12717
First off I know zero Japanese, so sorry if this is a stupid question. I seem
to remember hearing a while back that all Japanese words, when transliterated
to the Latin alphabet, will end in a vowel. From the few Japanese words/names
I've seen this seems possible.

Is there any truth to this? If true, does anyone know why that is?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-02T17:40:10.580
12714
2013-09-03T00:50:41.153
2013-09-03T00:50:41.153
1742
3911
question
words vowels
Is it true that all Japanese words end in a vowel when transliterated to English?
No, it's not true.

> **Counterexample**  
>  剣 translates to "sword", which does not end in a vowel.

Even when Japanese is transliterated into English, it's not true.

> **Counterexample**  
>  [剣]{けん} is transliterated as "ken" or "kenn", which does not end in a
> vowel.

What is true, is that many Japanese words, when _transliterated_ into ローマ字
(Latin alphabet) do end in a vowel, because the Japanese writing system is
based on syllables (the Japanese "alphabet" thus carries the technical name
"syllabary"). A syllable is in all but six cases (the five vowels あいうえお and
the "consonant" ん) made up from a consonant followed by a vowel. Any word
ending in any other syllable would, in its transliteration into the Latin
alphabet, thus end in a vowel. Exception being the "syllable" ん, which is
usually transliterated n (or in rare systems nn). That said, historically ん
derives from む "mu", which _is_ a proper syllable (ending in a vowel).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-02T18:13:06.960
12715
2013-09-02T18:13:06.960
1628
12714
answer
First off, by 'translate' I assume you mean 'transliterate', to convert text
from one script to another. I apologize if this is not what you meant to ask.
"猫 = cat" would be a translation; "猫 = neko" would be a transliteration.

To answer the question, Japanese is made up of syllables, all but one of which
are vowels (a, i, u, e, o) or a combination of a consonant and a vowel (ka,
ki, ku, ke, ko, sa, si, su, se, so, etc.) Check
[here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goj%C5%ABon#Table) for a table of the
sounds of Japanese.

The one sound which is irregular is the [nasal "n"
sound](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#The_moraic_nasal_.2F.C9.B4.2F).

So, while the vast majority of Japanese words transliterated into the English
alphabet will end in a vowel, those which end in "n" will not. Examples of
such words include ミカン/mikan (an orange), 画面/gamen (screen) and 来年/rainen
(next year).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-02T18:24:45.037
12716
2013-09-02T18:24:45.037
3010
12714
answer
(See the other answers for translate vs. transliterate.)

It's due to Japanese's syllable structure. English allows some spectacularly
complicated syllables ( _strengths_ being a good maximal example*), but
Japanese doesn't - its allowed syllable structure is (C)V(N/Q), where C is any
consonant, V is any vowel, N is the nasal ん (which can vary in pronunciation
depending on what follows it), and Q is the っ consonant-length-extension-
phoneme-thing (which can't occur unless it's before a consonant that can be
lengthened).

So you can have words that end in /N/, but most of the time you're going to
have a vowel. Primarily this is because almost without exception /N/ only
occurs in Chinese loanwords (though a few native Japanese words (especially
verb forms) have gained an /N/ since its introduction) - so most native words
end in vowels. Indeed, most native words will alternate between consonants and
vowels (partly due to Old Japanese not liking adjacent vowels - the most
common word shape by -far- is (C)VCV).

There are languages (e.g. most Polynesian ones) which cannot, under any
circumstances, have syllables that end in consonants. Japanese used to be that
way, but under the influence of Chinese, it has gained two syllable-final
consonant phonemes. So you will get words that end in /N/, but mostly words
will only end in vowels.

*(English's syllable structure works out to something like (s)(C)(L)V(N/L)(C)(s), where L is either l or r and N is any nasal (n, m, ng) - there are some further rules on which consonants can occur next to each other in certain positions (so trV is okay, but tlV isn't), but that description's mostly accurate. _Strengths_ is pretty much the biggest you can have.)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-02T18:44:21.297
12717
2013-09-02T18:44:21.297
3639
12714
answer