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For your first lesson, you will learn about the vowels. Vowels are sounds like "ah" and "eh," but every language--including Japanese--will have its own quirks to them. 

Next, we'll look at each vowel individually and get a closer look!

■Front/Back Mid-Vowels　　前舌・後舌中母音

The Japanese /o/ is also made with the tongue midway in the mouth.  The difference between /e/ and /o/ is where the highest point of the tongue is positioned. For /e/, it's at the front of the mouth, but for /o/, it's at the back of the mouth. 

■/o/ vs /oo/　「オ」と「オー」の区別

Don't pronounce /o/ just like the word "oh." Unless you are dealing with an actual long vowel, Japanese vowels remain crisp, and even when they are doubled in length, each part is treated as a separate syllable; thus, "oo" = "oh-oh."

As has been emphasized, Japanese distinguishes between short vowels and long vowels. Short vowels count as one syllable whereas long vowels count as two syllables. To conceptualize this, view each syllable as one clap. Each clap corresponds to one syllable. Each clap is equal in length, which means vowel length is uniform regardless of how fast the speaker is talking. 

■The Mora 　「拍」の概念

When syllables are described as being equal in length in relation to one another, they may also be called morae, which is synonymous to the concept of viewing iterations as separate beats/claps. 

 ※Again, "oo" should never be pronounced as a long "u" sound. /oo/ is always a long o. 

■Macron Use　　長音記号の使用

When romanizing Japanese text, a macron may be used to indicate a long vowel. So long as you have grasped Japanese syllable construction, you are free to do this. However, to prepare you for Japanese writing, this practice will be avoided for the time being.  

■Final /n/　撥音

Obasan is four morae and obaasan is five morae is because the final "n" is treated as a separate mora. There are only three valid syllablic/moraic structures in Japanese: vowel (V), consonant + vowel (CV), and consonant (C). We'll learn more about this in Lesson 2.

Pronouncing long vowels is mostly straightforward. However, there are three special spelling conventions that confuse learners. 

■"ee" vs. "ei"　「エー」と「エイ」の区別

"ee" is always equivalent to /ee/. Not that many words are spelled this way, but those with it are of native* origin (rare) or loanwords (common). Ex. "oneesan" (older sister). 

The Standard Japanese pronunciation of "ei" is not so set in stone. Pronouncing it as "eh + ee" is always "correct," but so long as the vowels don't cross a word boundary*, "e" is usually pronounced as /ee/. For example, the word for clock is "tokei," but it's usually pronounced as "tokee."However, in certain dialects, singing, and careful speech, /ei/ is the preferred pronunciation. 

※Native vocabulary with /ei/ never exhibit the /ee/ pronunciation. Exs.: ei (stingray), hei (wall/fence), etc.

Though it is correct to pronounce "ei" as it is spelled, it is not suggested for native English speakers because they are very likely to pronounce as a diphthong. A diphthong is what's called a "gliding vowel" in which two adjacent vowel sounds combine to form a single syllable. The syllables/morae of Japanese don't allow for diphthongs, and so fusing the "e" and "i" together entirely into a diphthong would sound unnatural. 

※Japanese words largely come from three distinct sources: the 'native' original words of the language, loanwords from modern foreign languages, or Sino-Japanese words (words from Chinese roots). 

Words with /ee/ 

Words with /ee/ or /ei/

※Out of brevity and to not make spelling any more confusing than it has to be, the alternate/standard /ee/ pronunciation is understood from the "ei" spelling. 

■"oo" vs. "ou"　「オー」と「オウ」の区別

"oo" is always pronounced as /oo/, but "ou" may correspond to /oo/" or /ou/ depending on the word. Until you are more comfortable with Japanese, this may be difficult to comprehend, but there are several scenarios that can help you determine which is which. 

Words written with "oo" are always either native or from loanwords. Words that are written with "ou" but are in fact pronounced as /oo/ are almost entirely Sino-Japanese words (of Chinese origin). So long as "ou" constitutes the end of a noun, it is safe to say that it is pronounced as /oo/. However, if it is at the end of the verb, it will be pronounced as /ou/. If it is isn't a verb but is in fact native in origin, then /oo/ will be the correct pronunciation.

Words Spelled and Pronounced as /oo/

Words Spelled and Pronounced as /ou/

※Some words such as tou are often pronounced with /oo/ instead of /ou/, which is a relic from older speech.

Words Spelled as "Ou" but Pronounced as /oo/

※Of these words, douzo and otousan are of native origin, but the rest are Sino-Japanese words.

■/ou/ across Word Boundaries　単語を跨ぐ「オウ」

Another case in which "ou" is pronounced as /ou/ rather than /oo/ is when the vowels cross a word boundary. Ko'ushi (calf) and koushi (lecturer) are great examples of this.  Each word happens to be composed of two parts, but the breakup of those parts is not the same. "Calf" is literally composed of ko- (small) and ushi (cow) whereas "lecturer" is composed of kou (Chinese root meaning "lecture") and shi (Chinese root meaning "expert"). 

The most irregular spelling regarding vowel pronunciation is the word iu, which is the verb for "to say" because it is pronounced as /yuu/ instead of as /iu/. However, in all other instances in Japanese in which these two vowels are next to each other, they are pronounced normally. Nonetheless, iu is an extremely frequently used word, and so it would be remiss not to mention it.

In this lesson, you not only learned about /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, and /o/, you learned about how exactly each vowel sounds and several other principles of Japanese pronunciation. Short and long vowel distinctions are so crucial, even with the most basic vocabulary. 

If you thought that not much was covered in this lesson, almost all the words in this lesson, minus the showcasing of extreme homophones, appear in the JLPT N5, the elementary proficiency test for Japanese. So, if you do choose to memorize them, you'll certainly have an advantage. 

Now, let's begin learning about consonants!