Japanese pronunciation & accents

More about the book

This book presents a comprehensive application of Natural Phonetics & Tonetics to the pronunciation of Japanese, including its intonation, in a manner that surpasses previous works, even those by native experts. It introduces the Natural Phonotonetics Method, applicable to any language, avoiding the limitations of the official IPA. The text meticulously describes and transcribes Japanese vowels, consonants, structures, and intonation, supplemented with numerous examples of words, sentences, and conversations, including an intonationally integrated IPA passage from ‘The North Wind and the Sun’. It covers various Japanese pronunciations, such as neutral, mediatic, and 20 local accents, along with one diachronic stage. A mini-phono-dictionary features over 500 challenging words and proper names for non-native speakers. The second edition also addresses the typical pronunciation of English by Japanese speakers, in addition to common foreign pronunciations of Japanese. The text has been revised extensively, particularly regarding its complex tonetic structures and symbols. The authors, Luciano Canepari and Francesca Miscio, have significant expertise in phonetics, contributing to a range of related publications. This edition is part of LINCOM Studies in Phonetics and spans 272 pages.