To see how this works, we can look at a word that is often associated with syllables, “haiku.” In English, “haiku” is made up of two syllables (hai-ku). This includes the vowels (あ, い, う, え, お) and the character ん (which might be uncomfortable for an English speaker because there is no vowel sound in there). In Japanese, each kana character is its own syllable. The concept of a syllable is different in Japanese than you may be used to with English. There’s only 46 sounds, so try to work on getting them sounding polished so you don’t sound too awkward and foreign when you speak. I had a lot of friends learning Japanese who sounded very American because their vowel sounds were just a bit off. It’s easier to pick up, but a lot harder to get exactly right. However, this kind of makes pronunciation a double-edged sword. ![]() So an あ will always sounds like the “a” in “father.” If you compare that to the seven different ways to pronounce “a” in English, you can see that pronouncing Japanese is going to be a lot easier to learn. There is also no variation in pronunciation with each syllable. Because there are only 46 characters in each syllabary (and they all match up with each other), there are only 46 basic sounds you can make in Japanese. This makes pronunciation in Japanese a lot easier than English. Syllable is a word used more commonly in English though, so I’m going to stick with that to explain things.) So if you take the hiragana か for example, you have to romanize it as “ka.” See how it has two letters? (A quick note here: The actual term for these “syllables” in Japanese is mora. Alphabets are made of characters that represent a single letter, while syllabaries are made of characters that represent a syllable. There are two syllabaries in Japanese: hiragana and katakana. (16) Polar bears are seagoing hunters that roam vast areas of the Arctic, pursuing a movable feast of seals, narwhals, beluga whales, and walruses.That’s actually a misleading header, because Japanese doesn’t really have an alphabet. (15) Dolphins and porpoises are examples of odontocetes, as are belugas, narwhals, killer whales, sperm whales, and beaked whales. (14) His narwhal tusks stand in the attic near a loose pile of taxidermic heads. (13) The narwhal is a smaller whale that lives most of its life north of the Arctic Circle. ![]() (12) The Antarctic lacks small resident toothed whales like the beluga and the narwhal of the Arctic. (11) Aquatic mammals that live in the waters off the coast include walrus, ringed seals, bearded seals, beluga, narwhal, and various other whales. ![]() (10) Strictly speaking, the term should be applied only to the tusks of elephants, although a wider definition includes the teeth of the hippo, narwhal whale and the walrus. (9) Occasionally they even pluck a walrus, beluga whale, or narwhal from the watery depths below the pack ice. (8) The tusked narwhal, white beluga whales and elusive bowhead whale all live off the northern part of this island. (7) The exhibit, showcasing such images as kayaks, walruses, seals and narwhal, reflects the close relationship between Inuit and water. (6) In fact it was a narwhal tusk, or possibly rhinoceros horn. (5) ├ö├ç├┐The extraordinary tusk of the narwhal has fascinated and puzzled scientists for hundreds of years,├ö├ç├û according to the expedition's Web site. ![]() (4) Furthermore, unlike the curved teeth of elephants and warthogs, the narwhal tooth is nature's only straight tusk. (3) A great white shark with a narwhal horn and legs seems to be attacking the glass. (2) For centuries observers have been fascinated and mystified by the majestic spiral tusk grown by the small Arctic whale known as the narwhal. (1) The tusk of whale or narwhal is spirally curved, and can measure up to 2.5 m in length.
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