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 Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 3:21 pm
I know there's a sticky for this, but as a student of the language I feel the upcoming question is important enough to merit it's own thread. That in mind, I'm curious: what are some rules for pronouncing foreign terms in Japanese? I know about some of the unspoken rules that go around and infact people use them to render people pronouncing the terms through a Japanese accent when it's written out, but what are the specific rules to doing so ?How come え sometimes=ye when written out in English? (I.E. the term for modern Japanese cash(Yen) and the way they spell the name of one of the senators from Hawaii(Daniel Inouye).) Is there literature on the subject I should be aware of?('cause I certainly haven't seen any).
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Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:47 am
Those oddball quirks are a remnant of an older form of Japanese. You're largely going to see "ye" and "wo" show up in names where the historical spelling (before the latest set of kana normalization) is still known, or in words that were romanized before the Japanese spelling changed. ("Yen" is the most common of this, since the currency was known outside of Japan for centuries thanks to trade with the Dutch.)
Another example you might encounter is, for example, the name "Nawomi", spelled なおみ in modern Japanese but historically なをみ. (And if I'm not mistaken, it may have even been written なほみ before that, though still pronounced "wo"/"o".)
Similarly you may encounter unexpected spellings in names; most of the time it's from names that were romanized before the current romanization rules were officially recognized. ("Shirow" for しろう and "Nightow" for ないとう for instance.)
Now, as for going the OTHER way -- the topic of the thread, pronouncing foreign terms in Japanese -- it's largely a matter of playing it by ear, but there are a few conventions, like using アー for -er and キス/キシ for -x- (although ックス is often seen for final -x). I don't know of any literature off the top of my head; it was just something I learned in class by example.
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Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 8:09 pm
A translator friend of mine actually took some time from his job and wrote this up for me, concerning rendering foreign terms in Japanese(which is actually a short version of the master's thesis he draws these rules from):
The Insertion Rules
A vowel is added after a syllable ending with a consonant (except an
n) make it into a “legitimate” Japanese syllable.
* Insertion Rule #1. Insert o after t and d. ———- e.g. date: デート
[de~to], bed: ベッド [beddo]
* Insertion Rule #2. Insert i after ch and j ———– e.g. beach: ビーチ
[bi~chi], judge: ジャッジ [jajji]
* Insertion Rule #3. Insert u elsewhere ———— e.g. spring: スプリング
[supuriNgu], cream: クリーム [kuri~mu]
The Final-R Rule
(with words from the English Language)
English r‘s at the end of syllables don’t sound like consonants to
Japanese ears.
* Final-R Rule: Change syllable-final r into the second half of a
long vowel. ————– e.g. corner: コーナー [ko~na~], card: カード [ka~do]
(note: syllable-final l follows the insertion rule 3 and becomes ru.)
(with other Latin based languages IE French, German and so on)
The final r sound in words from those languages changes into a ル sound when spoken in Japanese, E.g. French. mer 'ocean' > メール; German. Merkel (name) > メルケル; Italian. forte 'strong' > フォルテ
The Gemination Rule
This rule seems to be the most difficult for English native spakers to acquire.
* Gemination Rule: Duplicate a syllable-final consonant following
a short lax vowel ———— e.g. bit: ビット [bitto] (compare with beat: ビート
[bi~to]), hatch: ハッチ [hacchi], red: レッド [reddo], rock: ロック [rokku],
cockpit: コックピット [kokkupitto]. Note: The Gemination Rule does not apply
to l, r, m, n, and ng
The Consonant Rules
You’re too demanding if you expect the Japanese to faithfully
pronounce some of the English consonants because to us they are
exotic, weird sounds that we never need to produce in Japanese.
* Consonant Rule #1. Replace l with the Japanese sound commonly
represented by [r]. ————– Ex. lonly: ロンリー [roNri~] (Note: English r
sounds entirely different form the Japanese [r])
* Consonant Rule #2. Replace th with or [z]. ———— Ex.
thumbnail: サムネイル [samuneiru], smooth: スムーズ [sumu~zu]
* Consonant Rule #3. Replace v with . ———— Ex. virtual: バーチャル
[ba~charu] (Note: Some people do pronounce v‘s in certain contexts but
it can sound cocky)
* Consonant Rule #4. Replace f with a bilabial fricative (sound
you made when you blow out a candle, no lower-lip biting involved)
———— Ex. fight: ファイト [faito]
* Consonant Rule #5. Replace syllable-final n‘s with [N]. ———— Ex.
screen: スクリーン [sukuri~N], runner: ランナー [raNna~], hunting: ハンティング
[haNtiNgu]
The Vowel Rules
There are only 5 vowels in Japanese whereas English is said to have 10
to 12 depending on dialects. Naturally, we mold them into the 5-vowel
(plus the long equivalents) system.
* Vowel Rule #1. key: キー [ki~]
* Vowel Rule #2. hit: ヒット [bitto]
* Vowel Rule #3. pay: ペイ [pei]
* Vowel Rule #4. head: ヘッド [heddo]
* Vowel Rule #5. apple: アップル [appuru]
After a k, [y] is inserted as in cat: キャット [kyatto] (cf. cut:
カット [katto] – Rule #9)
* Vowel Rule #6. car: カー [ka~]
* Vowel Rule #7. Sue: スー [su~]
* Vowel Rule #8. book: ブック [bukku]
* Vowel Rule #9. run: ラン [ran]
* Vowel Rule #10. saw: ソー [so~]
* Vowel Rule #11. hot: ホット [hotto]
* Vowel Rule #12. about: アバウト [abauto]
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Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 7:45 am
There's quite a huge list of loan words taken from English that the average Japanese person might recognize in conversation. After spending a year over in Japan and interacting with Japanese and both Japanese and English, I got a feeling of what typical pronunciation of English words was like in the most general sense. In that case, it just takes exposure (and some knowledge on katakana loan-word rules) to learn it. The above rules are handy when writing out English words in Japanese pronunciation.
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