Japanese Pronounciation Help

[Steeltemplar]

How does one pronounce the name "Aoi"?

[ShiroiHikari]

ah-oh-ee...roughly.

[Azier the Swordsman]

Think of it as stubbing your fingure and saying: "Owwie!"

Don't forget the "oh" sound in there though. 'Ow-oh-ee'.

[Arnobius]

Close. More like this:

OW (like Ouch) + OI (like what the skiniheads yell). Run it together fast.

In songs, they tend to enunciate every syllable (heck, they even pronounce を as 'wo' when they sing instead of like 'o' when they talk)

The Japanese tend combine some syllables in interesting ways
Example, in Tokyo, "hito" tends to become mangled to "shto" because of the dialect. Then there are the dropped vowels, the combined vowels, slurred words etc...

[Mr. Rogers]

ah-oh-ee like that

[Mithrandir]

Yeah. If you say it fast, I've found that "Ow! Oh! Weee!" is close, but don't glottal stop between the ow and the oh.

[termyt]

Another trick is try not to emphasize any of the three syllables. This is very difficult for me - almost as difficult as saying the Japanese "l" or "r" - whatever.

In general, all Japanese syllables should get equal treatment whereas in English we learn to emphasize certain syllables of words. Also, every vowel should be pronounced, there are no diphthongs (although there are some exceptions to this). That’s why it’s a-o-i instead of a-oy.

[Azier the Swordsman]

The best way to learn how to pronounce it, of course, is to hear it for yourself.

[Steeltemplar]

Thanks for all the help It's really appreciated.

[Arnobius]

Another trick is try not to emphasize any of the three syllables. This is very difficult for me - almost as difficult as saying the Japanese "l" or "r" - whatever.

In general, all Japanese syllables should get equal treatment whereas in English we learn to emphasize certain syllables of words. Also, every vowel should be pronounced, there are no diphthongs (although there are some exceptions to this). That’s why it’s a-o-i instead of a-oy.

Except some vowels vanish. If you sing, everything gets equal emphasis, but there are words where vowels dropped

[Lynx]

http://japanese.about.com/blphrase.htm try looking at that website. they have a bunch of wav files of some japanese words. Japanese prounciation isnt too difficult, the romanji is written phonetically so once you learn the vowel and vowel combination sounds, you're set. i'm learning japanese, so if there's anything i can help you with, feel free to ask for it!

[Azier the Swordsman]

http://japanese.about.com/blphrase.htm try looking at that website. they have a bunch of wav files of some japanese words. Japanese prounciation isnt too difficult, the romanji is written phonetically so once you learn the vowel and vowel combination sounds, you're set. i'm learning japanese, so if there's anything i can help you with, feel free to ask for it!

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[termyt]

Except some vowels vanish. If you sing, everything gets equal emphasis, but there are words where vowels dropped

That's more a function of lazy speech than a language rule, but you are correct. They aren't like the silent vowels in English - if you tried to pronounce the "e" at the end of "gate," you wouldn't be understood. But if you pronounce the "u" on the end of "desu," you will be understood (and the Japanese tend to think it's cute when Americans try to speak their language anyway).