Science of Vowels
Blog Article: hScience of Vowelsh by Shigenori Matsushita
The typical accent of English spoken by the Japanese is sometimes called gKatakana Englishh because English pronunciation is substituted by that of a Japanese Katakana letter, which represents one of the simplest pronunciations in the world. Vowels seem to be the key for getting rid of Katakana English, because consonants are generally easier to pronounce. English consonants without corresponding ones in Japanese, namely gthh, gf/vh, glh and gwhh, are taught in schools and are relatively easy to learn. Besides, Japanese gth, unlike English gth, has the tongue closely attached to the upper jaw and Japanese gwh doesnft have the lips rounded. But English gth and gwh could be substituted by Japanese consonants without sounding too strange. One major problem, however, is the misunderstanding by most Japanese people that grh in English must be the same consonant as in gRingoh, or apple, in Japanese, because it is the right way of writing in the Romanized Japanese.
The consonant of grh in Japanese is unique. The tongue touches the upper jaw to stop the breath for a moment and then vibrates when the breath is released. There are two ways to pronounce grh in American English, say (a) and (b). Native speakers of American English are not necessarily conscious of the difference, but in either case, the tongue never touches the upper jaw. In (a), the tip of the tongue is rolled up, while in (b), the both sides of the inner tongue touch the upper back teeth and tongue tip is lowered near the lower front teeth. For Japanese people, (a) is easier, but (b) seems more prevalent among Americans. When glh comes right after grh as in ggirlh, (b) is easier for movement of the tongue tip. In the standard British English called gReceived Pronunciationg, grh as in ggirlh or gparkh is not pronounced, but it is pronounced in American English. Immigrants from Scotland and Ireland, who spoke older English pronouncing grh, crossed the Appalachian and spread from the Midwest to the West, and their language ultimately became the standard American English called gGeneral Americang.
In phonetics, the vowel is defined as a continuous voiced sound with open vocal tract without any hindrance to the breath. The English consonant grh, an approximant with the breath through a narrowed tract, is also called a semivowel, like gyh and gwh, because they are all narrowed vowels in a sense. The Japanese grh is not an approximant nor a semivowel.
The standard Japanese, like Spanish and Italian, has only five vowels; [a], [i], [u], [e] and [o]. It used to have only four vowels in the prehistorical influence of Polynesian immigrants originating in Taiwan, and then the number increased to five. In the era of Man~yogana (or Man~yokana) before the eighth century, eight vowels were strictly differentiated as influenced by immigrants from the continent, namely [a], [i]1, [i]2, [u], [e]1, [e]2, [o]1 and [o]2. Subsequently, Man~yoganas were misused and the number of vowels was ultimately reduced to the current five in the Heian period when phonetic Hiragana (or Hirakana) was established.
In phonetics, vowels are positioned on the so called vowel chart. In the Japanese language, [i] and [e] are called ghigh vowels (closed vowels)h, because the tongue comes high near the upper jaw. In pronunciation of [i], the tongue shifts forward to make a smaller space between the tongue and the lips. Therefore, [i] is called the ghigh front vowelh and positioned at the upper left corner of the vowel chart. On the other hand, in the case of [u], the tongue shifts backward to make a bigger space between the tongue and the lips, and [u] is called the ghigh back vowelh and positioned at the upper right corner of the vowel chart. The vowel [a] is the glow vowel (open vowel)g, without front or back, and positioned at the bottom of the vowel chart. The phonetics defines the semi-high and semi-low vowels in between, but the Japanese language has only two more vowels; [e] as the gmiddle front vowelh and [o] as the gmiddle back vowelh. Namely, Japanese vowels are fewer and represent wider areas on the chart. On the other hand, English vowels are more numerous and represent smaller areas (see Figure 1).
When frequency components of vowels are analyzed, the basic frequency, which is the basic pitch of the voice, and its harmonic frequencies are detected. Among harmonics, the first formant gF1 is a group of harmonics corresponding to resonance between the voice cords and the tongue, and the second formant gF2 is that between the tongue and the lips. A graph. with F1 as the vertical axis and F2 as the horizontal axis in an appropriate scale, illustrates vowels in similar positions to those in the vowel chart above (see Figure 2) .
On the vowel chart, five Japanese vowels are positioned, while eleven vowels are placed in the case of American English (Figure 1, left). In addition, American English has six additional sounds of vowels combined with the semivowel of grh as in ggirlh and gparkh (Figure 1, right). Among seventeen vowels in total, as many as seven are all substituted by a single Japanese vowel of [a] in the typical Katakana English. Those seven are the vowels of gagoh (the first vowel), gputth, gpath, gpalmh, gpoth, gpearlh, and gparth. Many Japanese pronounce gpoth with the vowel [o], but the same vowel in gnoth and gbodyh is often pronounced with [a].
Many Japanese learn to pronounce the word gcanh as [kyan]. But the vowel of gcanh should be the one between Japanese [a] and [e] as in gpath, ghamh and gmath. Many Japanese wrongly believe that the only difference between gpeath and gpith or gleaveh and gliveh is the duration (or time length) of the vowel. The Japanese people, unlike native English speakers, are sensitive to the time length of vowels because the Japanese language is spoken in precise beats almost like a metronome. A single beat [o] means a gtailh, while double beats [oo] mean a gkingh. Japanese spoken out of beat makes for a foreigner like Japanese. As a matter of fact, pronunciations of gpeath and gpith are different in their vowels as well as in their lengths. The vowel in gpeath or gleaveh can be long [i] in Japanese, but that in gpith or gliveh is a vowel in the middle between Japanese [i] and [e]. Which difference, the difference in lengths or the difference in vowels, is more important ? According to my experiments, Americans seem to differentiate gpeath and gpith, or gleaveh and gliveh, more by the vowel than by the length. Similar is the difference between gpoolh and gpullh. The vowel of gpoolh is longer with the round lip [u], whereas that of gpullh is a shorter vowel between Japanese [u] and [o].
One of the most important points in getting rid of Katakana English is to pronounce ggirlh, gearlyh, ghurdleh, gEarl Greyh and so on with grh in the American way. But this pronunciation is not well taught in Japan, because most English teachers in Japan themselves can not pronounce them properly.
Some Japanese say, gJapanese English should be accepted since we are Japanese. Look! Americans listened to Einsteinfs English with his German accent.h Well, anybody will listen to English with any accents if what is talked about is excellent. In reality, however, whether in inviting Olympic Games or in pitching a product, English and the substance should make up for each other in most cases. Katakana English is at a disadvantage.
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