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(Note: I'm part of the "I know bits and pieces of Japanese from watching
anime" group, so I lack an in-depth knowledge of Japanese)

As I'm hearing Japanese occasionally there will be an English word said. Lots
of the time there seems to be a suffix on it. Here's a random sampling of
words and what the suffixes sound like:

```

    print-o
    fight-o
    deep-eh
    speed-o
    rock-uh
    type-eh
    print-eh
    rope-eh
    boss-eh
    
```

As you can see there seem to be 2 major suffixes: -eh (or -euh, depending on
the person saying it) and -o. Are there any rules on which to use? Does it
even depend on the person or area the person is from?
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2012-09-12T17:10:15.083
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2017-05-27T17:34:55.353
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question
suffixes english-to-japanese
Any rules for a suffix on english words?
Written Japanese contains a syllabary (like an alphabet) called Kana. All of
the "letters" in this syllabary, with the exception of the "letter" "N" (ん/ン)
end in a vowel. Thus anytime a foreign word ends in a consonant (with the
exception of "N"), it is natural for a Japanese speaker to pronounce this
consonant with a vowel after it. This is not a question of suffix usage but a
question of pronunciation. Note that all the words you listed have a
pronunciation that ends in a consonant (the e in rope and type are not
audible).

See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana>
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2012-09-12T17:35:29.613
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2012-09-12T17:47:36.677
2012-09-12T17:47:36.677
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answer
The very rough outline of the pattern is as follows:

> -n -> Nothing added.  
>  -t, -d -> Add -o.  
>  -s -> A phonemic -u is added, but is often not pronounced.  
>  -tch(-ch) -ge -> A phonemic -i is added, but is often not pronounced.  
>  -k(-c/-ck), -g, -z, -f, -b, -p, -m, -r, -sh -> Add -u.

What I write as -u is really a close back vowel [ɯ], which is what you
transcribe as -eh and -uh.

So the general rule is to add -u. The reason some endings add others, like -o,
is that some combinations of sounds, like 'tu' and 'du', don't exist in
Japanese traditionally (although they have appeared because of foreign
loanwords).

For the ones adding -i, I have less confidence, but I would think it is
because -tch and -ge sound palatized, and "chi" and "ji" are palatized in
Japanese, contrary "chu" and "ju".
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2012-09-13T04:00:48.950
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2012-09-13T04:00:48.950
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answer
Building on what the other answers gave, but adding a bit more detail:

Japanese's "syllables" are known as "mora". One mora consists of at least a
vowel and possibly preceded by a consonant. (They're not quite syllables, as
two mora can combine to make one syllable). This makes Japanese a **moraic**
language.

A consonant following a vowel in a syllable is known as a **syllable coda**.
Japanese lacks any representation for a syllable coda in its set of phonemes,
since every consonant is always followed by a vowel (with a notable exception
of the "n" sound, which is relatively new in the Japanese syllabary). For this
reason, transcribing a syllable coda into Japanese usually requires an -u
sound. In normal spoken Japanese, an -u is usually barely pronounced when it
comes at the end of a word. In anime, you've probably heard a lot of "desu"
and "masu" at the end of sentences, pronounced as "dess" and "mass",
respectively. So the following words are transcribed as follows:

> wife => waifu  
> propose => puropozu  
> rice => raisu  
> ice => aisu

But "t" is an exception to this. The [タ行]{ta-gyou}'s -u syllable sounds like
"tsu", rather than "tu". So the closest thing to a terminal "-t" coda is "to".
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