Rules for Reading Romaji

The rules for writing and pronouncing this system of romaji are listed below. They are fairly simple. 

Japanese lacks what a linguist friend of mine calls “poop vowels.”  That is, it contains NO diphthongs and NO schwas.  If you don’t know what a diphthong or a schwa is, ignore this and move on to the next paragraph.  If you do, you’ll want to note that the guide to pronunciation that I’ve provided here is only an approximate one, because most of the English words I’ve cited contain diphthongs.  In fact, Japanese vowels are pronounced much more like vowels in most European languages.  If you want any songs in IPA transcription, you can email me (but seriously if that’s what you want why are you reading this?)    

There are five vowel sounds total: “a” as in “father,” “i” pronounced like the “ie” in “piece,” u as in “plume,” (NOT pronounced “yu” as in “euphonic”), e as in “leg,” and o as in “note.”

If two of the same vowel come next to each other (“aa,” “ii,” “uu,” “ee,” “oo”) then they are pronounced in the same way as the vowels above, but held out for twice as long.

If two different vowels come next to each other (“ae,” “ie,” “au,” “uo,” etc.) they are pronounced fully and separately according to the above rules. For instance, if you see the vowel combination “ae” it will be pronounced “ah eh.”  The two exceptions to this separate-vowel rule are as follows:

The “ou” sound is pronounced just like the “oo” sound above, that is, like the “o” in “note,” NOT like the “ow” in “cow,” or the “oo” in “boom.”
The “ei” sound is pronounced just like the “ee” sound above, that is, like the “ay” in “pray.”

All g sounds are hard, as in “granite,” NOT soft as in “gentle.”

All j sounds are hard, as in “jibe,” NOT soft like French j’s.

The “ch” sound is ALWAYS pronounced like the “ch” in “cheese.”

A true Japanese accent has many nuances, and there is no way to learn to speak in a good Japanese accent by reading an article on the internet. The above rules are simply to give non-Japanese speakers an idea of how Japanese words are pronounced. If you don’t speak Japanese, and you’re thinking of singing a j-rock song for karaoke, my suggestion is, listen to the song again and again, and copy the singer’s pronunciation while simultaneously reading the romaji.