Kana Pronunciation Question

[AyaOB]

Hello,

I'd like to ask a quick question about several of the pronunciations for certain kana.

Some kana have 2 romanizations and I was wondering when it would be pronounced which way like si/ shi, ti/chi, tu/tsu, and hu/fu (This one I don't really get.) Another example I don't get was じ being either zi or ji and then ぢ di or ji and then ぢゃ and じゃ columns have them as zya/ja etc and dya/ja etc. I'm confused as to how you'd know when ja/ji/ju/jo would be used since they each can be 2 kana.

[JockZon]

Hi

There are two romanization systems... One follows the same pattern all the time and one tells us how the irregularities acutally are pronounced.

Shi not si
Ji not di (hardly used though)
Tsu not tu
Fu not hu
Ja, ji, ju, jo is the right pronunciation, not zya, zi etc. And for this we use the kana in the S-column. "Shi".

The first system that I wouldn't use is mostly written ackording to the system of, k columns, s columns etc but doesn't obey the irregularities in pronunciation and just keeps using the continuing system:

Ex:
Sa si su se so instead of Sa shi su se so
Ta ti tu te to instead of Ta chi tsu te to
Ha hi hu he ho instead of Ha hi fu he ho

d'you get what I mean?

Hope this helps.

[Jason]

This is yet another evil of rouma-ji.

Fu not hu

Actually, it's kind of both. ふ is pronounced kind of "halfway" between fu and hu.

Tip of the day: learn kana pronunciations associated with the kana itself, not based on their rouma-ji.

[JockZon]

It's kind of and f without your lips touching eachother. Like fu with a lots of air between the lips. Does this make sense?

[AyaOB]

This is yet another evil of rouma-ji.

Fu not hu

Actually, it's kind of both. ふ is pronounced kind of "halfway" between fu and hu.

Tip of the day: learn kana pronunciations associated with the kana itself, not based on their rouma-ji.

I have been doing that but it was strange when I was hearing some of them pronounced one way and written in roumaji 2 different ways. I wasn't sure if one was the "standard" way and the other was only used on rare occasion or something to that effect.

Thanks for all the replies.

[metablue]

"fu" is kind of like the sound you make to describe wind blowing through trees on a stormy night. Unless it's only my family that does that.