Well, you need to write something non-Fukushima? And that's indecent...
For those who do not want to read the article, but want to know the answer, I will tell you in advance. "C" is correct.
http://www.susi.ru/SusiOrSushi.html (Reprint)

Vadim Smolensky

SUS I or SUSh I?

Reply to the lisping

Introduction

"Transliteration as a litmus test of patriotism"

It is quite possible that the problem that will be discussed could not have arisen at all. Could - be the Tower of Babel a little lower. But, apparently, our Creator was so angry that he not only composed different words and grammars when he mixed languages, but
in addition, he also spawned dissimilar phonetic systems. So we are now toiling: how to move from one to another? In particular, from Japanese to Russian. Moreover, in conditions when English transliteration of Japanese words dominates everywhere, a vivid example of which is the word " sushi".

Of course, it is necessary to conduct explanatory work among the population. This is what we will deal with below. But sometimes this work is not enough. You often come across a most interesting phenomenon: people who know perfectly well how this or that Japanese word is written in Russian stubbornly pronounce it through " w" - "sushi", "sashimi", "Khonshu".

I thought for a long time about the reasons for this phenomenon and came to a trivial conclusion: our eternal servility to Uncle Sam is to blame. A Russian person trusts the Latin script more than the Cyrillic alphabet. In Cyrillic, he was deceived for too long and shamelessly. He even tends to believe that the deception continues.

Here, for example, I discuss with my office neighbor - let's call him Pavel Petrovich - political news. He says:

Have you heard that their prime minister Hashimoto said yesterday?

Pavel Petrovich! Not Hashimoto, a Hashimoto!

What are you going to do here for me? Look out! - and shows me "Japan Times".

So it's in English. You know, in their phonetic...

I do not know anything. I speak as it is written.

In response, I show him the latest issue of Kommersant-Daily, where it is written correctly. He shrugged it off.

I have a solid organ, and you thrust the newspaper of some shopkeepers at me ...

And this is not a curiosity, this is a rule. Hiroshima and Tsushima instantly turn into Hiroshima and Tsushima, as soon as our compatriot sees their English spellings. According to the firstness, this metamorphosis is even accompanied by some surprise: there, it turns out, how right it is - and we have been talking wrong all the way. The misunderstanding itself is quickly attributed to the homegrownness of our Japanists, who, of course, have never seen how Japanese words are written "in fact."

I had to observe Russian residents with a variety of political orientations. I have seen quite a few of those who are completely Slavophile, talk about the conspiracy of world capital and stigmatize the Americans, who everywhere establish their own rules. But even the most naikvass patriots will still call sushi "sushi", no matter how much you hint to them, that such negligence only exposes their deep, carefully concealed servility to everything foreign.

But I'm not like that. I am a true patriot. Although completely devoid of geopolitical pathos. For me, let the Yankees expand to their east and lay Masonic lodges. Let them send red-haired Chubais to us. Let our youth be stupefied with rock, chewing gum and aerobics until they are blue in the face. It's all about the lamp for me.

But I won’t give them my native alphabet for desecration. Don't even dream. Cyril and Methodius! How is it heard? Sleep tight guys, I'm on guard. I will not yield a single letter to the enemy - and over the heads of renegades who have trampled on the most precious thing we have, through a herd of indifferent people who have spit on high ideals, I will shout until I am hoarse, I will appeal to all the lost souls who have not yet lost their conscience:

In Japanese words, there should not be the letter "SHA" !!!

And now let's deal with the scientific substantiation of all of the above.

The essence of the problem

It would seem, what is easier - to pick up the sound of the native language, close in sound. It turns out an action similar to mathematical rounding. But the trouble is that you can round in different directions. It’s supposed to be the nearest one - but you don’t always understand where it is, it’s the nearest one. It is not visible to the eye, or rather, it is not audible to the ear. Therefore, first linguists with their trained earphones are let in, and they authoritatively say: in our opinion, this sound of theirs should be pronounced in such and such a way.

However, not always a linguist is at hand. And you don’t always hear a word with your ears - it happens, you only see it on paper. And the worst thing is when you see it written in some third language. So it turns out: a Russian person sees the English word " sushi"- and how will he then write or pronounce it in Russian? It is known how -" sushi". And this is at no gate.

Let's explain all the ins and outs. It's not easy, but what can you do...

Phonetic wilds.

So, we have a Japanese syllable (an entry in the hiragana syllabary). Consider the following of his English and Russian transliterations: " si", "shi", "si" and " shea". They differ in the sound of the consonant - its softness and lisp. Let's arrange them in order of increasing softness:

shi - si - shi - - si

And now, in descending order of lisp:

shi - shi - - si - si

On both scales, the Japanese sound is located between the Russian " si"and English" shi". Therefore, the letter combination " shi", and as a Russian -" si". At the same time, Russian transliteration turned out to be even closer to the original than English, especially on the second scale. An indirect proof of this is the fact that the state system of Latin transliteration adopted in Japan (in contrast to the so-called "Hepburn" adopted in English-speaking countries), uses here the syllable " si". As for " shea", then
the sound of this Russian syllable has very little in common with Japanese pronunciation. To the point that a Japanese may simply not understand a word spoken through solid Russian " w". This pronunciation sounds like ugly exaggerated English
accent.

Other letter combinations

"SHI"- this is the most egregious of all artisanal transliterations. Therefore, here we pay so much attention to this syllable. There are, however, other syllables that cause difficulties. Below they are summarized for clarity in a table - along with their correct Russian spellings.

shi - si	ji - ji		chi - ti
sha	ja - ja	za - za	cha - cha	ya - I	kya - kya
shu - shu	ju - ju	zu - zu	chu - chu	yu - yu	kyu - kyu
sho - sho	jo - jo	zo - zo	cho - cho	yo	kyo - kyo

Notes and additions:

The rightmost column is summarizing: in place " k"There may be another consonant. The main thing here is that the combination" y"with a vowel in Russian is rendered with one letter, not two ("Tokyo" and "Kyoto" are ingrained exceptions).

Correspondence between " chi" and " ti"does not seem so unambiguous; transliteration option" chi"has, perhaps, no less right to exist and is sometimes found in quite professional translators. But it is considered the standard" ti". Therefore, for example, in the city marked on all Russian maps as "Hitachi", there is a company known to everyone as "Hitachi".

Letter " e" in English transliteration is transmitted in Russian as " uh". However, Russian is sometimes used " e" - to "soften" the word for the eye (compare, for example, "karate" and "karate"). This replacement usually does not affect pronunciation, but from the point of view of the purist is unacceptable.

Letter combinations " nm", "n.b." and " np"passed as" mm", "mb" and " mp"Accordingly, they sound exactly like that in Japanese. By the way, they are more often written in Latin as" mm", "mb" and " mp" (Hepburn standard).

Letter " i", when encountered after a vowel (" ai", "ui" etc.) is most commonly displayed as " th(and-short). Exceptions are rare.

Combinations " ou" and " uu" means long syllables, as opposed to short ones. In Russian spelling, you should simply omit the second " u". In educational and linguistic literature, special characters are used - a colon or a line over a vowel.

Syllable " tsu"it's more logical to convey in a syllable" tsu", instead of copying the English spelling - " tsu". Still, thirty-three letters are not twenty-six.

Answer from Unixaix CATIA[guru]
Japanese phonetics is in many ways similar to Russian: vowels that soften the consonant are also widespread in Japanese (i, i, e, yu - by the way, they are also written in separate letters, unlike many other languages), a small total number of vowels ( 8, and in Russian 10), a small number of consonants (most of them coincide with Russian), so it’s easier to say how Japanese phonetics differs from Russian than to tell everything as if you didn’t know Russian.
The Japanese language has adopted a syllabic system, i.e., after a consonant, there is always a vowel, there are only two exceptions - n (an independent syllable from one consonant) and doubling (for example, kka, which is true only in Russian transcription is written with two letters, is used in Japanese alphabets special character indicating doubling.) .
The following Russian sounds do not exist in Japanese: consonants - v, zh, l, f, ch, ts, sh, u; vowels - e, s.
In Japanese, there is no Russian power stress, all syllables are pronounced evenly and equally clearly (approximately like stressed syllables in Russian), but at the same time there is a special Japanese tonic stress, certain syllables are pronounced in a tone above the rest. This stress is very important, the wrong stress can distort the meaning of the phrase.
But some syllables are reduced, for example, if we take the already learned copula です desu, then in fact, due to reduction, it is pronounced almost like desu, and the past form of this copula でした desita is pronounced almost like desha. However, pronouncing the word without reduction does not change the meaning of what was said, moreover, in some Japanese regions it is customary to pronounce it this way.
The syllable wa recorded in the transcription is pronounced approximately like ua (very short y) or like English. w.a. The syllables on r recorded in the transcription are pronounced in Japanese as a cross between the Russian r and l. You don't have to touch your lower lip with your teeth to make the "f" sound in Japanese. To say this, imagine that you are blowing out a candle. By the way, in Japanese, the letter f occurs only in the syllable fu, since this syllable is in the series of the letter x, that is, the syllable hu is pronounced like fu. The pronunciation of some consonants changes if they are followed by softening vowels: t turns into a middle sound between t and h; dz - in the sound j, but with softening (as, for example, sometimes in Russian in the word yeast); s - in the middle sound between s and u. The syllable tu is pronounced tsu, the syllable du is pronounced zu (voiced tsu). The vowel y is the middle vowel between y and s.

Answer from 2 answers[guru]

Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: What sounds are not in Japanese?

Answer from Vladimir Alekseev[guru]
Yes, I know Russian for 3 tokavas))) And what can I say about Japanese)))))) I have no idea !!! I want to know myself)))

Answer from Yoovushk@[guru]
Russians

Answer from Olga Voloshina[guru]
The fact is that due to the peculiarities of their language, the Japanese do not distinguish between some sounds that are in other languages, but are absent in Japanese. For example, combinations with: “b-v”, “ji-ji”, “shi-si”, “r-l”, “h-f”, etc. sound the same for them. Therefore, a special system was developed in katakana indications when the sound is considered "x" and when "f". Different spellings were established for the consonant groups "w" - "v", etc.
In hiragana, such a system simply does not exist, because it is not needed to write Japanese words. In principle, you can find some of the above syllables (the group "f", "v", etc.) written in hiragana according to the rules of katakana, but this is extremely illiterate. No Japanese would ever do that.

Answer from ? ?°???????µ?????°?? *** [master]
There are no Russian sounds in Japanese:
consonants - in, f, l, f, h, c, w, u;
vowels - e, s.
And also in Japanese there is no Russian power stress on sounds.

Answer from ЍLGA[guru]
sound "l"

Answer from Alexandra Trifonova[guru]
And I don't know anything

Answer from Misha Arseniev[guru]
I heard the interview. There, instead of "send" he said something indecent.
They also don't have sizzle, so the Japanese, who don't speak Russian well, say "s" instead of "sh" (at least that's how the Japanese accent is portrayed in movies and in jokes).

Answer from Duard F. Sabirov[guru]
I remember they have a problem with the letter L .... (I once heard an interview with a Japanese correspondent on this very topic, back in the 90s ...)

Answer from Grieg's cat.[guru]
You definitely won’t wait from the Japanese - I LOVE you!

Answer from ІlkiySniper[guru]
The soft sign is definitely absent, and I don’t know what sounds.

Answer from S.V.[guru]
Damn, everyone here is so smart....
I'm sorry, friend, but I was not interested in it and still do not care

Spoken Japanese is not as difficult as it might seem at first. Especially if you allow yourself to speak with errors. And certainly much simpler than Chinese with its tonal pronunciation. The Japanese have a more or less understandable palette of sounds for Westerners, they are easy to pronounce and recognize. After a couple of lessons, you can already ask simple questions, build sentences, and so on.

But written Japanese is something with something.

* * *

The Japanese have three separate writing systems. Kanji are Chinese characters, they stand for whole words. These icons are mostly very intricate, although simple ones are sometimes found.

In addition, there are two phonetic systems, where each icon represents a whole syllable. Hiragana - squiggles are sinuous. This is the very first script that the Japanese learn. All kanji can be written using hiragana. It helps children learn to read. The inscriptions are purely in hiragana only where even the most beginners should be able to read. For example, train station names are often duplicated in hiragana.

In normal writing, the root of the word can be represented by a kanji character, and various suffixes there can already be added using hiragana.

For foreign words, the Japanese have separate icons - katakana. They practically duplicate hiragana in function, but differ in more "angular" writing.

With a little sharpening, you can learn to distinguish hiragana from katakana and from kanji.

There is also "romaji" - the official system for writing Japanese words in Latin. After the Second World War, the Japanese government almost completely switched to the Hepburn system for these purposes. She prefers hissing sounds (daiginjo, shibuya) instead of the Cyrillic alphabet used to write Japanese words. It is to Polivanov that we owe the words, Shibuya, and, God forgive me,.

There are a lot of loanwords in Japanese. They used to come from German, now they come from English. For example, beer will be biru (from beer), coffee - kohi, sandwich - sandoichi.

You can order a drink with ice by adding "rocca". Actually it means "six", but the Japanese find it similar to "on the rocks" in English.

It's no secret that the Japanese confuse many familiar sounds. For example, "R" and "L" - they just have something in the middle in their language. The same thing happens with "v" and "b", and other pairs of vowels. (That's why some people here pronounce my name "Ryoba".) It's hard for a Westerner to imagine how one can confuse two such different sounds, although children often have problems with this.

In such cases, I always explain - think about how we pronounce the word "Moscow" for example. In our Russian speech, it is very easy to confuse the letters "O" and "A", although they are so different.

sasha_odessit shared an interesting remark with me on this occasion - for a Japanese, confusing two vowel sounds is as unthinkable as confusing two consonants for us. In unstressed syllables, we do not make much distinction between vowels. For example, if we imagine that the same Moscow would be written Meskva, Miskva or Muskva - with an emphasis on the same second syllable, the difference in pronunciation in Russian would be minimal (with the possible exception of a strongly pronounced Moscow accent).

But this difference in Japanese is very important, and can lead to an absolute change in the meaning of the word, so that the Japanese clearly pronounce and hear all the vowels in the word.

They say that is why lisping consonants are used in Polivanov's system, as they better convey the correct sound of subsequent vowels. For example, in the word "sushi", read in Russian, the letter "i" after "sh" sounds like "s", which is incorrect from the Japanese point of view. It would be possible to put the letter "u" instead of "sh", but this would "double" its pronunciation. So, when compiling his transliteration, Polivanov decided to slightly distort consonants that are not so important to the Japanese ear, and at their expense convey the correct sound of more important vowels. Well, the result seems to us in places ridiculous.

There are many different forms of number words in Japanese. For example, in English, two of anything would be "two". And in Russian it can be "two" or "two" - the form depends on the gender. Next come declensions: two, two, etc., this is also a kind of form.

So in Japanese, number words depend on the type of objects! For example, one will be "hitotsu", but if we are talking about a person, then already "hitori". Separate forms of the word exist for thin objects, and others for long ones. Moreover, if the object is both long and thin at the same time, then there are well-established traditions, what enumerative words to apply to it.

When flour first appeared in Japan, it was first called "Meriken-ko" - American powder. ("Merkien" was called many American things, that's how the Japanese heard the word "American".)

Phonetics and pronunciation in Japanese

Pronunciation in Japanese is not very difficult, but has its own characteristics. First, almost all syllables in Japanese are open (consonant + vowel). There are few closed syllables, and in Japanese they can only end in n. Secondly, in Japanese there are not many sounds that are in Russian (“l”, “sh”, “s”), and vice versa, some sounds are different from what we are used to.

Let's take a closer look at the pronunciation of vowels.

The first row of the Japanese syllabary consists of five vowels: a, i, u, e, o.

あ - similar to the accented Russian "a", but the Japanese "a" is less open

い - as Russian and. The consonant in front of him is always soft.

う - in transcription it is transmitted by the Russian "y", but it looks like something in between Russian at and s. .

え - should be pronounced clearly but less openly, Japanese え is more like "e" after hard consonants.

お - distinct, like a Russian percussion "o"

Japanese has long and short vowels. Long vowels are twice as long as short vowels. Long and short vowels must always be distinguished, since some words differ only in the length of the vowels. In transcription, vowel length is indicated by a colon or a bar above the letter.

In hiragana, longitude is indicated either by repeating the corresponding vowel or by the vowel う after お (as in けんこう kenko: "health"), in katakana by a horizontal bar after the vowel. The combination えい in some cases is read as a long "e" (for example, the word せんせい (sensei) can be pronounced as sensei or sense:, and がくせい (gakusei) as gakusei or gakuse:).

"U" and " and" between deaf consonants are reduced, that is, they are almost not pronounced. For example, the words すこし "a little" or そして "then" sound almost like "squint" and "souste". Also, the reduction rule sometimes extends to the case if “I” or “U” are at the end of a word after a voiceless consonant, for example, the linking verb です is read as “des”, and the verb ending ます is read as “mas”.

Now let's talk about the pronunciation of consonants.

K in the series か, き, く, け, こ is similar to the Russian k.

In the syllables さ sa, す su, せ se, そ с, the first consonant is similar to the Russian "s". The consonant in the syllable し si looks like a cross between soft Russian s and u.

In た ta, て te, と then - how t In russian language. In ち ti is like a cross between t' and ch'. The ts in the syllable つ tsu is similar to the Russian "ts".

In syllables な na, に ni, ぬ well, ね ne, の but the consonant is similar to the Russian "n".

X in the syllables は ha, へ he, ほ ho is aspirated and easy. In the syllable ひ hee is like a soft x. In the syllable ふ fu, "f" is pronounced easily, aspirated.

M is the first sound in the syllables ま ma, み mi, む mu, め me, も mo. Identical to Russian m.

In や i, ゆ yu, よ yo is the first consonant y. These syllables are similar to the Russian letters i, yu, ё.

In the syllables ら ra, り ri, る ru, れ re, ろ ro, the consonant is less booming than our “r”, is formed in almost the same way as in Russian, but with one blow of the tongue against the palate, because of which it becomes a kind of middle between r and l. Some peoples say that in Japanese there is no "r", but there is "l".

The consonant of the syllable わ va resembles something between the Russian v and u (compare the English w).

The syllable を is pronounced like "o".

The consonant ん reads like "m" before m, b and P(かんぱい kampai - toast, しんぶん shimbun - newspaper) as a nasal sound before to and G - (けんか kenka "quarrel"), and as "n" in other cases.

Consonants in voiced rows are pronounced:

G in the series "ga" is similar to the Russian "g". When the syllables が ga, ぎgi, ぐ gu, げ ge, ご go are in the middle of a word, then the “r” is pronounced with a nasal overtone similar to the English ŋ (for example, in the word あげる ageru “raise”).

In the syllables ざ za, 　づ, ず zu, 　ぜ ​​ze, 　ぞ zo, when they are written at the beginning or middle of a word after n, pronounced continuous "dz". In other cases - as Russian z. In the syllables じ, ぢ ji is pronounced softly and with a lisping overtone.

In だ yes, で de, ど do consonant = hard Russian "d".

The first sound in the series ば ba, び bi, ぶ bu, べ be, ぼ bo is similar to the Russian "b".

In the syllables ぱ pa, ぴ pi, ぷ pu, ぺ pe, ぽ the consonant is similar to the Russian "p".

There are also doubled consonants in Japanese. They are indicated by a small つ before a double consonant syllable: けっか kekka, いったい ittai, いっぽん ippon, etc.

In conclusion, I would like to say that, in general, it is much easier for Russian speakers to master Japanese pronunciation than, for example, for English speakers or native speakers of other languages.

This is due to the fact that the Russian language includes almost all the sounds that are in the Japanese language.

In order to improve your pronunciation, I advise you to listen to Japanese speech as much as possible, to practice listening. Listen carefully and listen carefully to the intonation and pronunciation, and then proceed to practice - try to repeat exactly after the speaker, and then your pronunciation will noticeably improve after some time of regular training.

P.S. For example, dialogues from the Minna no Nihongo textbook are well suited for listening.

You can apply all the subtleties of Japanese phonetics in practice by passing.