Michael Kerpan wrote:Tommaso wrote:Where do you put the stresses in "Masaki Kobayashi"?
It seems like most 4 syllable last names have the accent on the second syllable -- see my earlier post -- but I've never heard Kobayashi actually pronounced in Japanese. Probably, Masaki has a first accent syllable (but don't bet real money on this).
All the syllables in Japanese are stressed equally, but to western ears it would be MA-Sa-Ki Ko-BA-Ya-Shi. Also, every syllable in Japanese is pronounced exactly the same in every word.
The vowels in Japanese are pronounced:
a = c
ar
i = t
eeth
u = l
ook (NEVER pucker your lips when pronouncing "u" or you will DEFINITELY sound like a foreigner to the Japanese.)
e = st
ep
o = p
our
The japanese syllables are:
A I U E O
KA KI KU KE KO
KYA KYU KYO
GA GI GU GE GO
GYA GYU GYO
SA SHI* SU SE SO
ZA JI** ZU ZE ZO
SHA SHU [SHE] SHO
JA*** JU*** JO***
TA CHI TSU TE TO
DA DE DO
CHA CHU CHO
NA NI NU NE NO
NYA NYU NYO
HA HI FU HE HO
HYA HYU HYO
BA BI BU BE BO
BYA BYU BYO
PA PI PU PE PO
PYA PYU PYO
MA MI MU MO
MYA MYU MYO
YA YU YO
RA RI RU RE RO
RYA RYU RYO
WA (W)O**** N
*sometimes romanized as "Si"
**sometimes romanized as "Zi"
***sometimes romanized as "Jya", "Jyu", "Jyo"
****syllable rarely used in writing except as an honorific
Sometimes sounds such as "She", "Di" or "Wu" - sounds which didn't exist in classical Japanese - are today replicated using a combination of classical Japanese syllables. This occurs sometimes when transliterating loanwords into Japanese.
hope this is of some help to those seeking pronunciation guides for Japanese words. It is actually a really easy language for Westerners to learn to pronounce because there's no tricky "rou
gh, plou
gh, throu
gh" business and every word is just a combination of a preset system of syllables.
P.S: If you ever see a Japanese word or name with two 'n's in it, the first 'n' is pronounced as a syllable itself. In this way, the proper pronunciation of "Konnichi Wa" is KO-N-NI-CHI WA.
Hirokazu Koreeda, for those curious, is pronounced HI-RO-KA-ZU KO-RE-E-DA. Using traditional romanization methods, the 'e' in his last name would actually have a macro over it.
It would sound like the 'e' was long, and in his first name the stress would sound, to Western ears, to be on the 'ro', as in "hee-rock-ah-zoo".
Also, Japanese names are, in polite conversation, always said family name first. i.e.
OZU Yasujiro (oh-zoo yah-sue-jee-roh)
OSHIMA Nagisa (oh-shee-mah na-gee-sa)
KINOSHITA Keisuke (kee-noshe-ta case-kay)
SUZUKI Seijun (soo-zoo-kee say-joon)
NARUSE Mikio (nah-roo-say mee-kee-oh)
etc
But remember not to round the lips when pronouncing the 'u' vowel!
Among very close friends (esp. younger people) first names may be used, usually with an honorific suffix -san (for all adults and girls from about 13 onwards), -kun (for boys up to about 16-18), -chan (for girls up to about 13). But in the Japanese common parlance, these directors' names would be said in the 'Chinese' style. However, it isn't 'vogue' to do this for these names in the Western world, and Japanese persons of note haven't really expressed as much of a desire to have their names said in the traditional way overseas as, say, many Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean persons of note have (although with Korean names it is a bit more fluid than Japanese).
