Ryokan

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Jan 24th, 2007 | 04:35 AM

peggionthego

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Ryokan

Can someone tell me how to pronounce "ryokan"?

Jan 24th, 2007 | 05:10 AM

harsha

Joined: Mar 2005

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Rio (as in Brazil) Khan (as in Kublai Khan)but not much stress on the 'h'.
Hope I explained it right.

Jan 24th, 2007 | 08:18 AM

peggionthego

Original Poster

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Thank you! I was certainly pronouncing it incorrectly.

Jan 24th, 2007 | 11:08 AM

jlaughs

Joined: Jun 2004

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It's not quite "ri-o" as in Rio de Janeiro. Try to pronounce the "ryo" as one syllable rather than two.

FYI - If ryokan were, in fact, pronounced as "Rio" and "Khan", it would be spelled riokan (ri-o-ka-n).

Jan 24th, 2007 | 11:09 AM

Manisha

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The "r" in the "Rio" is not very pronounced either...almost silent. When folks in Japan said it, it sounded like eee-o-kan or using this example io-Khan (not much stress on the 'h').

Hope this makes sense.

Jan 24th, 2007 | 12:26 PM

jlaughs

Joined: Jun 2004

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One other thing -- try to roll your "r" a bit. It's not really a pronounced "r" sound. With rolling it a bit (softly), you're able to make "ryo" one syllable and it does, as Manisha pointed out, make the "r" less pronounced.