h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How do you pronounce the letter j?

...and is there any difference between the 'ch' and the 'sh' sound, like in ichi (1) and shi (3)?

j is pronounced exactly like it is in english, and yes, there is a difference between sh and ch. g is the hard g, as in gun

There is a difference in how to pronounce the CH-sound from the SH-sound.
The CH-sound is harder and is pronounced more like there's a T in front.
The SH-sound is pronounced as in the word 'huSH'..

Thank you - that was quick! And impressive - you've done something I myself have forgotten a couple of times - subscribing to yet-to-be-published entries!

The reason I asked is that English is a foreing language to me (as is Japanese) - so what exactly is the difference between sh and ch?

Thanks Lost!

No problem, Titania.. I did understand why you asked, since you're Swedish..

I never actually thought my few Japanese lessons would help me in my everyday life. How wrong was I?

Titania, the normal pronunciation in English of ch is tsh, but in some words which come from French, it is pronounced sh, while in other words from Greek it is pronounced k.

Ooops - here I go being confusing again!

Thanks Gnomon - I know how to pronounce ch and sh in English - what I didn't know was how they are pronounced in Japanese - and I didn't know if the spelling in the entry was the 'Japanese' version, or some kind of phonetic English version...

There is no "Japanese" spelling with Roman letters. All the Japanese words you ever see written with Roman letters is just a phonetic interpretation of the different letters of the Japanese alphabet.
I've got the Japanese alphabet lying about somewhere from my Japanese lessons. If you're desperate to know, I could probably get them to you somehow..

I guessed that much - that's why I wrote 'Japanese' - note the ''

So is the phonetic interpretation an English interpretation?

Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm confused enough without trying to make sense of the Japanese alphabet!

Yes, I did note the '' around 'Japanese'. Just tried to make things not so complicated.

I don't think that it's just an English interpretation. It's just that it's the most accurate interpretation there is.

There are a few spelling quirks when using 'romaji'(japanese for Roman lettering) to spell Japanese that aren't in this article, Titania. Because of this, you won't know exactly how to pronounce some words you see here based on their romaji spellings.

The sh sound is similar to the English word fish, but it's usually softer, more like the Asian Indian version.

The ch sound is like in the English word chair, but it is a shorter and even less aspirated sound. This is why it seems to have a 't' in front of it to me.

In my haste to simplify Japanese 'romaji' I left out a few important consanant sounds, including the 'sh' and 'ch' sounds, which are derived from the 's' and 't' sounds in the Japanese syllabary.

Unfortunately, I was stuck in Beijing with no internet access, due to a fatal arson attack in an illegal cafe in the city, and I have returned too late to modify my entry. Hopefully the conversation forums will help to clear up any omissions.

I am sorry to hear of the attack, I hope you are OK.

The italics might emend the article itself if you bring it to their attention. Try talking to the sub-editor.