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I can't describe in writing how to "properly" pronounce this, since there are so many ways, but I'll give you a general rule and exercise to practice. First, say the English "la". Where was your tongue? It should have touched against the back of your upper row of teeth. Now say a harsh, English "ra" (as in "raw"). Where was your tongue that time? Curled waaaaaaay back, the tip of it almost touching the soft part of the back of the roof of your mouth. Now, without saying anything, put your mouth in position to say "ra". Still, without saying anything, keep your tongue in the same shape, but move the tip of it forward, along the roof of your mouth so it's almost in position to say "la". Now, say a very light English "ra". What you produce should be pretty dang close to the proper Japanese "ra". Then, apply this principle to "ri", "ru", "re", and "ro"… Just practice a lot until your tongue gets tired ^^;

So where exactly should the tongue be along the roof of the mouth to pronounce the Japanese "r"? About where your tongue is to pronounce "t". Notice how it's close to the back of your teeth, but still not quite touching. This is about where your tongue should be to pronounce the Japanese "r". So actually, the Japanese "r" uses a similar mouth/tongue position as the English "l", but the actual voicing of the consonant is similar to the English "r". This is what makes it so difficult to grasp, but once you've got it, it's very easy. It takes a lot of work to say the English "r", but hardly any strain to say the Japanese "r", which is a lazy sound. Oh well, just practice.

And then, there are also exceptions! Again, a rock-Japanese accent will pronounce "r" a little closer to the English "r". Sometimes a Japanese person will also roll the "r" (like in Spanish) to emphasize something (like if he's exasperated).



And finally, we're at n! … It's really unfortunate that the official romanization of Japanese decided to write the "n" character as "n" (or "m") because English speakers confuse that with a hard "n" sound, and it really is not "n" or "m" in pronunciation... it's just a closing of the lips (or curling of the tongue at the back of the throat) at the end of the word, to sharpen the end of the word and to usually make the pitch fall (or in Tohoku-ben's case, the pitch sometimes rises here... which is what makes it sound hick-ish)

To be blunt, it's a grunt.

Anyone who's been to Japan will know what I'm talking about. This is taken out of dialogue in poetic anime/drama/etc, but the Japanese grunt A LOT. Especially in polite/nervous conversation or lazy conversation. Once you've grasped the grunt, you can communicate ^^;

Another note is that when another word follows a word that ended in "n", the pronunciation is often affected. A good example is "san zen en" (3000 yen). Between "zen" and "en", something happens… the "n" at the end of "zen" is simply a tongue-curl in the back of the throat, which is the exact position we use to form words that begin with the English "y" (which really is just "i" followed by some other vowel), which is why it ends up sounding like "san ze ien" (or "san zen yen")... which in turn is probably why we call their currency "yen" instead of "en"....

に・ひ・き・ぎ　

All should be said touching where your toung says y.

if it helps try sayng: nyi, hyi, kyi, (N)gyi