How To Convert English Phrases to Japanese

Japanese phrases that even probably the most proficient learners of the language discover the toughest to pronounce could be, sarcastically, those borrowed from their very own native tongue.

My spouse, who’s initially from america and now’s a fluent speaker of Japanese after residing in Japan for 15 years, nonetheless struggles to pronounce considered one of her dwelling nation’s most well-known manufacturers — “McDonald’s,” which in Japanese is マクドナルド (makudonarudo).

Understanding how katakanization works is a vital sensible talent for native English audio system who examine Japanese.

Phrases of English origin, after they get transformed to katakana, usually throw off native audio system of English. It is because it is exhausting to unlearn their native tongue’s phonology — the sound system with a algorithm that they subconsciously observe since their early childhood — after which modify the unique sound to match the Japanese phonology. I name this course of katakanization as a result of overseas phrases tailored into Japanese are usually spelled with katakana characters and are generally referred to as katakana-go (katakana phrases).

In my view as a local speaker of Japanese and a language lover, understanding how katakanization works is a vital sensible talent for native English audio system who examine Japanese. Not solely can the power to pronounce these phrases allow you to to be extra simply understood by Japanese audio system, it additionally has the additional benefit of increasing your vocabulary, and nearly instantaneously, with out as a lot effort as you may suppose. And as you may already know, we use loads of katakanized loanwords of English origin. Like, quite a bit.

So I’m writing this text with the hope of serving to native-English-speaking Japanese learners who battle with one of many greatest quirks of the Japanese language — katakana phrases. Later on this article, you’ll study three fundamental guidelines for the right way to katakanize English phrases. I hope they’ll allow you to to have the ability to katakanize phrases by yourself so that you could pronounce phrases of English origin in a method that Japanese audio system can simply perceive.

Conditions: To get probably the most out of this text, you need to already know katakana (particularly the right way to pronounce them). If you have to brush up, take a look at our Final Katakana Information.

Why Katakanize?

Earlier than entering into the essential katakanization guidelines, first, let me clarify somewhat extra about why I feel you need to study them.

No person Desires That “Oh-No-This-Individual-Is-Speaking-to-Me-in-English Look,” Proper?

One of the widespread causes I hear some learners (even when their Japanese is fairly superior) keep away from katakanizing English phrases is, “Why cannot I simply pronounce English phrases accurately?”

The reply is fairly easy. Many Japanese audio system would not be capable of perceive it except they know the unique English pronunciation of the phrase. Is not “with the ability to talk with Japanese individuals” the entire level of finding out Japanese (at the very least, for a lot of of you), anyway?

Code-switching to your native tongue compromises intelligibility.

Whereas code-switching to your native tongue could provide you with some authenticity because the speaker of the unique language, it compromises intelligibility. You may strive asking “McDonald’s-tte doko desu ka?” (The place is McDonald’s?) with perfectly-pronounced McDonald’s on the road in Japan. You may additionally strive asking the place “Seven-Eleven” is with out katakanizing it to sebun irebun (セブンイレブン). In both case, you’d most definitely get that horrified, oh-no-this-person-is-talking-to-me-in-English look.

Notice that for katakanized phrases which are significantly lengthy and could be a little bit trippy, you possibly can normally shorten them — in actual fact, many Japanese individuals do! Take the earlier instance of マクドナルド; this may be shortened to マック or マクド. Equally, セブンイレブン turns into セブン. So don’t be concerned if you do not have full confidence of pronunciation simply initially.

Japanese Audio system Use English Loanwords, Like A Lot

Japanese individuals use 3,000 – 5,000 loanwords in every day conversations, and 94% of them are of English origin.

Names of restaurant and retailer chains aren’t the one English phrases borrowed into the Japanese language. English-derived loanwords have been deeply woven into Japanese, each written and spoken. A examine from the Nineties ^{confirmed that over 35% of all vocabulary printed in 70 Japanese magazines have been overseas loanwords, most of them being of English origin. A 2010 e-book about wasei eigo (Japan-made English) additionally indicated that Japanese individuals use 3,000 – 5,000 loanwords in every day conversations, and 94% of them are of English origin. After all, these research are from years in the past, so we most likely use much more katakana phrases in Japanese at this time. The purpose is, it is so exhausting to hold on conversations in Japanese with out Western loanwords that Japan even has a consuming recreation the place it’s important to take a shot each time you utilize one!}

The portion of English loanwords in Japanese is rising with the inflow of recent applied sciences and ideas are evident in software program manuals like: アイコンをダブルクリックしてアプリケーションをインストールします icon-o doubleclick-shite application-o install-shimasu “Doubleclick the icon to put in the applying.” With this, it is changing into all of the extra useful to know the way katakanization works. Whereas having to Japanize your native tongue could be a problem, it might allow you to grow to be extra approachable for individuals who grew up talking Japanese.

Unpronounceable English Sounds

You may additionally need to ask why Japanese audio system katakanize English phrases within the first place. It is just because many sound patterns in English aren’t permitted within the Japanese phonology, similar to the French guttural /r/ is not in English. One of many (many) the reason why English pronunciation is a pure nightmare for Japanese highschool children is that Japanese doesn’t permit any syllables ending with a consonant except /n/ (ン). English has 1000’s of phrases ending with consonants like cat, look and ship however they’re merely unpronounceable within the Japanese phonological universe.

There isn’t any selection aside from to katakanize loanwords to make them pronounceable inside the Japanese phonology.

Advanced syllables like power, sixth and garments are much more unpronounceable for Japanese audio system as a result of the Japanese phonology would not allow two or extra consonants to be squeezed collectively. The English /th/ sound is completely impermissible in Japanese — in actual fact, in most human languages ^{— and subsequently must be changed with the closest Japanese sound /s/ as in surī (スリー) “three.” Merely put, there isn’t a selection aside from to katakanize them to make them pronounceable inside the Japanese phonology.}

So katakanization would not precisely occur due to the writing system. It is exactly due to the Japanese phonology that governs how phrases are pronounced within the language.

Primary Conversion Guidelines

So how precisely does katakanization work? Though we now have some exceptions, there are three fundamental conversion guidelines that native Japanese audio system subconsciously apply.

Notice: IPA symbols we use on this article are based mostly on American English pronunciations.

Rule #1: Add Vowels

When a consonant just isn’t instantly adopted by a vowel, you add a vowel.

It is because every sound normally includes a vowel in Japanese. The ン (/n/, or /m/) sound is an exception, however apart from that, a unit of Japanese sounds is both a single vowel like ア /a/ – イ /i/ – ウ /u/ – エ /e/ – オ /o/, or a set of consonant and a vowel like カ /ka/ – キ /ki/ – ク /ku/ – ケ /ke/ – コ /ko/. If you understand how katakana works, this most likely is sensible to you.

Now, what vowel ought to I be including, proper? That’s:

• /o/ after /t/ or /d/
• /i/ after /ch/ or /j/
• Nothing after /n/ and /r/
• /u/ elsewhere.

Let’s use the phrase “danger” for example. First, r is adopted by a vowel i, so that you simply depart it alone. However the remainder, s and ok aren’t adopted by a vowel. For s, you add u. For ok, add u. And you will get ri-su-ku — リスク.

Check out one other instance — the phrase “measurement.” Whenever you attempt to parse it, you see two pairs of a consonant and a vowel — si and ze. So it will be… シゼ…? No, not that. Watch out to not get confused with the spelling and the sound. The phrase “measurement” seems like “saiz,” proper? In case you possibly can’t consider the phonetic spelling off the highest of your head, there are converters like this which may come useful for katakanization. Now, going again to the “measurement (saiz)”, z is the one sound that is not adopted by a vowel. So that you add a u there, and now you have received sa-i-zu — サイズ. That is the way you write and say “measurement” in Japanese.

Rule #2: Exchange Sounds

Exchange illegitimate sounds with related reputable Japanese sounds.

You may already know this, however the Japanese language has fewer sounds than the sounds English has. Like I discussed earlier, the th /θ/ sound would not actually exist in Japanese, and the closest sound is the s sound. Because of this “three” turns into surii (スリー) and “thanks” turns into sankyū (サンキュー) in Japanese. Identical to that, for sounds that the Japanese language would not have, you may be changing sounds with the Japanese equivalents. Now let’s take a deeper look.

Vowels

As you could know, Japanese has solely 5 vowel sounds ア, イ, ウ, エ, and オ. That is clearly extra restricted in comparison with English — for instance, English has three “a” sounds (/æ/, /ʌ/, /ə/), however ア replaces all of them.

All examples above begin with vowels for the sake of instance, however in fact, this substitute rule applies to a mix of vowels and consonants.

Phrases “hat” and “hut” — they’ve the completely different “a” sounds, however in Japanese, they each get transformed to ハット as a result of the /æ/ and /ʌ/ sounds each exchange to ア. This implies “cowboy hat” (カウボーイハット) and “Pizza Hut” (ピザハット) — they each use ハット regardless of the distinction within the English sounds.

Additionally, in relation to vowels, take note of the size of the vowel in query. Lengthy, prolonged vowel sounds are represented as “ー,” the hyphen-looking image in Japanese. For instance, “pull” is プル (puru), however “pool” is プール (pūru). An /r/ after a vowel as in automobile, 4 and earth turns into the extension of the vowel as properly. So, very like in British English, automobile is カー (kā), 4 is フォー (fō) and earth is アース (āsu).

Consonants

Now, onto consonants! Identical to a number of the vowels, there are a number of English consonant sounds that do not actually exist in Japanese, and thus get changed with the closest sound as a substitute. Listed below are some examples.

Now, taking a look at this checklist, are you able to guess what the phrase “stomach” would seem like in katakana?

Stomach can be ベリー, similar to “berry” and “very.” That is as a result of there is not any distinction in sound between “b” and “v” nor “r” and “l” in Japanese. ベリー fascinating (…and doubtlessly ベリー complicated), proper?

There are additionally just a few consonant + vowel pairs that we pronounce in another way in English but get represented with the identical katakana character in Japanese. These variations could be extra refined than those proven above, however for instance, si and shi each grow to be シ. So “sea” and “she” each grow to be シー in katakana. Equally, the voiced variations of those sounds, “zi” and “ji” each grow to be ジ.

Rule #3: Duplicate Consonants

Duplicate the “cease” consonant on the finish of the phrase if it happens after a brief vowel.

Bit, dip, look… What makes these phrases sound so skippy? It’s the fast “pause” between sounds. In romaji to characterize this type of sound, we use duplicated consonants like bitto, proper? In katakana, we use ッ (the small tsu) as in ビット to characterize these fast pauses. You will be duplicating the “cease” consonants, that are /p/, /b/, /ch/, /j/, /t/, /d/, /ok/ and /g/ — sounds you make by blocking the air circulation.

Now, let’s observe katakanizing “dip” and “look” — “dip” turns into ディップ (dippu) and “look” turns into ルック(rukku). Are you getting the gist?

Keep in mind this rule typically applies to the final syllable solely. For instance, picnic turns into pikunikku (ピクニック) as a substitute of pikkunikku (ピックニック). Additionally do not forget this solely occurs to the consonant after a brief vowel versus lengthy vowels, like beat, deep, or Luke.

Congrats, you have simply discovered the three fundamental guidelines of katakanization! Though these three guidelines account for many katakanization processes, they will not merely make you a grasp of katakanization. You will nonetheless encounter curve balls and a few tough ones — for these, you continue to have to make small changes right here and there.

Mixture Katakana

Should you’re hoping to take your katakanization to the subsequent stage, it will be a good suggestion to overview mixture katakana. Mixture katakana are katakana characters fabricated from a mix with a small character like フォ, ティ, or ジュ.

For instance, you may count on “cat” to grow to be katto (カット), however it truly must be kyatto (キャット) as a result of the vowel of cat makes the c sound extra just like the Japanese /kya/ sound than the /ka/ sound. Equally, “hole” turns into gyappu (ギャップ) as a substitute of gappu (ガップ). That is too simple? These could be comparatively widespread katakana mixtures, however there are some curveballs you won’t be so aware of — like トゥ as in トゥモロー (tomorrow), or デュ as in デュエット (duet).

These mixture katakana are the unsung heroes of katakana. They permit us to characterize sounds that we did not have in Japanese — the sounds are even nearer to the unique English pronunciations.

At present, loanwords generally tend to use mixture katakana to raised characterize the unique sounds.

Nonetheless, mixture katakana could be much less acquainted and not-so-easy-to-pronounce for Japanese audio system, particularly older of us. At present, loanwords generally tend to use mixture katakana to raised characterize the unique sounds, however this wasn’t at all times the case. For instance, “thought” was once generally written as アイデア in katakana, however as of late, アイディア is much extra widespread. And, this results in the subsequent word: be careful for older loanwords!

Watch Out for Older Loanwords

A few of you’ll have already observed widespread English loanwords do not actually observe the essential guidelines. Like, kēki (ケーキ) “cake” not being kēku (ケーク), rajio (ラジオ) “radio” not being reidio (レイディオ) and kariforunia (カリフォルニア) “California” nor being kyarifōnia (キャリフォーニア). That’s as a result of these phrases are comparatively outdated borrowings that got here to Japan earlier than the conversion guidelines grew to become constant.

Older loanwords are sometimes the way in which they’re for customary causes — you may want to recollect the right way to spell them in katakana.

As you may’ve observed, part of this cause is the no-use of mixture katakana. Sounds that we historically did not have or unusual sounds in Japanese have been changed with ones simpler to pronounce and acknowledge for Japanese audio system. So in the event that they have been borrowed at this time, they’d be katakanized in another way — like レイディオ. Nonetheless, a lot of them stay the identical regardless of the change as we’re already used to the way in which they’re! Meaning, older loanwords are sometimes the way in which they’re for customary causes — you may want to recollect the right way to spell them in katakana.

Katakanize Like a Professional

Katakanization could be a problem for native-English-speaking learners, even those that are already fluent in Japanese. Nonetheless, do not forget studying the right way to katakanize won’t solely allow you to higher acclimate to Japanese phonology and enhance your general pronunciation, but additionally make your spoken Japanese extra understandable and approachable. And if you happen to take a look at it from a unique perspective — being an English speaker can be a bonus in Japanese studying if you understand how katakanization works. Whenever you begin with the ability to convert English phrases to katakana easily, and acknowledge extra katakana phrases that Japanese audio system use, you’d be shocked what number of phrases you recognize already!

I hope the three fundamental guidelines and further suggestions allow you to construct an excellent basis for katakana conversion. It’s a extremely sensible talent and doubtlessly a recreation changer to convey your Japanese to the subsequent stage. So, preserve katakanizing and continue to learn — Guddo rakku!