Pronunciation of Japanese

1. Kana and Mora

The katakana letters in the square on the right are not in the above table.They are used to write sound which are not original Japanese sounds but are needed for use in loan 

The Japanese Language is based on five vowel sounds: あ (a), い (i), う(u), え(e) and お(o). All spoken sounds are derived from these five vowels. They are used alone or are attached to either a consonant (ex. K + a = か) or a consonant plus semi-vowel “y” (ex. K + y + a = きゃ). The exception to this is a special mora, ん (n), which is not followed by vowels.
2.Long Vowels	A long vowels is pronounced twice as long as the ordinary vowels, あ, い, う, え and お. If you count the length of the vowel あas one, the length of the long vowel ああ is counted as two. This means あ is one mora long, whereas ああ is two mora long. Whether a vowel is long or not can change the meaning of the word
	Examples: おばさん (aunt) I おばあさん (grandmother) ゆき(yuki) I ゆうき (courage) テ-プ (tape) I タクシ- (taxi)
3. Pronunciation of ん	ん never appears at the beginning of a word. It constitutes one mora. For easier pronunciation, the way it is said changes according to the sound that comes after it.
	1.It is pronounced /n/ before the sounds in the た-, だ-, ら-, and な- rows. Examples: はんたい (opposite), みんな (all) 2.It is pronounced /m/ before the sounds in the ば-, ぱ- and ま- rows. Examples しんぶん(newspaper) えんぴつ (pencil) 3.It is pronounced /g/ before the sounds in the か- and が- rows. Examples てんき(weather) けんがく(visit)
4.Pronunciation of つ	つ appears before a sound belonging to either the か-, さ-, た- or ぱ- row. In writing loan words, it is also used before sounds belonging to the ざ- row, だ-row, etc. It constitutes one mora and has one mora’s length.
	Examples: にっき (diary) ざっし (magazine) ベッド(bed) コップ(glass)
5.Pronunciation of Letters Combined with や, ゆ, or よ	き, ぎ, し, じ, ち, に, ひ, び, ぴ, み or り can combine with や, ゆ, or よand the two letters together constitute one mora.
	Examples: ひやく (jump) I ひゃく(hundred) じゆう (freedom) じゅう (ten)
6.Pronunciation of the が- row	The consonant of this row, when it comes at the beginning of a word, is pronounced (g), In other cases, it is usally pronounced (ri). Recently some Japanese do not differentiate between (g) and (ri), and always use (g).
7.Devoicing of Vowels [i] and [u]	The vowels [i] and [u] are devoiced and not heard when they come between voiceless consonants. The vowel [u] of す [su] in - です or - ますis also devoiced when the sentence finishes with either - です or - ます.
	Examples: すき (like) したいです (want to do) ききます(listen)
8.Accent	The Japanese language has pitch accent. That is, some moras in a word are pronounced high and others low. The words are divided into two types according to whether a word has a falling pitch or not. Words with a falling pitch are subdivided into three types according to where the fall in pitch occurs. The standard Japanese accent is characterized by the fact that the first and the second moras have different pitches, and that the pitch never rises again once it has fallen.
9.Intonation	There are three patterns. They are flat, rising and falling. Questions are pronounced with a rising intonation. Other sentences are usually pronounced flat, but sometimes with a falling intonation. A falling intonation can express feelings such as agreement or disappointment, and etc.
	Examples: さとう: あした ともだち と おはなみ を します. [flat] ミラ- さん も いっしょに いきませんか. [rising] ミラ-:ああ いいですね.[falling]