# Correct pronunciation of Japanese family name "Uehara" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489 "2013-05-27T20:53:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/1 "2013-05-27T20:53:36Z")
I’m a fan of Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara. There is also a Uehara who plays Major League baseball. Unfortunately, I’ve never actually heard the name spoken by a native Japanese speaker. It has long been my understanding that, in the Japanese language, adjacent vowel sounds are, in most cases, pronounced separately. (That is, when the Japanese is rendered in romaji/Roman characters.) In actual practice, what little spoken Japanese I’ve heard has tended to blend the two vowel sounds into a single sound, and that sound is what you would get if you pronounced the two Roman vowels consecutively but sort of run together. As a result, when I first saw the name “Uehara”, my brain said, “weh-HA-ra”. However, when I hear baseball announcers speaking the name, most of them pronounce it “OO-ee-HA-ra”. None of these announcers have been native Japanese speakers. I’ve also heard enough mispronunciation of Spanish names by baseball announcers that I don’t have complete confidence that they’re pronouncing this Japanese name correctly. For one thing, I know that the Japanese sound represented as “e” has more of an “eh” sound to it, not an “ee” sound. Who can give me the straight dope here? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/2 "2013-05-27T21:12:18Z")
I haven’t spoken Japanese since I was five years old (except for a class I took at UCLA in the '80s), so take this as you will. I would pronounce it ‘oo-eh-hah-ra’, with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth so that it’s a combined ‘l/r’ sound (like in ‘Gojira’), and with no emphasis on any syllable. . ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/3 "2013-05-27T21:14:43Z")
It’s four syllables: oo-eh-ha-ra Slight emphasis on the first and third syllables, but the emphasis is much less than you would use for English words. Or what **Johnny L.A.** said Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/4 "2013-05-27T21:20:00Z")
The Japanese “u” sound is sort of between “oo” and “ih”. It’s pronounced high in the back of the mouth, with the lips compressed. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/5 "2013-05-27T21:21:52Z")
Not Japanese, but my best guess based on the names of Japanese folks I know would be “oo-ey-ha-ra”. That’s “oo” rhymes with “blue” and “ey” rhymes with “hey”. I’d be pretty certain it is not pronounced with “weh”/“way” as the first syllable, as that sound isn’t really used in modern Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/6 "2013-05-27T23:22:56Z")
Thanks, all. Sounds like the announcers were closer than I though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thicksantorum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@thicksantorum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thicksantorum)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/7 "2013-05-27T23:38:31Z")
Trick for pronouncing the Japanese “r”: Say “pudding” now “puddin” now “puddin” really fast, with slight emphasis on the first syllable the “dd” will start to sound like a combination of “r” “l” and “d” now it sounds like “purin” with the Japanese r-sound note how your tongue is moving, and try to replicate that for other r-sounds. Kinda convoluted, but it works. …or just pronounce it like a normal English “r”. No one’s gonna misunderstand it or anything. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/8 "2013-05-28T00:06:02Z")
Pronunciation also depends on regional accents. Remember the Nagano Olympics? How Nagano was pronounced (where the stress was) depended on which Prefecture the speaker lived. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/9 "2013-05-28T00:13:25Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Pronunciation also depends on regional accents. Remember the Nagano Olympics? How Nagano was pronounced (where the stress was) depended on which Prefecture the speaker lived. I can’t speak more than a few words of Japanese but I thought there was no stressing of any syllables in Japanese other than when marked with a “stress mark”. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/10 "2013-05-28T00:13:55Z")
> [@thicksantorum](#): > > Trick for pronouncing the Japanese “r”: > Say “pudding” > now “puddin” > now “puddin” really fast, with slight emphasis on the first syllable > the “dd” will start to sound like a combination of “r” “l” and “d” > now it sounds like “purin” with the Japanese r-sound > note how your tongue is moving, and try to replicate that for other r-sounds. > > Kinda convoluted, but it works. > > …or just pronounce it like a normal English “r”. No one’s gonna misunderstand it or anything. I’ve always used the name “Katy” or the word “kitty”, which in my dialect contain the alveolar tap/flap naturally. Though as always using words is unreliable since it depends on the person’s accent. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/11 "2013-05-28T00:51:18Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I can’t speak more than a few words of Japanese but I thought there was no stressing of any syllables in Japanese other than when marked with a “stress mark”. Only true in the “official” books. In practice, there’re just as many regionalisms as in any culture. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/12 "2013-05-28T00:58:29Z")
There’s also some pseudo-stressing because Japanese is a tonal language. Yes, Japanese is tonal, it\* actually has some really weird rules for tonality (for instance, **if I recall correctly** , the pitch can’t fall after it raises within the same word). It’s not as heavily or obviously tonal as, say, Chinese though (and I understand that most Japanese people don’t consciously notice that it’s tonal). And yes, I have a cite, but unfortunately it’s not web accessible (without a subscription at least), try to find the Illustrations of the IPA: Japanese article if you have access to the IPA Journal, I think it was published around 1992 or so – it has some examples of tonal minimal pairs. - And by “it” I mean boring academic modern Tokyo dialect. Your dialect may differ. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/13 "2013-05-28T01:04:52Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The Japanese “u” sound is sort of between “oo” and “ih”. It’s pronounced high in the back of the mouth, with the lips compressed. I don’t understand what you mean by “lips compressed”; to me it suggests “tightly together/mouth shut” which can’t be right. (Can it?) ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/14 "2013-05-28T01:07:02Z")
Once again popping in with the [for serious bestest most useful pronunciation/linguistics link ever](http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm). It’s the character “u” on the vowel chart on the right, under “back, close”. ETA: And the Japanese “r” sound is under the chart on the top, under “alveolar” and “tap or flap”. It looks like a curvy r (ɾ). ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/15 "2013-05-28T01:18:03Z")
Here’s a [Wiki file giving the pronunciation of Japanese “ue”](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ja-ue.ogg). Just add “hara” after that – though that should be with the [Japanese “r”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_r), it’s not going to make a big difference. ---
**Author:** ![thicksantorum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@thicksantorum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thicksantorum)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/16 "2013-05-28T01:33:06Z")
Use the wrong intonation in Chinese and you may get a completely different word. Use the wrong intonation in Japanese and you just sound like a funny foreigner. Err… sound _more_ like a funny foreigner. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/17 "2013-05-28T02:12:38Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Here’s a [Wiki file giving the pronunciation of Japanese “ue”](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ja-ue.ogg). Just add “hara” after that – though that should be with the [Japanese “r”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_r), it’s not going to make a big difference. Now that actually sounds _much_ closer to my original guess than what I hear the baseball announcers say. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/18 "2013-05-28T02:34:09Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I can’t speak more than a few words of Japanese but I thought there was no stressing of any syllables in Japanese other than when marked with a “stress mark”. There is some rule of stress. Meaning of words differ by the intonation. For example, hashi can mean either bridge or chopsticks- ha/SHI for bridge and HA/shi for chopsticks. There are a lot of words like this. What makes it even more complicated is that the Tokyo and Kyoto dialects are flipped, so in Tokyo ha/SHI is bridge but in Kyoto ha/SHI is chopsticks. :smack: I like to think of it equivalent to how we differentiate with intonation with words such as Polish/polish and produce the papers/she bought produce. Not exactly the same, but similar to that affect. There are some other things about intonation like not sounding so foreign when talking. When I lived there for a year one teacher tried to teach us with long words, waving his hand up and down to show where the higher intonations should be, but I never saw a pattern to the madness and as a result never really understood it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/19 "2013-05-28T03:48:11Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > I don’t understand what you mean by “lips compressed”; to me it suggests “tightly together/mouth shut” which can’t be right. (Can it?) It means lips close together, almost touching, leaving a smaller space for the sound to get out. The “compression” is relative to their more relaxed position for /u/ in other languages. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489/20 "2013-05-28T03:56:15Z")
> [@thicksantorum](#): > > Trick for pronouncing the Japanese “r”: > Say “pudding” > now “puddin” > now “puddin” really fast, with slight emphasis on the first syllable > the “dd” will start to sound like a combination of “r” “l” and “d” > now it sounds like “purin” with the Japanese r-sound > note how your tongue is moving, and try to replicate that for other r-sounds. > > Kinda convoluted, but it works. > > …or just pronounce it like a normal English “r”. No one’s gonna misunderstand it or anything. All my life I’ve been telling people that it’s similar to a Spanish rolled r. Is this not a close approximation? Mind you, I’ve always had a problem pronouncing both. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/correct-pronunciation-of-japanese-family-name-uehara/659489.md?page=2)