How to convert Japanese Kana to IPA phonetics?

Question

I'm a Chinese student interested in Japanese language processing. As far as I know, ususally Japanese Kana can be represented in Romaji letters. But I wonder how can I convert Kana into IPA phonetics? Is there any mapping?

By IPA, do you mean [tɕɯ] and so on? Does this chart answer your question? — naruto, Aug 11 '23 at 06:37
Thanks for your comment! I think that's exacly what I'm looking for! — Sophiefy, Aug 11 '23 at 06:43
Also read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology for more details. E.g. ん ("Moraic nasal") has different realizations depending on preceding and following phones. — Arfrever, Aug 11 '23 at 06:55
kana and sound is not always 1-1. https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/97854/45489 — sundowner, Aug 11 '23 at 14:58

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 12 '23 at 04:38

3

The IPA notation for each hiragana is listed on Wikipedia.

However, the table only shows how the character is typically pronounced in isolation. As pointed out in the comments section, please be aware that some characters may be pronounced differently depending on the context. This is known as allophones. Every language has allophones, but native speakers are usually unaware of them. Notable examples in Japanese include:

answered Aug 12 '23 at 04:38

naruto

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Thanks for your answer！It's really helpful! – Sophiefy Aug 13 '23 at 02:56
Also, at the phonemic level, う usually becomes /o/ (or lengthening, depending on your analysis) after /o/, and similarly い becomes /e/ after /e/ in many dialects. – mudri Aug 15 '23 at 09:27

How to convert Japanese Kana to IPA phonetics?

1 Answers1