略　(りゃく)　 脈　(みゃく) Rare as this particular sound is there is words that use it! Those are two examples i've seen of a Xゃ combo.

It really is a combination of り＋ゆ just merged into one sound it's like you're mouth moves to make each sound in parallel rather than in series. Listen to plenty of words that use them as there is a distinct difference. E.g. 留学　(りゅうがく) vs　料理　(りょうり) sound vastly different.

For some reason, I can pronounce
りょう but not りょ, and
りゅう but not りゅ.

I find it so odd that it's easy to get the doubled vowel, but when it's just the single glide, I can't pronounce it.

りゅ... I'm thinking it kinda sounds like 'dew'(if you pronounce dew as 'dyoo' not 'doo')

An example I like to practice is "Sakamoto Ryuichi." Most English speakers butcher the pronunciation of his name, because that ryu sound just doesn't exist in English.

Here's a clip of the man himself saying his own name:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnnBp3tIybQ#t=7s
(around 0:08 to 0:11)

It begins, "E, konnichiwa. Sakamoto Ryuichi desu."

I haven't noticed anything difficult about those sounds, but then I'm a native French speaker so that's probably why. Or maybe I just completely missed it and I'm saying it wrong

Anyway がんばってくだせぇぇ～！

IceCream's description is close.  The middle of your tongue should start closer to your palate ("roof of the mouth") to pronounce りゃ than it is to pronounce ら, thus "palatalized."  Unfortunately, that might not be helpful to know.  You've probably never thought about how you pronounce things.

Basically, you have two problems at once: the new consonant sound of らりるれろ plus the distinction between palatalized and non-palatalized consonants that Japanese makes, but English does not.

First, you should be sure you're solid on the difference between ぬ／にゅ, ま／みゃ, etc for the か、が、な、ま、は、ぱ、and ば consonants.  These can be surprisingly difficult for native anglophones. 

Once you've acquired those consonants, the harder ones like ら should fall into place.  If it's any help, yes りゅう sounds similar to "dyew."  But don't take my written word for it: as always with pronunciation issues, you must listen and imitate.  It's best (but not strictly required) to have a transcript and watch for the palatalized consonants.

Sentences with audio, like Core 2000 are perfect for this sort of thing.

Could you please post something for us to hear?

Something like we did in this thread:
http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?pid=46662#p46662

Here's six words...

恐龍 (きょうりゅう): Dinosaur
下流 (かりゅう): Downstream
留学 （りゅうがく): study abroad

同僚 (どうりょう): Comrade
材料 (ざいりょう): Ingredients, materials needed
旅行 (りょこう): Traveling

I hope this sound file and hosting service works: http://www.usaupload.net/d/tpm72p7j3xx

I pronounced all of these with an R.
(I never pronounce anything with an L for Japanese except for the occasional ららら in songs -- probably a habit I picked up from Korean.)

Last edited by ocircle (2009 December 01, 10:23 pm)

..How do you guys have problems pronouncing it? Just because it has a R in front doesn't make it any different from saying the letter Q

Q's pronunciation is Kyuu
Just like the R from Ryuu

IceCream wrote:

hehe brandon... did you copy ocircle's pronunciation? it sounds like you will end up with a good japanese accent, because you're good at imitating. But, ocircle is korean, so it sounds like your trying to pronounce japanese with a korean accent
as far as i can hear, your りょう etc sounds fine now, but im sure someone else can comment better than me on it ：）

Actually, I used the WWWJDIC audio clips as guidelines. It's been about 4 days since I'd heard ocircle's audio.

harhol wrote:

You also (understandably) sound rather nervous and there's some tremble in your voice. Try to be more chilled and monotone.

Yeah, I was at least a little bit nervous; and I'm sure it didn't help that I had only heard two of those words (旅行, 留学) before I recorded this piece. Oh, and I definitely gotta work on that かりゅう　bit. For some reason  か has a tendency to throw me off; there's a few words, even without the りゅ/りょ, that I mess up on when they have the か sound. Gonna have to analyze that issue.
    And I do realize that I don't use the correct sound length most of the time when pronouncing any phrases with an extended vowel (りゅう、りょう、きゅう、こう、そう、etc). That issue is very much a work in progress, the more I listen to Japanese the better I get at that though.

Thank you for the feedback, Icecream and harhol, it's much appreciated.

Last edited by brandon7s (2009 December 04, 7:14 pm)