Japanese phrases that even probably the most proficient learners of the language discover the toughest to pronounce may be, mockingly, those borrowed from their very own native tongue.

My spouse, who’s initially from the US and now’s a fluent speaker of Japanese after residing in Japan for 15 years, nonetheless struggles to pronounce certainly one of her house nation’s most well-known manufacturers — “McDonald’s,” which in Japanese is マクドナルド (makudonarudo).

Figuring out how katakanization works is a vital sensible talent for native English audio system who examine Japanese.

Phrases of English origin, once they get transformed to katakana, typically throw off native audio system of English. It’s because it is exhausting to unlearn their native tongue’s phonology — the sound system with a algorithm that they subconsciously observe since their early childhood — after which modify the unique sound to match the Japanese phonology. I name this course of katakanization as a result of overseas phrases tailored into Japanese are sometimes spelled with katakana characters and are generally known as katakana-go (katakana phrases).

In my view as a local speaker of Japanese and a language lover, understanding how katakanization works is a vital sensible talent for native English audio system who examine Japanese. Not solely can the flexibility to pronounce these phrases assist you to be extra simply understood by Japanese audio system, it additionally has the additional benefit of increasing your vocabulary, and virtually instantaneously, with out as a lot effort as you may assume. And as you may already know, we use a whole lot of katakanized loanwords of English origin. Like, loads.

So I’m writing this text with the hope of serving to native-English-speaking Japanese learners who battle with one of many greatest quirks of the Japanese language — katakana phrases. Later on this article, you’ll study three fundamental guidelines for the way to katakanize English phrases. I’m hoping they’ll assist you to have the ability to katakanize phrases by yourself to be able to pronounce phrases of English origin in a method that Japanese audio system can simply perceive.

Stipulations: To get probably the most out of this text, you must already know katakana (particularly the way to pronounce them). If it’s essential to brush up, take a look at our Final Katakana Information.

Why Katakanize?

Earlier than moving into the fundamental katakanization guidelines, first, let me clarify a bit extra about why I feel you must study them.

No one Desires That “Oh-No-This-Individual-Is-Speaking-to-Me-in-English Look,” Proper?

One of the vital widespread causes I hear some learners (even when their Japanese is fairly superior) keep away from katakanizing English phrases is, “Why cannot I simply pronounce English phrases appropriately?”

The reply is fairly easy. Many Japanese audio system would not have the ability to perceive it until they know the unique English pronunciation of the phrase. Is not “with the ability to talk with Japanese folks” the entire level of learning Japanese (no less than, for a lot of of you), anyway?

Code-switching to your native tongue compromises intelligibility.

Whereas code-switching to your native tongue could offer you some authenticity because the speaker of the unique language, it compromises intelligibility. You may attempt asking “McDonald’s-tte doko desu ka?” (The place is McDonald’s?) with perfectly-pronounced McDonald’s on the road in Japan. You may additionally attempt asking the place “Seven-Eleven” is with out katakanizing it to sebun irebun (セブンイレブン). In both case, you’ll most probably get that horrified, oh-no-this-person-is-talking-to-me-in-English look.

Notice that for katakanized phrases which are significantly lengthy and generally is a little bit trippy, you may often shorten them — in actual fact, many Japanese folks do! Take the earlier instance of マクドナルド; this may be shortened to マック or マクド. Equally, セブンイレブン turns into セブン. So don’t be concerned if you do not have full confidence of pronunciation simply firstly.

Japanese Audio system Use English Loanwords, Like A Lot

Japanese folks use 3,000 – 5,000 loanwords in each day conversations, and 94% of them are of English origin.

Names of restaurant and retailer chains should not the one English phrases borrowed into the Japanese language. English-derived loanwords have been deeply woven into Japanese, each written and spoken. A examine from the Nineteen Nineties ^{confirmed that over 35% of all vocabulary printed in 70 Japanese magazines have been overseas loanwords, most of them being of English origin. A 2010 guide about wasei eigo (Japan-made English) additionally indicated that Japanese folks use 3,000 – 5,000 loanwords in each day conversations, and 94% of them are of English origin. In fact, these research are from years in the past, so we most likely use much more katakana phrases in Japanese in the present day. The purpose is, it is so exhausting to hold on conversations in Japanese with out Western loanwords that Japan even has a consuming sport the place you must take a shot each time you employ one!}

The portion of English loanwords in Japanese is growing with the inflow of latest applied sciences and ideas are evident in software program manuals like: アイコンをダブルクリックしてアプリケーションをインストールします icon-o doubleclick-shite application-o install-shimasu “Doubleclick the icon to put in the appliance.” With this, it is turning into all of the extra useful to understand how katakanization works. Whereas having to Japanize your native tongue generally is a problem, it might assist you turn out to be extra approachable for individuals who grew up talking Japanese.

Unpronounceable English Sounds

You may additionally need to ask why Japanese audio system katakanize English phrases within the first place. It is just because many sound patterns in English should not permitted within the Japanese phonology, identical to the French guttural /r/ is not in English. One of many (many) the reason why English pronunciation is a pure nightmare for Japanese highschool youngsters is that Japanese doesn’t permit any syllables ending with a consonant apart from /n/ (ン). English has 1000’s of phrases ending with consonants like cat, look and ship however they’re merely unpronounceable within the Japanese phonological universe.

There isn’t a alternative apart from to katakanize loanwords to make them pronounceable inside the Japanese phonology.

Advanced syllables like power, sixth and garments are much more unpronounceable for Japanese audio system as a result of the Japanese phonology does not allow two or extra consonants to be squeezed collectively. The English /th/ sound is completely impermissible in Japanese — in actual fact, in most human languages ^{— and due to this fact must be changed with the closest Japanese sound /s/ as in surī (スリー) “three.” Merely put, there isn’t any alternative apart from to katakanize them to make them pronounceable inside the Japanese phonology.}

So katakanization does not precisely occur due to the writing system. It is exactly due to the Japanese phonology that governs how phrases are pronounced within the language.

Fundamental Conversion Guidelines

So how precisely does katakanization work? Though now we have some exceptions, there are three fundamental conversion guidelines that native Japanese audio system subconsciously apply.

Notice: IPA symbols we use on this article are primarily based on American English pronunciations.

Rule #1: Add Vowels

When a consonant will not be instantly adopted by a vowel, you add a vowel.

It’s because every sound often entails a vowel in Japanese. The ン (/n/, or /m/) sound is an exception, however apart from that, a unit of Japanese sounds is both a single vowel like ア /a/ – イ /i/ – ウ /u/ – エ /e/ – オ /o/, or a set of consonant and a vowel like カ /ka/ – キ /ki/ – ク /ku/ – ケ /ke/ – コ /ko/. If you know the way katakana works, this most likely is smart to you.

Now, what vowel ought to I be including, proper? That’s:

• /o/ after /t/ or /d/
• /i/ after /ch/ or /j/
• Nothing after /n/ and /r/
• /u/ elsewhere.

Let’s use the phrase “threat” for example. First, r is adopted by a vowel i, so that you simply depart it alone. However the remainder, s and okay should not adopted by a vowel. For s, you add u. For okay, add u. And you will get ri-su-ku — リスク.

Check out one other instance — the phrase “measurement.” If you attempt to parse it, you see two pairs of a consonant and a vowel — si and ze. So it might be… シゼ…? No, not that. Watch out to not get confused with the spelling and the sound. The phrase “measurement” appears like “saiz,” proper? In case you may’t consider the phonetic spelling off the highest of your head, there are converters like this that may come helpful for katakanization. Now, going again to the “measurement (saiz)”, z is the one sound that is not adopted by a vowel. So that you add a u there, and now you’ve got acquired sa-i-zu — サイズ. That is the way you write and say “measurement” in Japanese.

Rule #2: Exchange Sounds

Exchange illegitimate sounds with related professional Japanese sounds.

You may already know this, however the Japanese language has fewer sounds than the sounds English has. Like I discussed earlier, the th /θ/ sound does not actually exist in Japanese, and the closest sound is the s sound. For this reason “three” turns into surii (スリー) and “thanks” turns into sankyū (サンキュー) in Japanese. Similar to that, for sounds that the Japanese language does not have, you will be changing sounds with the Japanese equivalents. Now let’s take a deeper look.

Vowels

As you might know, Japanese has solely 5 vowel sounds ア, イ, ウ, エ, and オ. That is clearly extra restricted in comparison with English — for instance, English has three “a” sounds (/æ/, /ʌ/, /ə/), however ア replaces all of them.

All examples above begin with vowels for the sake of instance, however after all, this substitute rule applies to a mix of vowels and consonants.

Phrases “hat” and “hut” — they’ve the totally different “a” sounds, however in Japanese, they each get transformed to ハット as a result of the /æ/ and /ʌ/ sounds each substitute to ア. This implies “cowboy hat” (カウボーイハット) and “Pizza Hut” (ピザハット) — they each use ハット regardless of the distinction within the English sounds.

Additionally, in relation to vowels, take note of the size of the vowel in query. Lengthy, prolonged vowel sounds are represented as “ー,” the hyphen-looking image in Japanese. For instance, “pull” is プル (puru), however “pool” is プール (pūru). An /r/ after a vowel as in automobile, 4 and earth turns into the extension of the vowel as properly. So, very like in British English, automobile is カー (kā), 4 is フォー (fō) and earth is アース (āsu).

Consonants

Now, onto consonants! Similar to a few of the vowels, there are a number of English consonant sounds that do not actually exist in Japanese, and thus get changed with the closest sound as a substitute. Listed here are some examples.

Now, this listing, are you able to guess what the phrase “stomach” would appear to be in katakana?

Stomach could be ベリー, identical to “berry” and “very.” That is as a result of there is not any distinction in sound between “b” and “v” nor “r” and “l” in Japanese. ベリー fascinating (…and probably ベリー complicated), proper?

There are additionally just a few consonant + vowel pairs that we pronounce otherwise in English but get represented with the identical katakana character in Japanese. These variations is perhaps extra refined than those proven above, however for instance, si and shi each turn out to be シ. So “sea” and “she” each turn out to be シー in katakana. Equally, the voiced variations of those sounds, “zi” and “ji” each turn out to be ジ.

Rule #3: Duplicate Consonants

Duplicate the “cease” consonant on the finish of the phrase if it happens after a brief vowel.

Bit, dip, look… What makes these phrases sound so skippy? It’s the fast “pause” between sounds. In romaji to characterize this type of sound, we use duplicated consonants like bitto, proper? In katakana, we use ッ (the small tsu) as in ビット to characterize these fast pauses. You will be duplicating the “cease” consonants, that are /p/, /b/, /ch/, /j/, /t/, /d/, /okay/ and /g/ — sounds you make by blocking the air stream.

Now, let’s apply katakanizing “dip” and “look” — “dip” turns into ディップ (dippu) and “look” turns into ルック(rukku). Are you getting the gist?

Keep in mind this rule typically applies to the final syllable solely. For instance, picnic turns into pikunikku (ピクニック) as a substitute of pikkunikku (ピックニック). Additionally do not forget this solely occurs to the consonant after a brief vowel versus lengthy vowels, like beat, deep, or Luke.

Congrats, you’ve got simply realized the three fundamental guidelines of katakanization! Though these three guidelines account for many katakanization processes, they will not merely make you a grasp of katakanization. You will nonetheless encounter curve balls and a few difficult ones — for these, you continue to have to make small changes right here and there.

Mixture Katakana

For those who’re hoping to take your katakanization to the following stage, it might be a good suggestion to evaluate mixture katakana. Mixture katakana are katakana characters fabricated from a mix with a small character like フォ, ティ, or ジュ.

For instance, you may anticipate “cat” to turn out to be katto (カット), but it surely truly needs to be kyatto (キャット) as a result of the vowel of cat makes the c sound extra just like the Japanese /kya/ sound than the /ka/ sound. Equally, “hole” turns into gyappu (ギャップ) as a substitute of gappu (ガップ). That is too simple? These is perhaps comparatively widespread katakana combos, however there are some curveballs you may not be so conversant in — like トゥ as in トゥモロー (tomorrow), or デュ as in デュエット (duet).

These mixture katakana are the unsung heroes of katakana. They permit us to characterize sounds that we did not have in Japanese — the sounds are even nearer to the unique English pronunciations.

At present, loanwords tend to use mixture katakana to higher characterize the unique sounds.

Nonetheless, mixture katakana may be much less acquainted and not-so-easy-to-pronounce for Japanese audio system, particularly older of us. At present, loanwords tend to use mixture katakana to higher characterize the unique sounds, however this wasn’t all the time the case. For instance, “concept” was once generally written as アイデア in katakana, however today, アイディア is way extra widespread. And, this results in the following be aware: be careful for older loanwords!

Watch Out for Older Loanwords

A few of you will have already observed widespread English loanwords do not actually observe the fundamental guidelines. Like, kēki (ケーキ) “cake” not being kēku (ケーク), rajio (ラジオ) “radio” not being reidio (レイディオ) and kariforunia (カリフォルニア) “California” nor being kyarifōnia (キャリフォーニア). That’s as a result of these phrases are comparatively previous borrowings that got here to Japan earlier than the conversion guidelines turned constant.

Older loanwords are sometimes the best way they’re for customary causes — you will want to recollect the way to spell them in katakana.

As you may’ve observed, part of this motive is the no-use of mixture katakana. Sounds that we historically did not have or unusual sounds in Japanese have been changed with ones simpler to pronounce and acknowledge for Japanese audio system. So in the event that they have been borrowed in the present day, they’d be katakanized otherwise — like レイディオ. Nonetheless, a lot of them stay the identical regardless of the change as we’re already used to the best way they’re! Meaning, older loanwords are sometimes the best way they’re for customary causes — you will want to recollect the way to spell them in katakana.

Katakanize Like a Professional

Katakanization generally is a problem for native-English-speaking learners, even those that are already fluent in Japanese. Nonetheless, do not forget studying the way to katakanize is not going to solely assist you higher acclimate to Japanese phonology and enhance your general pronunciation, but in addition make your spoken Japanese extra understandable and approachable. And when you take a look at it from a special perspective — being an English speaker will also be a bonus in Japanese studying if you know the way katakanization works. If you begin with the ability to convert English phrases to katakana easily, and acknowledge extra katakana phrases that Japanese audio system use, you’ll be stunned what number of phrases you understand already!

I hope the three fundamental guidelines and additional suggestions assist you construct an excellent basis for katakana conversion. It’s a extremely sensible talent and probably a sport changer to carry your Japanese to the following stage. So, hold katakanizing and continue to learn — Guddo rakku!