Why is it Ja Ju Jo and not Jya Jyu Jyo?

With the small y’s some sounds keep the Y sound and some don’t. Is there any way to tell other than memorization?

3 comments
  1. sha sho shu, ja jo, ju, cha, cho, chu.

    Rest keep the y in the sound. Kya, byo, nyu etc.

  2. Some consonants effectively include a ‘y’ sound. You can say ‘puke’ and ‘pook’, with or without the ‘y’. But if you try and say ‘shop’ with and without the ‘y’ sound, you’ll find it’s impossible. That’s because the ‘sh’ effectively includes the ‘y’, because they’re both articulated at more or less the same place (around the hard palate, although ‘sh’ in English is usually described as post-alveolar).

    That being the case, included the ‘y’ in the romaji is confusing and redundant, though there are older romanisation systems that did include it. They look very weird.

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