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I know that Katakana is used mainly for words for that originated from the west. I was wondering why don't the Japanese pronounce those words just like the Western ones? For example there is the word Zombie which is ゾンビ in Romanji it's Zonbi, is the ン pronounced as an English "n" or "m"?

Darunia
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  • Also I've seen some Japanese words that I think would have a normal Japanese word for it but there are some that sound like English like korabo (collab), daburu (double), bāgen (bargain), is there a normal Japanee word for those? If so then why have the English sounding ones? – Darunia Sep 19 '20 at 05:39
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    Duplicate/related: when is ん pronounced as "m"? – Em. Sep 19 '20 at 05:46
  • Your second "question" is not yet a question (= part of the OP). It's a comment. You can [edit] your post, but you should limit your post to one question per post. – Em. Sep 19 '20 at 06:55
  • I'm sure your other two broad questions (1. why aren't they pronounced like "Western" ones? 2. why have an "English" sounding one?) have been asked (exactly) and answered before, but I can't quite find them--though they are touched upon here: Who decides what katakana will be used to form English loan words?; Usage of loan words in contrast with native Japanese word. Maybe someone else can find something. – Em. Sep 19 '20 at 06:55
  • Different languages have different sets of "sounds" (phonemes), and to Japanese people, there is only one ン. They don't even know how to pronounce "zonbi" and "zombi" differently. If you are a native English speaker, this answer may be interesting. Also note that English speakers cannot pronounce many Japanese words as Japanese people do (many cannot pronounce "kyo" as in "Tokyo"...) – naruto Sep 22 '20 at 06:15

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