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+--- Thread: Searching for Solid Resources on Japanese Phonetics (/thread-13438.html)
Searching for Solid Resources on Japanese Phonetics - Verse - 2015-12-11
I've been studying Japanese for several years, with 2 of those years spent in Japan. My level is conversational, and my pronunciation is good enough to never be misunderstood. My accent in Japanese is an outgrowth of a very natural process. I merely watched a lot of dramas (thousands of hours), constantly imitated native speakers, and spent a lot of time trying to leverage intonation and other nuance to truly connect on an emotional level with my Japanese friends.
Now, this isn't to say I don't have an obvious foreign accent. If I sounded like a native, I wouldn't be asking this question. Basically I feel like the natural progression isn't working as well as I had hoped. I've determined that I must do some formal study of the mechanics of speech production in Japanese. Therefore, I want to know: What are some solid resources on Japanese phonetics? What textbooks, websites, or other media will provide me a deep understanding of the subtleties of how native people create the sounds?
Thank you.
RE: Searching for Solid Resources on Japanese Phonetics - Bokusenou - 2015-12-12
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but the NHK pronunciation dictionary really helped me.
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.est.android.DejizoDic.Accent
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/nhk-ri-ben-yu-fa-yinakusento/id510849872?mt=8
(Paper) Book: http://www.amazon.co.jp/NHK%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E7%99%BA%E9%9F%B3%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BB%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8-%E6%96%B0%E7%89%88-NHK%E6%94%BE%E9%80%81%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%89%80/dp/4140111127
It has pitch accent marks for a ton of words, and includes audio on the apps for every word it has.
RE: Searching for Solid Resources on Japanese Phonetics - datrukup - 2015-12-12
This book may become your bible “The Sounds of Japanese.” I got it cheaply used on Amazon, but it’s quite expensive on the Japanese Amazon. This book is a combination crash course in phonetics and how it relates to Japanese pronunciation. It’s an academic textbook, so you’ll have to study it— rather than lightly read it. It’s not didactic in “how to improve your pronunciation,” but if you read it, it’ll make you much more mindful of all the working parts of the pronunciation of a Japanese native speaker. With this mindfulness you’ll be able to isolate your own weaknesses and work towards improving them. It’s full of extremely interesting pronunciation information that I never would have deduced on my own. For example, it compares how native speakers vary their vowel pronunciation (!!) when they’re speaking naturally versus reading from a list of words. Spoiler alert, if you’ve ever heard a native speaker rapidly say かずく when they were saying 家族（かぞく）, your ears might not have been fooling you.
http://www.amazon.com/Sounds-Japanese-Audio-CD/dp/0521617545/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449911698&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sounds+of+japanese
RE: Searching for Solid Resources on Japanese Phonetics - zx573 - 2015-12-12
These are similar to Bokusenou's suggestion, except free:
http://accent.u-biq.org/
http://www.gavo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ojad/
The second link also has sound clips for a lot of words, and includes words from a lot of popular Japanese learning textbooks and more.
datrukup's book looks pretty interesting, though.
RE: Searching for Solid Resources on Japanese Phonetics - RandomQuotes - 2015-12-12
In addition to the above; while you are at it take a look at the japanese phonology pages on wikipedia/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Japanese
RE: Searching for Solid Resources on Japanese Phonetics - Verse - 2015-12-31
Thanks for all the recommendations.
Per datrukup's suggestion, I purchased The Sounds of Japanese, and it seems like it was a worthwhile investment. I would suggest anyone interested in a nuanced description of Japanese phonetics to check it out. The way Japanese people pronounce words in isolation is very different from the variety which happens in rapid speech.