[cue 01-14]

      * Exceptions!

      The word gogo ‘p.m., afternoon’ shows both kinds: [go-ngo].

      Another sound that may cause you trouble is ts. Unlike Japanese t (dental!), this sound usually starts at the alveolar ridge like an English t. It normally occurs only before the vowel u, and between the t and the u there is a slight hiss represented by the s. This sound does not occur initially in English, except for a few rare words like tsetse fly. However, you sometimes hear it in rapid speech: ts cool today (for it is cool today), ts all right with me (for it is all right with me). You may tend to slide over the t and only pronounce the s; this will cause confusion, because tsu and su distinguish a number of words, for example:

[cue 01-15]

      Notice that the vowel u gets unvoiced or dropped when there is a following voiceless consonant:

[cue 01-16]

      After you have practiced on the difference between tsu and su for a while, you might try these tongue-twisters:

[cue 01-17]

      The thing to remember about the syllable tsu is: DON’T OMIT THE t.

      In addition to the simple consonants are the combinations ky, gy, py, by, my, ny, and hy. (There is also ry, for which see below, 1.8.) These are pronounced somewhat as are the corresponding English sounds in cute, gew-gaw or regular, rebuke, music, and Hugh, provided you distinguish Hugh from you). In English, these combinations are usually followed by a vowel corresponding to Japanese u, but in Japanese they are also followed by a and o. For example, byōin [byo-o-i-n] ‘hospital’ and biyōin [bi-yo-o-i-n] ‘beauty shop’ sound similar but differ in that the former has the combination of b and y whereas these consonants are in separate syllables in the latter. Here are some examples:

[cue 01-18]

1.8. Flapped r

      The sound that seems to cause Americans most distress is the Japanese r. This is a sound called a flap. You make it by lifting the tip of the tongue backwards, then quickly and decisively bringing it down