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Confusion! long え pronunciation. - Printable Version

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Confusion! long え pronunciation. - undead_saif - 2009-09-17

Hey guys,

Here in Tae Kim's http://www.guidetojapanese.org/hiragana.html, he says "it should be pronounced like / ay / (as in "acorn") and not just a long / e /. " about long vowel e.

So, I became confused and checked Smart.fm pronunciation for 2 words I know: 大学生 (だいがくせい) and きれい:
http://smart.fm/items/318479-dai-ga-kuse-i
http://smart.fm/items/436118-kirei

You can notice that pronunciations of the end of both are different!

What's the deal?
Thanks.

Confusion! long え pronunciation. - woodwojr - 2009-09-17

Having just listened to the samples you gave, I don't notice that the pronunciations are different. Are you referring to the difference in pitch?

~J

Confusion! long え pronunciation. - undead_saif - 2009-09-17

woodwojr Wrote:Having just listened to the samples you gave, I don't notice that the pronunciations are different. Are you referring to the difference in pitch?

~J
Am I imagining that きれい end is pronounced えい and 大学生 end is ええ？

Confusion! long え pronunciation. - undead_saif - 2009-09-17

Is this too obvious and I'm really newbie?

Confusion! long え pronunciation. - twinzen - 2009-09-17

I asked about this on lang-8, and some Japanese person said that he could not think of any word where えい would be pronounced anything other than ee.

Confusion! long え pronunciation. - undead_saif - 2009-09-17

Thanks guys Smile
These little confusions can be somewhat problems for a beginner Tongue

Confusion! long え pronunciation. - kazelee - 2009-09-17

I think it might be the English equivalent of a and uh. Slightly different pronunciations... Few people notice the difference.