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Military Japanese

b. So-called “crooked” sounds are as follows:

kya kyu kyo (from k line)
sha shu sho (from s line)
cha chu cho (from t line)
nya nyu nyo (from n line)
hya hyu hyo (from h line)
mya myu myo (from m line)
rya ryu ryo (from r line)
gya gyu gyo (from g line)
gyaja gyuju gyojo (from z line)
byaja byuju byojo (from d line)
bya byu byo (from b line)
pya pyu pyo (from p line)

c. Words with double consonants are sometime called “stopped sounds.” These require a pause equivalent in length to one syllable.

pp Nippon is pronounced Nip-pon
pp teppō is pronounced tep-pō
tt wakatte is pronounced wakat-te
tt chotto is pronounced chot-to
kk gakkō is pronounced gak-kō

d. There are many sounds that are exactly twice as long as the ordinary sounds. In this manual, they are indicated by diacritical marks, as:

  • dōshite
  • bangō
  • taishō
  • teppō

e. Accent: Accent in Japanese differs a little from that of English. Accent in Japanese is based rather on pitch than on stress. Many polysyllabic words have no more stress on one syllable than another. For these reasons there is a popular misconception that the Japanese language has no accent at all. There is no way of telling the accented syllables in this manual, but despite this fact one will have no trouble in being understood if his pronunciation is what it should be. It is well, however, to avoid undue stress on the penult, a mistake frequently made by students of Japanese.

  • Yamada and not Yamáda
  • watakushi and not watakúshi
  • Yamamoto and not Yamamóto