Malay → Japanese
Japanese uses 31 sounds. You already own 17 of them from Malay. The other 14 are the work — and 14 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Japanese: sushi · written "し shi", "しゃ しゅ しょ sh-"
Not English 'sh' — tongue flatter and further forward.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in syukur (gratitude).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Japanese: time · written "じ ji", "じゃ じゅ じょ"
Your /d͡ʒ/ is the one in jalan (road / to walk).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Japanese: small · written "ち chi", "ちゃ ちゅ ちょ ch-"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in cinta (love).
the move: postalveolar → alveolar
Japanese: moon · written "つ tsu"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in cinta (love).
the move: velar → palatal
Japanese: person · written "ひ hi", "ひゃ ひゅ ひょ"
German ich-Laut — h in front of i gets palatal.
Your /x/ is the one in khabar (news).
the move: labiodental → bilabial
Japanese: winter · written "ふ fu"
Blow gently between the lips. Teeth never touch — this is not English f.
Your /f/ is the one in faham (to understand).
the move: unrounded
Japanese: sea · written "う ウ u"
Say /u/ but DON'T round your lips. The commonest giveaway of a foreign accent.
Your /u/ is the one in untuk (for).
the move: longer
Japanese: grandmother · written "ああ ā", "アー"
Length is meaning: おばさん obasan is 'aunt'.
Your /a/ is the one in apa (what).
the move: longer
Japanese: grandfather · written "いい ī"
Your /i/ is the one in ini (this).
the move: longer
Japanese: teacher · written "えい ei", "ええ ē"
ei is normally said as a long ē, not as two vowels.
Your /e/ is the one in merah (red).
the move: longer
Japanese: Tokyo · written "おう ō", "おお"
Your /o/ is the one in orang (person).
the move: velar → uvular
Japanese: book · written "ん n"
A beat of its own, and it changes colour: [m] before p/b/m, [n] before t/d/n, [ŋ] before k/g, uvular [ɴ] at the end.
Your /ŋ/ is the one in dengan (with).
the move: unrounded, longer
Japanese: number · written "うう ū", "ウー"
Your /u/ is the one in untuk (for).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Japanese sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Malay | Japanese | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed | Mora-timed |
| Stress | Light and non-contrastive, usually on the second-to-last syllable — and it shifts when suffixes are added, without any effect on meaning. No Malay pair is distinguished by stress, which is one of the reasons Malay is regularly called the most approachable major language to pronounce. | No stress in the English sense — syllables are not louder or longer, so a Japanese speaker reading English tends to flatten it, and an English speaker reading Japanese tends to hammer syllables that should be even. |
What you have that Japanese doesn't
15 sounds with no job in Japanese. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Malay has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Japanese from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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