Words With Spelling That Does Not Match Prononciation

[williamsharkey8276]

I noticed that male adult, "o to ko no hi to" is pronounced "o to ko nosh to". Also, I noticed the same with woman, "on na no hi to" -> "on na nosh to".

What is going on here?

BTW, Please add your own words to this thread where writing is different from pronunciation.

[veganarchist]

Where have you heard them pronounced like that

[cheeseandbeans2131]

I think its just a case of people saying things fast and the sounds becoming mingled together.
Try saying onnanohito faster and faster and you should get what I mean. The 'hi' part becomes unvoiced and tends to sound like 'sh' - there only a slight difference in tongue placement between the two sounds.

L.

[toonygal5459]

The Japanese ひ (hi) is pronounced in almost a whisper. It's different from how we might say the English word "he".

To really understand this, try saying the English letter E and elongating the sound, so you're saying "Eeeeee." As you are making that sound, raise the back of your tongue closer to the roof of your mouth. Eventually, you will find that the voiced sound of "eee" stops and you are just making a voiceless hissing sound. This is Japanese ひ.