Which is the correct pronunciation, 'Nihon' or 'Nippon'? | Funny Japanese lesson

Which is the correct pronunciation, "Nihon" or "Nippon"? | Funny Japanese lesson

[katynewt]

Basically, "Nippon" is used in sports, mostly in chants.
"Nihon" is the official name of the country and what most people say casually.

[iLoveEmilia]

it’s all about getting to the point of not questioning and just accepting it as the norm.

imo at a glance it looks silly but it also just feels right

[Spationaut]

I am a beginner (really really a beginner). But, here are my thoughts. If a native can correct me, I would appreciate it.

I think it is related to history and the use of kanji that allows regional shifts in the pronouncing without alterations in the writing. Even as a foreigner, I can tell that "Ni hon" of 日本 and of 二本 aren't exactly the same. I'm pretty sure there is a rule that Japanese use for "h" and "p" but most don't realize they're using it. Some regions might have dropped the rule, and it became some sort "accents".

Shift in how a words is said are present in my language (french). That's why we have some strange "^" like ô. Yeah it's pronounced "o", but the "^" comes from a "os" sound. Ex: "Milieu hospitalier" and "hôpital". The ô is there to say "hey! This is said "hop", but the root is "hosp"." A lot of French people don't even know that! Some even try to get rid of those rules.

[BlizzardWind]

I envy your writing... so beautiful!!!

[ZeeRAZM]

I also find this questionable while learning as well

[yukki]

「にっぽん銀行」が正しいって知らんかった。
確かにお札にはそう書いてあるのに・・・。

[mingautumns]

While the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were taking place, I noticed that all of the Japanese Olympians uniforms had “Nippon” embroidered on them rather than “Nihon” and I became curious. In my understanding, Nippon is used in a kind of nationalistic(?) way to show support, where as Nihon is used in a general sense. You most likely wouldn’t hear someone say “Nippon” in a casual conversation but in sports you can probably expect to hear it a lot.

I dunno, someone correct me if I’m wrong, I’m still learning myself after all.

[Weeping-Angel]

To be honest, as a Chinese person, the correct and incorrect ways of saying those words makes perfect sense and logical to me for some reason. I don’t know why though 🤷‍♀️

[syowakawanezumi]

Hi Japanese here. I think that you can use whichever you want!
Nippongo（にっぽんご） and Nihonginkou（にほんぎんこう） are perfectly okay to me.
I know that Nipponginkou（にっぽんぎんこう） is a proper noun, but nobody cares. I mean, literally nobody.

[Cosmos_]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Nihon is more of an irregular reading whereas Nippon is the result of a common phenomenon that happens when a kanji whose on-yomi ends with *chi*, *ku*, or *tsu* meets a kanji whose on-yomi starts with an *H* character where the aforementioned last character in the first kanji turns into a small tsu (っ) which indicates a pause between characters and the *H* character is given a handakuten (゜) which turns it into a *P* character.

In Nippon's case, we take 日 whose on-yomi is *nichi* and 本 whose on-yomi is *hon* and we combine the two to get 日本. Alternatively, if we use 日 's other on-yomi *jitsu*, then the name becomes *Jippon*.

Neat.

[dogdog]

His handwriting is pretty neat and satisfying, I love it

[UzumakiHarutoJP]

This man writes better than computer fonts

[name]

Wow, you always give interesting information, even without speaking.

[innoillust]

I'm just here mesmerize by how he able to write text so neatly withou guides

[zneuph]

Language rules like this really make Japanese (harder) more interesting

[azjves]

I didn't know it can also be read as Nipponjin too. I learn a new thing :)

[Kalpanapardhi]

i like how the pen has higher sharpness than the printer

[いはらかずや]

日本郵便→にっぽんゆうびん
日本茶→にほんちゃ
大日本雄弁会講談社→だいにっぽんゆうべんかいこうだんしゃ
大日本帝国→だいにほんていこく、だいにっぽんていこく

[rancegianr.marucut]

I am a beginner (really really a beginner). But, here are my thoughts. If a native can correct me, I would appreciate it. think it is related to history and the use of kanji that allows regional shifts in the pronouncing without alterations in the writing. Even as a foreigner, I can tell that "Ni hon" of 日本 and of 二本 aren't exactly the same. I'm pretty sure there is a rule that Japanese use for "h" and "p" but most don't realize they're using it. Some regions might have dropped the rule, and it became some sort "accents".

Shift in how a words is said are present in my language (french). That's why we have some strange "^" like ô. Yeah it's pronounced "o", but the "^" comes from a "os" sound. Ex: "Milieu hospitalier" and "hôpital". The ô is there to say "hey! This is said "hop", but the root is "hosp"." A lot of French people don't even know that! Some even try to get rid of those rules.

19

think it is related to history and the use of kanji that allows regional shifts in the pronouncing without alterations in the writing. Even as a foreigner, I can tell that "Ni hon" of 日本 and of 二本 aren't exactly the same. I'm pretty sure there is a rule that Japanese use for "h" and "p" but most don't realize they're using it. Some regions might have dropped the rule, and it became some sort "accents".

Shift in how a words is said are present in my language (french). That's why we have some strange "^" like ô. Yeah it's pronounced "o", but the "^" comes from a "os" sound. Ex: "Milieu hospitalier" and "hôpital". The ô is there to say "hey! This is said "hop", but the root is "hosp"." A lot of French people don't even know that! Some even try to get rid of those rules.

19

[osakablinladen]

i was half asleep when watching this and got confused by the handwriting cause my brain couldn't process it being this neat and thought he was somehow printing a font with his hand