I've observed a number of cases in which a Japanese word spelled with an r is pronounced in English translations with an l sound. I have been told that this is because r is pronounced l, and I have also been told that Japanese has no l sound. What is going on then?

Question

I've observed a number of cases in which a Japanese word spelled with an r is pronounced in English translations with an l sound. I have been told that this is because r is pronounced l, and I have also been told that Japanese has no l sound. What is going on then?

Question #63621. Asked by kaylofgorons.
Last updated Oct 02 2016.

gmackematix
Answer has 2 votes

gmackematix
21 year member
3194 replies

Answer has 2 votes.

According to this, Japanese does not have a sound equivalent to "l" or "r" but something in between called an alveolar flap.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotacism

Mar 17 2006, 12:06 PM

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Answer 1

Rhotacism may refer to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r (whether as an alveolar tap, alveolar trill, or the rarer uvular trill).

Rhotacism is a speech impediment, natural or regional.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotacism_(speech_impediment)

Answer 2

Japanese has no real sound for the letter *l* just as Chinese has no real sound for the letter *r*, but what one has to consider is that Japanese uses fully formed words while Chinese is a language of individual sounds that combine to make a language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters

http://www.babynames.ch/Info/Language/laJapanese

Answer 3

kaylofgorons
Answer has 1 vote

kaylofgorons
20 year member
303 replies

Answer has 1 vote.

Thanks. So this ambiguity I've been seeing/hearing is the English tranlators picking whatever sound they think belongs. (Kirara pronounced Kee-la-luh)

Mar 17 2006, 3:17 PM

Answer 4

Yes, that's right kayl.

Similarly the Japanese 'shi' sound is somewhere between English 's' and 'sh'...which is even more complicated because they don't have a 'th' sound - so 'th' also becomes 's'. Another difficult one is ye/e as in year/ear. But my (Japanese) hubby's least favourite English word is probably 'really'...takes him about a minute to get it out. :)

I've observed a number of cases in which a Japanese word spelled with an *r* is pronounced in English translations with an *l* sound. I have been told that this is because *r* is pronounced *l*, and I have also been told that Japanese has no *l* sound. What is going on then?

I've observed a number of cases in which a Japanese word spelled with an r is pronounced in English translations with an l sound. I have been told that this is because r is pronounced l, and I have also been told that Japanese has no l sound. What is going on then?