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Pimsleur Pronounciation

Ben W Bell

先輩
13 Sep 2004
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So I'm listening to the Pimsleur courses and lamenting the fact there is no transacript for them. Anyway I had some fun with some of their pronounciations to the actual spellings. The main one I've come across that has proved problematic for me is DEWA. On the course they pronouce it JA, is this the correct pronounciation for DEWA?
 
Ben W Bell said:
So I'm listening to the Pimsleur courses and lamenting the fact there is no transacript for them.
Maybe not an official transcript. I'd be willing to bet there's one out there in cyber-land somewhere ...
Ben W Bell said:
The main one I've come across that has proved problematic for me is DEWA. On the course they pronouce it JA, is this the correct pronounciation for DEWA?
Basically 'dewa' is not pronounced 'ja' but 'ja' means 'dewa'.

It's like 'yes' is not pronounced 'yup' but 'yup' (presumably) was originally 'yes'.
 
Ah, well that muddies the waters somewhat. Thank you for the response, I shall bear it in mind. Is 'ja' less formal then or is it a direct replacement that can always be used.

I think I'll start transcribing these Pimsleur lessons, at least the first time anything appears in a lesson, it will both help me and help many others I think if I put them up on my web page.
 
"Ja" is to "dewa" like "don't" is to "do not". A regular contraction with a less formal feeling. It can replace dewa in any situation - just changes the formality, not the grammar.

I can imagine that the book's authors put in "dewa" so as not to teach slang, but then the Japanese speakers found it unnatural and changed it to "ja". "Dewa" is reasonably formal, especially if you are a man.

EDIT: Oh I read Paul's post, it's like "yup" and "yes" too.
 
Scrivener said:
"Ja" is to "dewa" like "don't" is to "do not". A regular contraction with a less formal feeling. It can replace dewa in any situation - just changes the formality, not the grammar.

I can imagine that the book's authors put in "dewa" so as not to teach slang, but then the Japanese speakers found it unnatural and changed it to "ja". "Dewa" is reasonably formal, especially if you are a man.

EDIT: Oh I read Paul's post, it's like "yup" and "yes" too.

I've seen 'ja' lots of times when 'dewa' appears as part of the copula, but never as a contraction of 'de+wa' when used as postpositions, e.g. 日本では。。。。. Can they contract here as well?
 
PM me with your email address, and I will send you the unofficial transcript for Pimsleur Part I. It's a very useful tool. I am planning on creating a similar transcript for parts II and III. I've looked all over the internet but can't find those.
 
Soren said:
I've seen 'ja' lots of times when 'dewa' appears as part of the copula, but never as a contraction of 'de+wa' when used as postpositions, e.g. 日本では。。。。. Can they contract here as well?

It is possible, but you are right, it is not as common. The "ja" in "sou ja nakute kou" is probably less informal than in "nihon ja sore ga atarimae" (which is one example I found in Google - I just used "sore" to avoid getting the "copula" version)

Here are just some of the first answers from Google if you don't wanna type it in:
日本じゃそれがあたりまえ
でも、日本じゃそれは通用しない
アメリカや日本じゃ、それはレコード会社のやり方にかかって...
日本じゃそれしか無いのだけど
やっぱり日本じゃそれは無理

Using "ja" for the copula version (sou ja nai) is a much safer bet than using it for the "de particle + wa topic marker" version. However, in both cases, you may as well stick to "de wa" until you are confident when to use "ja". It doesn't hurt to be formal in Japan. Even those hardcore band reviews were using the "desu" form. That's twice as true if you are a girl.
 
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