How to read foreign words or “GAIRAIGO,” words that came from abroad

Hello to all studying Japanese!
There are a lot of things that you may have trouble with while you are learning Japanese, are not there?
In particular, I often hear from English speakers that it is difficult to pronounce “GAIRAIGO”.
Today, I would like to talk about some of the many “GAIRAIGO” in Japanese, and among them, pronunciation.

There are several pronunciation rules for foreign languages.
These rules are not easily found in the textbooks you learn at Japanese language schools, but once you understand that, it is not so hard, so read carefully.
In Japanese, there are no consonants other than the letter “n” which is pronounced with only consonants!

There is always a consonant followed by a vowel.
Vowels – a, i, u, e, o “a”, “i”, “u”, “e”, “o”
Consonants-k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, n, b, g, z, d, b, p, c, j

In Japanese, there are no consonants other than the letter “n” which is pronounced with only consonants!
There is always a consonant followed by a vowel.

ex.
store ストア
watch ウォッチ
web ウェブ

So, what vowel should be followed by a consonant? Actually, there are three major rules.
(There are many small rules and exceptions…)

◎Rule 1: Add “u” after consonants.
Most foreign words, if the original English word has only consonants, can be read in Japanese katakana by adding “u”.
In other words, make the u-dan sound.

U-dan – U-dan – “U,” “K,” “S,” “T,” “N,” “F,” “M,” “Y,” “L,” “G,” “Z,” “B,” and
“P”.

◎Rule 2: Add “o” to “t” and “d” consonants.
Add “o” to the consonants of “t” and “d” to make o-dan.
O-dan – “o,” “ko,” “so,” “to,” “no,” “ho,” “mo,” “yo,” “ro,” “wo,” “go,” “zo,” “do,” “bo,” “po”.

ex.
driver　ドライバー
diamond　ダイヤモンド
hardware　ハードウェア
software　ソフトウェア
adventure　アドベンチャー
internet　インターネット
coat　コート
training　トレーニング
train　トレイン

◎Rule 3: Many of the long vowel sounds “ar”, “er”, “ur”, “or” are long sounds in the a-dan.
Most “ar”, “er”, “ur”, and “or” long vowel sounds have a long “a” sound.

A-dan long vowel-「アー」「カー」「サー」「ター」「ナー」「ハー」「マー」「ヤー」「ラー」「ワー」「ガー」「ザー」「ダー」「バー」「パー」「キャー」「シャー」「チャー」「ニャー」「ヒャー」「ミャー」「リャー」「ギャー」「ジャー」「ビャー」「ピャー」

ex.
driver　ドライバー　
computer　コンピューター
elevator　エレベーター
calendar　カレンダー
survey　サーベイ
curtain　カーテン
curve　カーブ

Exceptions

I explained that most consonants will be in the u-dan sound, but of course there are exceptions.
In Rule 1, I told that if an English word has only consonants, adding “u” will make it a Japanese katakana reading. The reason why these words do not fit the rule is because they were introduced to Japan at different times as foreign words. This is because these words are old foreign words that came to Japan at an early stage.

ex.
cake　ケーキ, not ケーク
steak 　ステーキ, not ステーク
deck 　デッキ, not デック
brake 　ブレーキ, not ブレーク
stick 　ステッキ（杖）, notスティック※However, スティックis used in the sense of 棒.

There are other words that have the same pronunciation in English, but two different pronunciations in Japanese, and each with a different meaning.

ex.
Sheet シート is a piece of paper. It is also used for spreadsheets. Another is a シーツof bedding.

In addition, there are foreign words that are not from English but from other foreign languages such as Portuguese. Portugal and the Netherlands have been in contact with Japan for a long time, so there are many old foreign words that came from Portugal and the Netherlands.

ex.
tabaco 　タバコ from Portuguese
capa 　カッパ from Portuguese ※raincoat in English
pao　パン from Portuguese　※bread in English
glas　ガラス（硝子）from Dutch, ※easily mistaken by “グラス” glass
kop　コップ from Dutch　※コップ can easily be mistaken for “カップ”cup
gom　ゴム from Dutch rubber ※rubber in Englishr
enquete　アンケート from French ※questionnaire in English

Did you all understand? There are many “GAIRAIGO”, and there are some more rules and exceptions.

However, if you remember the above three rules, you will be able to read most “GAIRAIGO”, so please try to apply the above rules when you hear “GAIRAIGO” in the future.