The Rhythm of the Japanese Language - Japanese Pronunciation

In this Japanese pronunciation video, you will learn about the rhythm of the Japanese language, one of the most important keys to speaking like a native Japanese speaker, along with the pronunciation of Japanese vowels and consonants and the Japanese pitch-accent.

In the Japanese language, each Kana (Hiragana and Katakana) takes the same amount of time to pronounce. For example, the word “にほんご” takes 4 beats to pronounce: |に|ほ|ん|ご|. This unit, with the equal duration of a sound (a Kana), is called a “mora.” The Japanese language is known as a mora-timed language, with a mora being at the core of its sound system. So, understanding a mora is an important step to sounding like a native Japanese speaker.

ん, a small Tsu, and long vowels are called “special morae” because these special moras never come at the beginning of a word, and these are pronounced in different ways depending on a sound preceding or succeeding them. Also, a mora and a syllable differ when a Japanese word contains special moras. Because these special moras also take 1 beat to pronounce like other Kanas, Japanese learners often struggle to pronounce them correctly. In this video, there are many pronunciation exercises for special morae.

This video also covers the bimoraic foot, the basic rhythmic unit in the Japanese language. When it comes to natural spoken Japanese, Japanese people tend to pronounce 2 moras as a pair. For example, the word “しゅくだい” is divided into 2 parts: |しゅく|だい| and this unit with 2 moras is called a “foot.” Each foot also takes 1 beat to pronounce. For example, the word “しゅくだい” takes 2 beats to pronounce. How to divide a Japanese word into feet is a little complicated. The following moras are prioritized to be put into feet:

1. a kana + a long vowel
2. a Kana + a small Tsu
3. a Kana + ん
4. a Kana + a vowel
5. です or ます

For example, the word “にほんご” is not divided into |にほ|んご|. Since ほ is followed by ん, these moras are put into a foot first like |に|ほん|ご|. In this word, ほん takes 1 beat to pronounce, and に and ご take half a beat to pronounce.

In this video, there are also many exercises for dividing a word into feet and understanding the bimoraic foot, that is, the rhythm of the Japanese language.



0:00 3 keys to speaking Japanese like a native
1:50 Mora
3:20 Special moras
4:09 Common Japanese pronunciation mistakes
6:35 Quiz 1: How many moras?
7:47 Pronunciation exercise for words with ん, a small Tsu, or long vowels
9:15 Bimoraic foot
11:29 Quiz 2: Divide a word into feet
13:49 Japanese rhythm exercise
15:11 Amenbo no uta to improve your rhythm in the Japanese language
15:24 Outro



How to pronounce ん (part 1):    • How to pronounce N - Japanese Pronunc...  

How to pronounce ん (part 2):    • How to pronounce N - Nasalization of ...  

How to Pronounce the Small Tsu:    • How to Pronounce the Small Tsu - Japa...  

Japanese Long Vowels:    • Japanese Long Vowels - Japanese Pronu...  

Amenbo no uta:    • Amenbo no uta  

Japanese Pronunciation Playlist:    • Japanese Pronunciation  

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