How do I pronounce these Japanese names?

[Sarcastic Lemons]

Haine
Maora
Soubi


kthx

[Roundcat88]

Ha[ as in haha]
I [as in ee]
ne [neck]

Ma[as in mama]
o [as in oh]
ra [as in raw]

So [as in so?]
u-[silent or shortened U]
bi -[as in be]

[Sarcastic Lemons]

Nekomaru Seigi

Ha[ as in haha]
I [as in ee]
ne [neck]

Ma[as in mama]
o [as in oh]
ra [as in raw]

So [as in so?]
u-[silent or shortened U]
bi -[as in be]

Lol. Saying Haine is fun. o.o;;

[An Unknown Kunoichi]

Nekomaru Seigi

Ha[ as in haha]
I [as in ee]
ne [neck]

Ma[as in mama]
o [as in oh]
ra [as in raw]

So [as in so?]
u-[silent or shortened U]
bi -[as in be]

The Magic Midget Mushroom says:

ra [as in rah].

[PAnZuRiEL]

Nekomaru Seigi

So [as in so?]

No, "sor" as in "sorcerer". Sor-bie. Unless you speak a rhotic dialect of English, in which case that's still wrong and I can't actually think of a decent example. Maybe "saw", but I can still imagine an American accent ruining that.

If you pronounce "sor" and "saw" the same way, that's probably close enough to how Japanese "sou" is pronounced. Otherwise I don't think I can take account of your accent well enough to help you properly.

[Roundcat88]

PAnZuRiEL

Nekomaru Seigi

So [as in so?]

No, "sor" as in "sorcerer". Sor-bie. Unless you speak a rhotic dialect of English, in which case that's still wrong and I can't actually think of a decent example. Maybe "saw", but I can still imagine an American accent ruining that.

If you pronounce "sor" and "saw" the same way, that's probably close enough to how Japanese "sou" is pronounced. Otherwise I don't think I can take account of your accent well enough to help you properly.

well i kinda have a "mutt"accent. sweatdrop If you think my example is bad, then how bout you post what they should sound like.

[An Unknown Kunoichi]

Nekomaru Seigi

PAnZuRiEL

Nekomaru Seigi

So [as in so?]

No, "sor" as in "sorcerer". Sor-bie. Unless you speak a rhotic dialect of English, in which case that's still wrong and I can't actually think of a decent example. Maybe "saw", but I can still imagine an American accent ruining that.

If you pronounce "sor" and "saw" the same way, that's probably close enough to how Japanese "sou" is pronounced. Otherwise I don't think I can take account of your accent well enough to help you properly.

well i kinda have a "mutt"accent. sweatdrop If you think my example is bad, then how bout you post what they should sound like.

The Magic Midget Mushroom says:

He meant your 'so'. And he already stated an example.

[Roseflare]

shouldn't the ra be more of a r/l sound... I don't think the English language has that, it's like a bit of rolling the tongue combined with an l. xp

[PAnZuRiEL]

Roseflare

shouldn't the ra be more of a r/l sound... I don't think the English language has that, it's like a bit of rolling the tongue combined with an l. xp

It's a flap, and some English dialects substitute it for a t or d intervocalically.

So yes, it does exist in English; but since it's not a separate phoneme (just an allophone), it largely goes unrecognised.


If you're familiar with the Italian trilled "r", it's very similar to that. It is very different from the approximant [ɹ] found in most English dialects.

[Roseflare]

PAnZuRiEL

Roseflare

shouldn't the ra be more of a r/l sound... I don't think the English language has that, it's like a bit of rolling the tongue combined with an l. xp

It's a flap, and some English dialects substitute it for a t or d intervocalically.

So yes, it does exist in English; but since it's not a separate phoneme (just an allophone), it largely goes unrecognised.

Do you mean substitute it in spelling or or in speech? Because t/d and the Japanese r/l sound is completely different. I just know that majority of Americans cannot reproduce that sound.

[PAnZuRiEL]

Roseflare

PAnZuRiEL

Roseflare

shouldn't the ra be more of a r/l sound... I don't think the English language has that, it's like a bit of rolling the tongue combined with an l. xp

It's a flap, and some English dialects substitute it for a t or d intervocalically.

So yes, it does exist in English; but since it's not a separate phoneme (just an allophone), it largely goes unrecognised.

Do you mean substitute it in spelling or or in speech? Because t/d and the Japanese r/l sound is completely different. I just know that majority of Americans cannot reproduce that sound.

In speech. Who the hell would spell "bottle" with an "r"? "borle"? wtf is that?


And they're not completely different. They both have an alveolar place of articulation. It's just that [t] and [d] are stops, whereas Japanese /r/ is an apical flap. That is, you just barely touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth once, instead of completely stopping the airflow.

[PAnZuRiEL]

Okay ... this song from Sweeney Todd. Ignore the silly amateur video and listen to Helena Bonham Carter's voice.

Just after the 2:40 mark, she sings the line "well then if you're British and loyal", and she pronounces the word "British" with a perfect apical trill.

The flap, the Japanese /r/, is very similar to that sound.

[An Unknown Kunoichi]

The Magic Midget Mushroom says:

I need a linguistics dictionary. Too many technical words. gonk