English - Japanese

Comparative Chart
Special note: this is based on Big Al's help file and some information is added to show English equivalent/quasi-equivalent phonemes for Japanese phonemes with symbols and compare their actual pronunciations. Even if the symbol transcriptions are the same, their actual pronunciations in each of the language are often different as each IPA shows. This guide is meant for users who is working to make an English/Japanese Vocaloid to sing in the opposite language. However, additional work will be needed to get closer to the target language's phoneme usage.

Additional notes

 * Linguistically, the phonemes which the English language and the Japanese language share in common are k, g, s, z, Z, tS, h, b, p, j and m. Also both English and Japanese voicebanks have e, S, dZ, d, N, n and w, however, these phonemes generally do not sound the same. (See IPA in each language)
 * Since all the voicebanks have their distinctive characteristics, their phonemes do not always produce the same result especially in languages which they are not intended for.
 * The above is particularly true for Miku and Rin, who are remarked to sound excessively aged when singing in normal configurations, higher octaves, but in another language.
 * The most of the consonants in the Japanese phonemes (and certain English phonemes) are not intended to be encoded standalone. Using them for such may sometimes result in audio distortion, clicks or sound loops.