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| quote: | Originally posted by [ groovypants ]
haha this thread is GOLD!
I've only just started to self-learn the basics of Japanese [naturally being a anime-freak]! Though the "learn Japanese in 2minutes" books are obvioulsy not so in-depth.
Just have a question for you guys though, WHEN do you know NOT to pronuce the silent "U" in particular words?
For example:
Ohayo Gozaimasu - The last U is not pronuced
and same with:
Toire wa doko nan desu ka - the U in DESU is not pronuced!
Probably impossible to fully explain in a forum reply, but any hints would be appreciated  |
It is possible to explain the whole thing, but in order to be as clear as possible, it shall take a tad bit long, if you don't mind. I'd rather make you understand how things happen then just make you memorise a bunch of rules.
The phenomenom is known as "law of less effort", which is common in any language (specially in rapid speech, you tend to drop a few phonemes and still be understood). The vowels "i" and "u" are the most closed vowels in Japanese (you don't open your mouth as much as when you say "a", for example). Therefore, whenever the syllable is in low tone and there's a preceding-succeding syllable in high tone, these vowels are instantly muted (or whenever possible). For example:
Hidari -> H'dari: As the "hi" is in a low tone and this vowel (I) in japanese has the ability of changing most consonants before it (for some people this would almost sound like "sh'dari") you can drop it. Not only it's easier to speak, but it just becomes more natural. Not to mention you can pronounce (correctly) the letter "i" after "e" (so "sensei" would sound better as "sense~") even though some natives don't do it depending on their dialect.
Desu -> Des', Kutsu -> K'tsu: Exactly the same explanation, with the difference that the consonant doesn't change before "u" so you could distinguish "kutsu" and "kitsu" (does this word exist?  ) even if you drop the first vowel. Not to mention you can pronounce (correctly) the letter "u" after "o" (so "kyou" would sound better as "kyo~") and I've never seen anyone pronounce this "u" anyway.
If you find this explanation too complicated, just drop the vowels from: ki, ku, shi, su, chi, tsu, hi and fu when they come before k*, su, se, so, t*, h* (including "hu" in this case).
AND, if this explanation is just too complicated you can:
1) Ask me what part you didn't get, so I can simplify it.
2) Listen a bit to any japanese speaking and try to understand how they pronounce the
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