Japanese (ja-JP) - Amazon Polly
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Japanese (ja-JP)

Amazon Polly supports the Pronunciation Kana and Yomigana alphabets for Japanese. To make Amazon Polly use phonetic pronunciation with these alphabets, use the phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-phonetic standard used" attribute.

  • x-amazon-pron-kana – indicates that Pronunciation Kana is used. Pronunciation Kana are special Katakana characters used for phonetic transcription and can encode pitch accent.

  • x-amazon-yomigana – indicates that Yomigana is used. Yomigana can be conventional Katakana, Hiragana, and Latin alphabets interpreted as hepburn romanization.

The following examples show how these are used:

Pronunciation Kana

<speak>
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-pron-kana" ph="ヒロカ'ズ">浩一</phoneme>です。
</speak>

Yomigana

<speak>
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-yomigana" ph="ひろかず">浩一</phoneme>です。
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-yomigana" ph="ヒロカズ">浩一</phoneme>です。
     名前は<phoneme alphabet="x-amazon-yomigana" ph="Hirokazu">浩一</phoneme>です。
</speak>

The following table lists the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) phonemes, the Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) symbols, and the corresponding visemes for the Japanese voice supported by Amazon Polly.

IPA

X-SAMPA

Description

Example

Viseme

Consonants

ɾ

4

alveolar flap

練習, renshuu

t

ʔ

?

glottal stop

あつっ, atsu'

b

b

voiced bilabial plosive

舞踊, buyou

p

β

B

voiced bilabial fricative

ヴィンテージ, vinteeji

B

c

c

voiceless palatal plosive

ききょう, kikyou

k

ç

C

voiceless palatal fricative

人, hito

k

d

d

voiced alveolar plosive

濁点, dakuten

t

d͡ʑ

dz\

voiced alveolo-palatal affricate

純, jun

J

ɡ

g

voiced velar plosive

ご飯, gohan

k

h

h

voiceless glottal fricative

本, hon

k

j

j

palatal approximant

屋根, yane

i

ɟ

J\

voiced palatal plosive

行儀, gyougi

J

k

k

voiceless velar plosive

漢字, kanji

k

ɺ

l\

alveolar lateral flap

釣り, tsuri

r

ɺj

l\j

alveolar lateral flap, palatal approximant

流行, ryuukou

r

m

m

bilabial nasal

飯, meshi

p

n

n

alveolar nasal

猫, neko

t

ɲ

J

palatal nasal

日本, nippon

J

ɴ

N\

uvular nasal

缶, kan

k

p

p

voiceless bilabial plosive

パン, pan

p

ɸ

p\

voiceless bilabial fricative

福, huku

f

s

s

voiceless alveolar fricative

層, sou

s

ɕ

s\

voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative

書簡, shokan

J

t

t

voiceless alveolar plosive

手紙, tegami

t

t͡s

ts

voiceless alveolar affricate

釣り, tsuri

s

t͡ɕ

ts\

voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate

吉, kichi

J

w

w

labial-velar approximant

電話, denwa

u

z

z

voiced alveolar fricative

座敷, zashiki

s

Vowels

äː

a:_"

long open central unrounded vowel

羽蟻, haari

a

ä

a_"

open central unrounded vowel

仮名, kana

a

eː

e:_o

long mid front unrounded vowel

学生, gakusei

@

e

e_o

mid front unrounded vowel

歴, reki

@

i

i

close front unrounded vowel

気, ki

i

iː

i:

long close front unrounded vowel

詩歌, shiika

i

ɯ

M

close back unrounded vowel

運, un

i

ɯː

M:

long close back unrounded vowel

宗教, shuukyou

i

oː

o:_o

long mid back rounded vowel

購読, koodoku

o

o

o_o

mid back rounded vowel

読者, dokusha

o