Comparison of Exalted and Humble Japanese Family words

Family words
This is a Quick Japanese Vocabulary Chart demonstrating humble and exalted forms of family words for those serious in making Japanese their SL2.

Humble –when speaking of ones own, of oneself Exalted

Father chichi O-to^san (^ denotes long o)
Mother hahao O-ka^san (long a)
Older Brother ani O-ni^san (long i)
Younger Brother ototo O-totosan
Older Sister ane O-nesan
Younger Sister imoto imotosan
Parents ryo^shin (long o) Go-ryo^shin (long o)Husband shujin (lit. my lord) Go-shujin
Wife kanai okusama, or okusan

sama versus san - san is less exalted but still polite and most commonly used as with any word in column on the right. San can be exchanged for sama in any case and is dependant on how polite you choose to speak. Don't over do it. A Japanese person will always win a verbal joust to see who can be more humble and exalt another.

Ganbatte ne! Do your best!
Makurasuki Sensei

Base Ta - ooph la la

Have you ever verbed – verb (base TA) + koto ga aru

Iku – itte, itta

Tokyo ni itta koto ga aru? Have you ever been to Tokyo?

Hai, Tokyo ni itta koto ga arimasu. Yes I have been to Tokyo before.

Sushi o tabeta koto ga aru? Iie, sushi wa tabeta koto wa arimasen.

Worthy repost

Table 1 - The 46 Syllables of the Japanese Syllabary (romanized)
a ka sa ta na ha ma ra ya wa n
i ki shi chi ni hi mi ri
u ku su tsu nu fu mu ru yu
e ke se te ne he me re
o ko so to no ho mo ro yo wo

あ か さ た な は ま ら や わ ん
い き し ち に ひ み り
う く す つ ぬ ふ む る ゆ
え け せ て ね へ め れ
お こ そ と の ほ も ろ よ を

The above are the 46 syllables of the Japanese Syllabary. Individually they are called mora. Plurally they are called morae. One mora in particular is the focus of this article. The Tsu mora.
When the tsu syllable is added before the consonants k,p, and t, a hardened double consonant sound is produced. You spit out the words Like the sound of the doubled k in bookkeeper, adding the syllable tsu to ka, ki, ku, ke, ko . This special pronunciation of the doubled consonant is denoted by lowered case or subscript tsu in either hiragana or katakana. Some examples are as follows:

1. makka – deep red
2. jikken – experiment or test
3. shuppan – publish , shuppatsu – departure
4. zettai – suredly, absoluteness
5. tokkyo – not the city toukyou which has the elongated
6. happi – the English word happy in katakana

Note the use of the doubled consonant sound in Japanese is indicated by a lower case tsu followed by the doubled consonant sound.



When n is not connected to a vowel as in the very last syllable of the Japanese syllabary which in fact is just n or , it is like a syllable unto itself. It receives a full count if language were a music it would receive the same amount of time that a 2 lettered syllable receives., and is denoted by the apostrophe ‘. For example:
1. Kin’en this is Japanese for no smoking not kinen or the word for anniversary.
so it has 4 syllables and the word for anniversary has 3.

To say the ra ri ru re ro line of the syllabary say first in English eddy then make sure the tip of your tongue is touching delicately behind the upper front teeth. If you say it like this you come close to a true pronunciation of the Japanese word for collar, or eri.
To learn more haya ike!
http://squidoo.com/japperverbs2
or
http://squidoo.com/exaltedjapanese

As always Ganbatte ne! Do your best! Makurasuki Sensei yori Ja mata kondo!

Japanese pronunciation guide

Japanese Pronunciation Guide

I decided to make this guide because I have been embarrassed too many times by other gaijin who give my Japanese a bad name. I want the Japanese people themselves to lift the embargo of their already hardened idea and assumption that gaijin cannot speak their language. In America, a full blown Japanese person, or a Chinese person, or a Korean person, or anybody from any other country is thought as strange if, in America they don’t understand English. So instead of outright ringing the necks of Japanese learners who fail to take into account their lips, teeth and tongues when studying the pronunciation of Japanese, working with great care for the progress of their own improvement in the field, I created this article.
Although it’s not recommended to learn Japanese pronunciation on your own, this article can be used as reference in your for those with a sincere desire to help me save gaijin face by giving them more an impression that there are gaijin who can speak their language, and speak it like a native. So by reading this article you can help me change the world a little, well at least change the minds of a lot of Japanese people and their already hardened thoughts and pre-assumed, generalized opinion that if you are a gaijin, then it follows that you can’t speak Japanese like a native. My best advice to beginning learners is to live by the adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
Of all the facets of Japanese language learning, pronunciation isn’t one of the harder ones. The three toughest things about Japanese language which a SL2 learner will face in regards to pronunciation will be 1.) The pronunciation of the syllable tsu, 2.) The ra, ri, ru, re, ro row of the Hiragana and Katakana syllabary (and their words) and 3.) The words that contain an apostrophe between 2 syllables where one syllable ends with an n. The rest of pronunciation can be mastered quite quickly. It may take some time to actually develop the tongue or the workaround for being able to speak the language like a native.
The similarities between Japanese and English
1. Even stress or accent given to each syllable.
2. Rising pitch for questions
3. Stressing of words for emphasis

In Japanese there are times when the meanings of words can change dramatically. Depending on the length of time a vowel sound is sounded. There are two types of vowel sounds you will want to get familiar with in your Japanese studies. They are: 1.) Long vowels and 2.) Short vowels. We can see how these vowel sounds affect the meaning of words by taking a closer look at the Japanese words for grandmother and aunt, or o-baasan and o-basan. In the first word the longer aah in o-baasan means grandmother while if you shorten the length of that ah but just to a quick ah and pronounce it o-basan the meaning changes with minimal effort. So it is wise to pay very close attention to the length of vowels when memorizing words and developing our Japanese vocabulary. with no elongation of the vowel.
Another area worth consideration in your quest to master Japanese pronunciation, is the use of double consonants. Although in English there isn’t quite an equivalent sound so hard as there will be in Japanese, something similar in English can be found