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I’m a little confused over the pronunciation of り, going through the examples I’ve noticed some that sound no different to a western R and other that are closer to L and one that sounds more like a D, does the position within a word affect the pronunciation?
Neil
The R set of sounds are something you’ll have to closely listen to and mimmick as best you can. http://www.textfugu.com/season-1/japanese-pronunciation/3-8/#top koichi provides the best tips and demo on how to get better at pronouncing them.
I always pronounce it as an R with a strong L sound. But just like English, r’s in words sound a bit different depending on what follows. Sometimes it’s a harsh sound like a pirate, other times it’s softer like “ehhhh” where you hardly hear the R sound. When I’m speaking Japanese, I know in my mind that I’m pronouncing it the same way I usually do, but depending on what follows it could sound a bit different.
In Japanese there is a pitch accent, some syllables have high and low pitch, this can make the same syllable sound different.
Also in Japanese there is Elision ( omission of one or more sounds such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce.) for instance especially with syllables ending in u is common, but equally including the u and putting emphasis on it.
The らりるれろ りゃ りゅ りょ syllables have the sounds r, l and d, kinda mixed together and it seems that sometimes that a different amount of emphasis can be put on the different sounds.
You will probably find that the usage depends on the speaker, where they are from etc. Try to listen to a wide variety of speakers and see how they say those syllables.
I usually only see it pronounced li in songs or specific people(mostly anime).
I tend to pronounce it ri (DadDY, maybe? American accent not british) because it sounds idk less girly, but that’s just me. 帰り道、光、鳥、立派、Sound better with a (hard?) り、except in songs, where rll sounding りs sound more musical/softer.
AnonymousI usually just put my tongue on the top center of my mouth and flick it forward.
Don’t worry about it too much, the pronunciation differs a lot (well by a lot I mean it can sound like an L, like an R, or a mix) with Japanese people, as long as you aren’t going for a straight RE as in “Replay” it’s probably not worth fretting over.
Different people pronounce it different ways. Some make it sound more like an L, some more like a D.
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