The Old School Otaku Lounge

My current textbook on Japanese language learning (Genki) really skimps on tone in Japanese speech. From what I gather, most other textbooks skimp on it as well, and tone in general seems to be shoved under the rug by most Japanese language learners. In my 7-odd years of learning Japanese, I'm now finally taking a look at it. I wish I had done this sooner, as I'm having a really difficult time picking up when a sound is low versus high tone...

Yes, there's hashi (raised tone at the end) which means bridge and hashi (lowered tone at the end) means chopsticks. Ame (raised tone at the end) is candy and ame (lowered tone at the end) is candy. I still can't get these right because I lived in Himeji for two years, and in the Kansai dialect, the tones are switched!

But really, it's not too bad. It's not at all like Chinese. The worst part is the elongated vowel sounds. Shoujo (the "u" serves to elongate the "o" sound) means girl, shojo means virgin, and shojou means a letter or note.

It makes more sense when you study the kanji. Take for example the word kinen. When it is "ki-nen," it means commemoration or anniversary. When it is "kin-en," it means "no smoking."

I think you're mistaken tone for intonation. Either way, as Greg said, it's not so bad... to the point they really don't teach it when you're learning Japanese. Nothing like you'd get in English anyway.

Yeah, Japanese pronunciation is pretty even-keel. A couple of days ago, I asked my class of 5th graders, "What is kokugo in English?" One goofball boy replied, "koKUUUUgo!" I get a kick whenever Japanese make fun of gaijin pronunciation.

Was the boy referring to your tone? (or intonation, or what have you)

It's the emphasis on syllables that Americans naturally put onto words. For two syllable words, we tend to emphasize the first syllable. For three syllable words, we tend to emphasize the middle. For four syllable words, we tend to emphasize the third. We're just programmed that way. My pronunciation is pretty good, but that boy was just having fun. Wait until next year. Then his teacher probably won't speak any Japanese at all. Tee hee hee.

greg wrote:It's the emphasis on syllables that Americans naturally put onto words. For two syllable words, we tend to emphasize the first syllable. For three syllable words, we tend to emphasize the middle. For four syllable words, we tend to emphasize the third. We're just programmed that way. My pronunciation is pretty good, but that boy was just having fun. Wait until next year. Then his teacher probably won't speak any Japanese at all. Tee hee hee.

Huh... I did not think of/know that. It certainly helps explain the English dub Card Captor Sah-KU-rah. I'm not sure if Viz is doing well or trying TOO hard to avoid that with NAH-ru-to.

I haven't seen Naruto, much less dubbed, but I can imagine that they may be overcompensating. The three syllables of "Naruto" should have equal emphasis.

Americans want to say ToSHIba, MitsuBIshi, HiroSHIma, YokoHAma, NaGOya, etc. Japanese is more or less an even-keel language, with some nuances you pick up on with more exposure. It's far less confusing than Chinese, where the same word, spoken at different pitches, will have completely different meanings.

Yeah, as goofy as this is, if you want to get the intonation right in Japanese, just hit all syllables the same.

A couple of days ago, after work I had nothing to do, so I went over to the daycare next to the elementary school I was working at. This city has day cares next to every elementary school for the kids to go to after school, it seems. So I went over there and I was commandeered by a spritely 2nd grader. By that I mean that she made me give her a piggy back ride all around the play area and she was telling me all of the kids' names---with a "gaijin accent." "This is MiSAAAki! This is RyUUUto! This is YuKAAAri!" It was pretty hilarious that this little 7 or 8 year old girl had the token accent figured out so well.