.
The R-line sound is ludicrously difficult to describe with no sound cues. It's like trying to combine 'r', 'l', and 'd' all at the same time. But that's not enough...then you add in the Y-line for 'rya' 'ryu' and 'ryo', and you want to bang your head against a wall. In English, those combinations all come out as two-syllable sounds (like 're-ah', 're-you', and 're-yo').
In Japanese? Screw you, gaijin, those are all one syllable apiece, and you better get the r-sound, the y-sound, and the vowel sound all in that same syllable or you'll sound like a hick. LOL! :)