I live in Ireland, and I’m aware of quite major differences in accents in general and the pronunciation of some specific words or sounds between older and younger people. In my rural area, some old people can be quite hard to understand because their accent is so strong, and they have some regional pronunciation oddities like often pronouncing “s” as “sh”; some areas also employ quite a few dialect words. Younger people have a much more generic accent - basically, the sort of accent you would hear on TV or radio, I suppose. They pronounce “s” as “s” like everyone else, and it would be much harder to listen to them and work out which part of the country they come from.
My general question is: is this also true of Japan? More specifically, would I be right to assume that Kyoko is younger than, and has a more generic accent than, Kenichi? I’m fairly new to this: I’ve been doing Wanikani for a few months, now on level 10, and just starting to dip into a Learning Japanese textbook. I have no prior experience of the language. When I got to about level 4 I made a change in the settings so I always get the female speaker when doing reviews, because I find her easier to understand and imitate. I probably noticed that at first with the が issue that other people have asked about (Kyoko is usually G, Kenichi NG), but I’ve begun to notice other differences as well: she pronounces かつ as katsu, he as kats.
I’m only learning Japanese for fun (fun???). I’ll never live or work there and I’m generally happy to go with whatever pronunciation is easiest, which for me is Kyoko (I know she is no longer the female speaker but I presume I won’t encounter her successor till I get to much higher levels). I’m just interested to know if Japan is following what I gather is a general trend in many countries around the world of a gradual decline in regional accents and dialects.
My understanding is that some dialects (like Kansai dialects) are still going as strong as ever and are somewhat associated with regional pride and identity so less likely to change in the future. However, I’ve definitely ran into enough accounts (including fictional and non-fictional) of people having difficulty understanding their (strong dialect) grandparents in early childhood that it seems at least some dialects are undergoing some level of decline and standardisation.
From my area in Japan, (Tohoku aka 東北）we still have a strong dialect but it’s mostly just the grandparents who speak it. Whereas the young kids do understand it. It’s seen as a farmer’s accent? That’s how it’s been described to me at least. Anyway, it is quite common for the elderly in my area to be almost incomprehensible to me as a second language learner. I’ve learned a few phrases, but most of the time I can guess at about 30% of what they’re saying. My Japanese partner’s father is very hard to understand, but thankfully my partner just translates it into the 共通語 Japanese.
Now I can’t say how this would change Kenichi and Kyoko’s accents though. Elderly speak is more so based on how much ○○弁 they speak. Pronunciation does not change that much.
Living here in Japan both of these pronunciations are perfectly fine. It’s personal preference on if you voice the last vowel in words, but つ and す often have devoiced vowels as a trend. I think that’s the most natural way when just speaking casually. But, when my coworkers take phone calls, they accentuate the す’s ending う sound for a few more seconds as to be polite. Aka both are 100% okay and not a result of age.
I cannot speak on the G vs NG as I am not sure what that means when written out just as the consonants but I would assume that a website aimed at teaching Japanese would not put an audio example of someone speaking who would be teaching “elderly” pronunciation and then not label it as such.
Older people do speak differently, but that’s not anything like what you’re referring to with differences between Kyoko and Kenichi. The differences between them basically represent differences that can exist within the “standard” accent of relatively young Japanese people. Since the words are also free of context, it’s possible for slight emphasis or differences to crop up simply because they are not being spoken in the typical flow of speech.
Also just… slang. Like a middle schooler saying うす, there’s a whole-ass おはようございます that has been jammed into there. I guess you could hear an old fella say that as well but it seems less likely to me.
Pretty much the exact same here
Kyoko’s pronounciation comes easier to me (non-English native) and I actually like it a little better than Kenichi’s
However I’ve set my audio to randomize the voice so that I can hear both styles across multiple reviews.
Haven’t yet run into the new voice myself…
(Thanks!)
