Japanese is a syllable-timed language whereas English is a stress-timed language. That makes a big difference when it comes to the clarity of vowel sounds. In English in unimportant syllables, the vowel sounds get relaxed and tend towards being prounounced as a Schwa. In Japanese, syllables are expected to take more or less the same time each, and as a result there’s no relaxation of the pronunciation of the vowel sounds.
So, for example, when an American says “Toyota” they’ll tend to say “tuh-YO-duh” because the natural emphasis in English is on the second syllable, which means the unstressed syllables get relaxed and become more like the schwa sound. Also, the “t” sound shifts to a “d” sound because it’s easier not to cut off the vocalization to hit that final “t”, and since it’s unstressed it doesn’t matter so much. In Japanese it’s “TO-Yo-Ta’” The first syllable is slightly stressed and every vowel sound is clear, and the final “t” is important. In fact, the name used to be “Toyoda” named after the founding family’s name, and they intentionally switched that to a “t” sound instead.
Even among the other stress timed languages, English is especially reductive. In German, a final “en” gets folded into the word; “haben” becomes “ham”. But in almost all other cases, unstressed vowels retain their pronunciation.
Motor as two distinct o-sounds and doesn’t become moter/motur. Or the word “specialised” could have the “e” maybe but def the “ia” turn into a schwa. Meanwhile “spezialisiert” retains every vowel as they were.
Japanese is a syllable-timed language whereas English is a stress-timed language. That makes a big difference when it comes to the clarity of vowel sounds. In English in unimportant syllables, the vowel sounds get relaxed and tend towards being prounounced as a Schwa. In Japanese, syllables are expected to take more or less the same time each, and as a result there’s no relaxation of the pronunciation of the vowel sounds.
So, for example, when an American says “Toyota” they’ll tend to say “tuh-YO-duh” because the natural emphasis in English is on the second syllable, which means the unstressed syllables get relaxed and become more like the schwa sound. Also, the “t” sound shifts to a “d” sound because it’s easier not to cut off the vocalization to hit that final “t”, and since it’s unstressed it doesn’t matter so much. In Japanese it’s “TO-Yo-Ta’” The first syllable is slightly stressed and every vowel sound is clear, and the final “t” is important. In fact, the name used to be “Toyoda” named after the founding family’s name, and they intentionally switched that to a “t” sound instead.
I’m native german and it’s To-Yo-Ta too.
Even among the other stress timed languages, English is especially reductive. In German, a final “en” gets folded into the word; “haben” becomes “ham”. But in almost all other cases, unstressed vowels retain their pronunciation.
Motor as two distinct o-sounds and doesn’t become moter/motur. Or the word “specialised” could have the “e” maybe but def the “ia” turn into a schwa. Meanwhile “spezialisiert” retains every vowel as they were.