A 'ROUGH GUIDE' TO PRONUNCIATION
OF REIKI SYMBOL 'NAMES'/JUMON
Copyright © 2003/5 James Deacon

 

(It is important to remember that Japanese, like any other language has many different dialects, with slightly different ways of pronouncing the various wordsounds. Thus, as the title states, what follows is only a rough guide to pronunciation)

CHOKU REI

Choku:
The U in Choku is almost mute. (In Japanese, 'U' is only fully vocalised when it is the initial syllable)
Choku is pronounced 'Choke' (or somewhere between 'Choke' and 'Shoke') - but with a very slight pause in the middle:
'CHO-KE'

Rei:
There is no true 'r' sound in Japanese. On occasion, the letter 'l' has also been used to represent the actual Japanese sound represented here by the letter 'r'.
For example, the word we now write as 'Reiki', Takata-sensei wrote as 'Leiki'; however, neither is quite right (there just isn't an accurate way of representing the Japanese word-sound using the letters of the English alphabet)

The actual sound identified by 'r' in transliteration is pronounced with the tip of the tongue and is a sort of a blending of 'r' & 'l'.

In pronouncing 'l' (lah, leh, lih, loh, luh) your tongue briefly touches the alveolar ridge region of the gum behind your front teeth.
As a general guide, to pronounce the Japanese sound rendered as "r", essentially pronounce the 'l' sound, - tongue touching the ridge behind your teeth - but broaden your tongue so as to achieve as sound somewhere between the English 'I' and 'r' sounds. [Do not 'roll' the sound as is often done with 'r'.] Sometimes, depending on how the tongue is positioned, the sound produced may be perceived to be somewhere between the English 'I' and 'd'.

Rei a pronounced as a cross between 'Ray' & 'Lay' - but with the slightest imaginable 'echoing' of the Y:
RAY-y

SEI HEIKI

Sei: - as with Rei
SAY-y

Heiki:
HAY-y KEE


HON SHA ZE SHÔ NEN

Hon: - rhymes with 'John'


Sha: - 'a' as in 'father'
- SHAH (or even dJAH)

Ze: - the 'e' is vocalised just like the 'e' in 'bed' or 'pen'
ZEH

Shô: - the 'o' in Sho is actually a 'long-vowel' (the O has a 'macron' symbol over it) somewhere between:
SHOW and SHOU (SHEW)

Nen: - like 'pen'


DAI KÔ MYÔ

Dai: - the 'ai' is vocalised just like the I in 'five'
DIE

Kô: - another 'long-vowel'
somewhere between:
KOE and KOU

Myô: - another 'long-vowel'
somewhere between:
M'YOW and M'YOU (M'YEW)