Just because your ears can't hear a difference doesn't mean that there is none. I deal with this a lot when Japanese ask me for help and can't differentiate between certain sounds

[–] force 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Yeah in Japanese a few consonant sounds like 'r' and 'l' sounds or 'h'/'f' or 's'/'th' or 'z'/'ð' are basically heard as the same (an American 'r' might even sound like a weird 'w' to Japanese), and English has around 17 to 24 distinctive vowel sounds generally (based on quality) while Japanese has 5 plus vowel length and tones (pitch accent). As a result of the phonetic differences between the languages, it can be hard to hear or recreate the differences in sound quality (especially when it's Japanese on the speaking/listening end, but Americans also sure have a terrible time trying to make Japanese sounds like the "n" or "r" or "ch"/"j" or "sh"/"zh" or "f" or "u". they just perceive it as the same as the closest sounds in English)

In my experience, only God can hear the difference between Polish "dż" and "dź" / "cz" and "ć" (and the others)...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

English also doesn't have gemination (small tsu) which does make a difference in Japanese as well. Hearing that in very quick Japanese for words I don't know can still be different. Same with vowel length. Once you know the word, it doesn't matter as much how someone says it, but when it's new vocab and the speaker is very quick, it can be tough.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I didn't know the technical term gemination for っ, appreciate it. Can't it manifest somewhat similarly to stops/plosives though? English doesn't generally use those followed by the same consonant within the same word, but the phrase "port ten" is almost like the t consonant in itte, but with less of a pause in the middle. Contrast it with the word "portend" and you can see that we have a little bit more of a pause in "port ten".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

When I say "port ten" and ポッテン (with or without the long 'o') it seems I'm doing something different. Maybe a glottal stop and hard attack? I'm not actually a linguist though, so I could be very wrong.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wait, how does ch/j or sh differ from the English sounds? And what words use zh? I don't think I've seen that romaji

[–] force 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

They are all palatal sibilants in Japanese, while in English they're palato-alveolar sibilants. Very hard difference for English speakers to hear, but the distinction is common enough to exist in many languages. And the "ch"/"j"/"sh"/"zh" sounds I speak of are just common variations of "t"/"d"/"s"/"z" that occur before "i" (they are spelled si -> shi, zi -> zhi/ji, ti -> chi, di -> ji).

Usually "zhi" isn't spelled out in Rōmaji though, actually it's often spelled "ji" even when they're sometimes pronounced differently (so "zi" and "di" end up being spelled the same, perhaps confusingly, but most people pronounce them the same so it doesn't really matter). But I think pronouncing them differently is more of an archaic, obsolete, ot dialectal thing anyways.

The "h" in "hi" also sounds different.

The spelling also changes in the same way before a syllable that starts with a "y" sound, e.g. syu -> shu or dyo -> jo.

Before "u" some consonants also change (hu -> fu, tu -> tsu, du -> dzu).

These sound changes don't occur for all speakers/dialects, some don't have a "shi" and just say "si" for example, but they are the most common and standard I believe.

[–] orl0pl 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'm speak some Polish and dż is like job, cz is like check, sz is like shop, idk how rest is pronounced in other words