So I was looking for the IPA pronunciation, I found this [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/低い](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/低い) .
And… It says it starts off with /ç/ which is like the Scottish h or “ch” in the German Ich. There’s no way this sound is in Japanese, right? It must be a mistake?
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/ç/ is in fact in Japanese. For example, it is used in ひ. It is sorta pronounced like the h in hue. You can check Help:IPA/Japanese on Wikipedia for more info.
Japanese ひ does indeed often sound like German “ch”, or even “sch” to me. See examples here:
[低い](https://ja.forvo.com/word/%E4%BD%8E%E3%81%84/#ja)
[人](https://ja.forvo.com/word/%E4%BA%BA/#ja) (scroll down to 日本語)
> in the German Ich
The [German](https://forvo.com/word/ich/#de) and [Japanese](https://forvo.com/word/低い/#ja) sound sounds the same. Not sure why you’re so convinced it must be a mistake.
The H sound in Japanese is a bit more breathy than in English. Some even confuse it for an SH sound until getting used to it.
Honestly, pronunciation in Japanese is so simple you really don’t need a pronunciation guide. Just learn Hiragana.
For reference, Japanese only has like 110 unique sounds in their language, whereas English has something like 8000. Hence why English needs such a complex pronunciation guide.
The most consistent pronunciation guide for Japanese is just the Hiragana chart. They are always pronounced the same way.
Regarding the use of the /ç/ in the entry you just referenced, those don’t typically map to a specific language like German or Scottish. Those symbols actually map to a pronunciation key:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Japanese)
According to the key linked /ç/ just maps to the ひ syllable.
Again, I really don’t see the purpose of using a latin/germanic based pronunciation guide for Japanese. You are much better off just using something like [Jisho.org](https://Jisho.org) which provides the pronunciation in Hiragana. As well as an audio clip.
[https://jisho.org/word/%E4%BD%8E%E3%81%84](https://jisho.org/word/%E4%BD%8E%E3%81%84)
I mean most people have in the English word ‘human’ a [ç], /hj/ and /hi/ just like to mutate to that
Yes, that is accurate IPA, it’s because that consonant gets palatalised because of the high vowel, happens a lot in Japanese, for example in 日本 the first consonant turns to the ñ sound you find in Spanish. But don’ worry, you don’ need to learn all this, people will understand you fine, it just gives away your accent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalization_(sound_change)
It’s just a fricative between the tongue and the roof of your mouth. I think this happens because i is the vowel with the highest tongue position, so it affects the sound of the h.
Not to mention the /i/ is devoiced in words like 人 or 低い, so you’re hearing more of the h.
A few words have a bit of an airy or omitted pronouncination.
会議室 used to cause me issues, it’s pronounced a bit like “kai gni s” bit the s trails and sounds a bit like an x. Hard to describe but it didn’t sound as expected when my teacher pronounced it for me.