Please help me understand 三人

[Ladymerelan]

Thank you for this, I’ve always wondered and it makes a lot more sense now!!

[tzukishiro]

@sokei

I think how we perceive a sound is not necessarily accurate to what it actually is and we’re often deceived by spellings into thinking that sounds are the same?

I mean, at least according to the IPA, the ん in senpai is an [M], meanwhile that kana in natto is [N], so they are clearly two different sounds, similar, but different. Unless I’m missing something, definitely don’t know about phonetics lol

@sokei

Whether you pronounce the ん in “senpai” as an ‘n’ or an ‘m’, you’ll definitely be understood too which likely reinforces the feeling that they’re the same.

I mean, yeah, people will surely understand you, but assuming that means they are the same is a big leap.
I can understand what someone means by “Can you lend me you’re pen?”, doesn’t mean your and you’re are the same

[Sinom]

Even the translators in some languages actually f*ed that up at some point xD

[morteASD]

@tzukishiro

I mean, at least according to the IPA, the ん in senpai is an [M], meanwhile that kana in natto is [N]

But there is no ん kana in なっとう

[jneapan]

@theMusicalninja

just think of the sannin from naruto

wait don’t that’s 三忍

That’s actually exactly how I remembered this back in the day… It never occurred to me that it was different kanji…

[jneapan]

In Romanian, the letter “i” represents several different sounds, but if you ask any Romanian they’ll be quick to say that it’s just 1 sound, and that the spelling is purely phonetical, unlike those uncivilized languages like English where it’s all seemingly random.

There’s a difference between how linguists and foreign learners see these things, and how the average people do.

i in Romanian

With Japanese, the “はひふへほ” sounds are probably the most obvious target of foreign learner confusion, as ふ can sound as “hu”, or “fu”, based on the word (to the non-Japanese ear at least). Seeing both “food” and “hood” katakana-ized as フード surely must be confusing to English natives everywhere. But a Japanese native will struggle to hear the difference because to them it’s 1 single phoneme.