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Japanese Phonetics Episode 37—LIVE (Updated with native recordings!) (Patreon)

Published:
2018-03-04 10:00:59
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Bibliography
Japanese Phonetics Index Page

Good evening Patrons! The thirty-seventh episode of Japanese Phonetics is live, now updated with native recordings! In this lesson we explore vowel combinations, including standard sequences such as [a][i], as well as the more complicated えい and おう. Incidentally, after uploading this lesson I found a rather obscure Japanese article which contains some additional information on えい vs. えー; I intend on addressing this information in episode 39.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns with regards to this lesson,  don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Thank you very much for your continued support, and good luck with your Japanese studies!

Best from Beppu,

Dōgen

Files

Previews only

Japanese Phonetics #37: Vowel combinations

The thirty-seventh episode of Japanese Phonetics, my series dedicated to Japanese pitch-accent and pronunciation. In this lesson we explore vowel combinations, including standard sequences such as [a][i], as well as the more complicated えい and おう. Incidentally, after uploading this lesson I found a rather obscure Japanese article which contains some additional information on えい vs. えー; I intend on addressing this information in episode 39, but if you'd like to know more now, please feel free to message me directly. If you have any questions leave a comment below, and thank you all for your continued support! Bibliography: https://www.patreon.com/posts/17345632

Comments

Sascha Baer

First of all, the title screen is wrong :) A question though: I noticed that in the examples around 6:30, you pronounce the vowels with rather heavy friction, almost more like [oβ]. I had not noticed that before and am curious what’s up with that.

Filip Kostka

Another useful video, another set of mysteries clarified. Thank you. I've been recording myself along with audio from the Shadowing book (<a href="https://shop.whiterabbitjapan.com/products/shadowing-lets-speak-japanese-beginner-intermediate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://shop.whiterabbitjapan.com/products/shadowing-lets-speak-japanese-beginner-intermediate</a>¨¨) and in the first lesson, there's this "dialogue": F: きれい? M: きれい。 The first "きれい" is pronounced as "きれ・い", and the second one as きれー" (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-44032890/kirei-kiree/s-bsJBt" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/user-44032890/kirei-kiree/s-bsJBt</a>¨). Do you think this is just random or do you see some explanation for this? Thank you.

Dogen
>>10560061

Hey Filip! Great question. Yes, I do think this is intentional on the part of the woman. If you look at the waveform for the clip, you can see that her utterance is longer than the man's. Furthermore, I don't have too much context to work with, but it sounds like the woman is clarifying, which usually results in more deliberate speech. This would coincide with the 'articulated in slower, more deliberate or careful speech' idea. Hope this helps! Great question!

Dogen
>>10559713

Thanks for the catch, Sascha. Uploading a new version right now—should be fixed within the hour. With regards to the vowel at 6:30, this is most likely me overcompensating for the lack of rounding in Japanese. う, as you're most likely aware, is compressed in Japanese; I may have 'over-compressed' the sound just a bit as I'm very conscious about not rounding due to the high number of native speakers who use this series. My personal analysis! Thanks again for the 指摘 and good luck with your studies!

N

Dogen, this is awesome stuff man. I really appreciate it, thanks!

Thorn

So I should be pronouncing the voltional of 誘う 　さそ＋おー ? :D

Dogen
>>14002456

Oh shoot, thanks for the heads up, Alex. Will try to fix this very soon!

Enoch

I vaguely remember at some point in the series "To Your Eternity" when the main character was learning to speak, the girl taught him ありがとう as あ・り・が・と・う distinguishing each sound. If I remember correctly, the う was pronounced distinctly as う. Is ありがとう another exception in slower speech, or is there something else going on here? Thanks!

Jason Crouse

Hi Dogen! You've solved a mystery for me. I assume that 思う also follows the rule like the other example verbs in this video. I noticed the articulation of the う in a song years ago and spent a long time thinking it was a weird mistake or something. Thank you for bringing me clarity!

Dogen
>>36881180

Hi Jason! Yes, this is indeed true—the う in 思う is articulated as an う, rather than an elongated お. That said, there are certainly times when native speakers say the word quickly and drop the う entirely, as in おも. Hope this helps, cheers!

Matt

Hi Dogen, this is a very interesting topic! Do you have any thoughts on おう and おお? In terms of pronunciation, are they identical? Thanks!

Dogen
>>38088475

Hi Matt. They are identical in some circumstances, and different in others. I explain when おう is pronounced as おお, and when it is pronounced as おう in the above video from 4:48. Cheers!

Matt

Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I should have asked more precisely because my question is about why for example おおさか (大阪) or おおきい (大きい) is spelled with おお instead of おう. When I started learning Japanese, I struggled a lot because I wasn't sure it makes any difference in terms of pitch or vowel articulation. From the pronunciation POV, both おおさか and おおきい are pronounced as おー I believe. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Dogen
>>38131842

Hi Matt. My main field is phonetics, so I'm not entirely sure about this one, but I believe the spelling and the kanji are simply intrinsically linked. That is to say, 十 is とお, rather than とう, while 東 is とう, rather than とお. This, in my understanding is simply determined by each word's origin and history, so I unfortunately can't give any more information on this. And yes, it is my understanding that the 大 in 大阪 and 大きい are both pronounced as おー. Cheers.

Sebastian Santacruz

hi dogen, what happens when the お is used as a prefix as in お家 (おうち)? i think both are completely articulated, is it like that?

Vetle Selbæk Pedersen

According to my professor writing おお for a long "o" sound only happens in words of japanese origin and this is due to phonological change from おを-> おお, or おほ-> おお. That is how the words were pronounced in older forms of japanese, so 大きい would have been pronounced closer to おほきい, and 十日 as とをか. This affects only a small number of words, only about 20 or so words, so the easy step is to just memorize these and otherwise just write long "o" as おう