41963
I realize anime is not like real life. In any case, I have noticed for a long
time now that when saying "roger", they sound like they are saying "yokai"
when in fact there should be a "r" sound in the beginning. It seems like they
drop the "r" entirely, however. Maybe it's just me, but I've even rewound and
listened to it said many times in many instances and it never ceases to sound
like they omit the "r" sound entirely in this usage. So, if I'm hearing it
correctly, why do they do this? If I'm not, then... well, why does it sound
like that's what they're doing to me so clearly & consistently(perhaps I'm not
sensitive enough to pick up on their language's tiny nuances yet)?

To clarify: I do realize the way they say "r" is light in & of itself already.
The way it's pronounced makes it slip into their language in a very fine and
balanced way(definitely a "soft" sound, unlike the American "r" I grew up
with). But in other instances, I do still pick it up. It's only ever an issue
with this word/in this scenario. I was curious whether or not there is a
reason for this, is all.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-23T21:35:20.290
41931
2016-12-25T04:17:53.200
19189
question
pronunciation
Is it just me, or is "ryokai" pronounced "yokai" regularly?
Japanese people do not use r sound. When they say ryokai, their top of tongue
touches the upper part of mouth and it often does not make sound. So it is
very hard to distinguish ryokai and yokai.
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2016-12-24T00:34:06.543
41932
2016-12-24T00:34:06.543
1007
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answer
I don't think it is just the word "ryokai", but all りゃ, りゅ and りょ are often
difficult to pronounce/hear for native English speakers as the sound does not
exist in the English language.

See this site for how it is pronounced: <https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-
lessons/how-to-pronounce-ry/>

As explained above, even though we use and "r" in rōma-ji, the actually sound
is probably closer to an "l" (L) sound, which might explain part of the reason
you cannot catch it.

A good example is the company [Ryobi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryobi). In
the US, I believe everyone pronounces it "Rai-oh-bi".
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2016-12-24T00:37:39.187
41933
2016-12-24T03:02:50.573
2016-12-24T03:02:50.573
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answer
Japanese don’t have the sound of “r.” Therefore “了解-りょうかい” doesn’t sound as
you expect. I think Japanese ら・り・る・れ・ろ are closer to la・li・lu・le・lo in sound.

However, if you omit “r” or “l” sound when you want to say “了解 – roger,
gotcha”, and say “youkai,” it means “妖怪 – monster,” or “溶解‐melting,” or “容喙 -
interfering” So all you have to do is just be attentive to Japanese ら・り・る・れ・ろ
sound, which is very different from “ra・ri・ru・re・ro” sound in English.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-25T02:02:45.683
41961
2016-12-25T02:02:45.683
12056
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answer
Japanese ry is palatal flap while English y is palatal fricative. So they are
very close. (Japanese y is less fricative than the English counterpart and
close to a kind of diphthong.)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-25T04:17:53.200
41963
2016-12-25T04:17:53.200
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answer