Young Samurai: The Ring of Sky (42 page)

Vowels are pronounced in the following
way:

‘a’ as the ‘a’ in
‘at’

‘e’ as the ‘e’ in
‘bet’

‘i’ as the ‘i’ in
‘police’

‘o’ as the ‘o’ in
‘dot’

‘u’ as the ‘u’ in
‘put’

‘ai’ as in ‘eye’

‘ii’ as in ‘week’

‘
ā
’ as in
‘far’

‘
ō
’ as in
‘go’

‘
ū
’ as in
‘blue’

Consonants are pronounced in the same way
as English:

‘g’ is hard as in
‘get’

‘j’ is soft as in
‘jelly’

‘ch’ as in
‘church’

‘z’ as in ‘zoo’

‘ts’ as in
‘itself’

Each syllable is pronounced separately:

A-ki-ko

Ya-ma-to

Ma-sa-mo-to

Ka-zu-ki

Japanese names
usually
consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name, unlike in the Western world
where the given name comes before the surname. In feudal Japan, names reflected a
person’s social status and spiritual beliefs. Also, when addressing someone,
san
is added to that person’s surname (or given names in less formal
situations) as a sign of courtesy, in the same way that we use Mr or Mrs in English, and
for higher-status people
sama
is used. In Japan,
sensei
is usually
added after a person’s name if they are a teacher, although in the Young Samurai
books a traditional English order has been retained. Boys and girls are usually
addressed using
kun
and
chan
, respectively.