English - Japanese

Language Differences
Due to the set up of the Japanese Vocaloids, they are more limiting for the use of the English language, since the phonology of the Japanese language including phonemes, accents, tones, intonations, moras and assimilation's, is very different from that of the English language. As each consonant sound is always followed by inseparable vowels and consonants do not get in cluster in the Japanese language, generally each of them is pronounced weakly and not independently, except んn, sokuon and some transliterated phonemes for non-Japanese words. Because of this, some of Japanese Vocaloids’ consonant sounds slightly contain vowel sounds to be smooth and sound right in Japanese when they are connected to the following vowels.

Also, even if X-SAMPA, IPA, Latin Alphabet or the symbol transcriptions are the same, their actual pronunciations in Japanese and English are not always the same; for instance, symbol S is often pronounced /ʃ/ by English Vocaloids and /ɕ/ by Japanese ones, basically Japanese "a" is a low central vowel and is between the English "a" in "father" and the English "a" in "dad" , and "r" in Japanese is not as same as either "r" or "l" in English. (See "Japanese Phonetic System" below) 

In addition, the English language often puts emphasis on certain letters of words (stress accent) while the Japanese language frequently use pitch accents. These differences between two languages frequently make Japanese Vocaloids retain a Japanese accent when there is no perfectly equivalent phonemes, even if users manage them to sing in the correct language. On the contrary, the same things can happen to English Vocaloids and they often have English accents when they sing in other languages.

Another consideration with English Vocaloids is their regional accent. This will not affect any of the Vocaloids' overall performance or the handling of the Vocaloid engine and they will use identical Phonemes regardless. In fact, the only effect this will have on the Vocaloid is simply a particular stress or emphasis on certain vowels and consonants that may not be seen in another English Vocaloid, but may make an English Vocaloid sound not how a user expects. Examples of Vocaloids who may be affected by this include Sonika who has a British accent and Big Al who has an American; also included in this is Luka Megurine who will retain a Japanese accent. One noted example of a regional accent affecting a Vocaloid's outcome is Big Al's pronunciation of vowel sounds; he can often be harder to make sing in Japanese because of it. In contrast, Japanese Vocaloids do not have as much of a regional accent effect between them in Japanese.

As of Vocaloid 3 Japanese Vocaloids can more closer mimick English language sounds thanks to the addition of new sounds they did not have in Vocaloid 2. However, more complex words and sounds are still beyond the Japanese Vocaloids reach and this limits the capablities of a Japanese Vocaloid mimicking English sounds.

Palatalization
The palatalization is a phonological process and a kind of secondary articulation where the articulation of a consonant is modified, causing the middle of the tongue is raised to the palatal position. This can be a allophonic process like in the case of the English or lexical process like in the case of the Japanese.

This one usually is triggered by mid, close (high) front vowels like /e/ or /i/ and for the semi-vowel or glide [j], generally affecting their preceding consonant.

The palatalization generally is unnoticed by the English speakers, generally occurring due the influence of the glide [j]. Examples:
 * hue /ˈ hj u/ → /ˈ ç uː/ the /h/ voiceless glottal fricative becomes a /ç/ voiceless palatal fricative due influence of the /j/
 * canyon /ˈkæ nj ən/ → /ˈkæ nʲj ən/ the /n/ nasal alveolar becomes a palatalized nasal alveolar (similar to a /ɲ/ palatal nasal) due influence of the /j/

In contrast the Japanese user has some clear lexical and grammatical rules for denote when occurs the palatalization, being and important phonological process in their language.

Knowing this is possible take advantage of the allophonic palatalization in the English when you attempt to make an English Vocaloid sing in Japanese. Some of the techniques that can be utilized are:


 * Intercalating the glide [j] between the consonant to palatalize and its vocal : The addition of the palatal approximant [j] will influence the consonant palatalizing.
 * Example:
 * ぎょうざ (gyōza 'fried dumpling') IPA: /ɡʲoːza/ → Japanese: [g' o z a] English: [g j Q z a]


 * Do a short note with the consonant to palatalize along the vowel [i:] : If the note is the short enough, the articulation of the [i:] will be the incomplete or barely listen, given the a j-colored sound to the consonant. Probably the user will need adjust the Velocity (VEL), also is important take in consideration the Tempo.
 * Example:
 * ぎょうざ (gyōza 'fried dumpling') IPA: /ɡʲoːza/ → Japanese: [g' o z a] English: [g i:][o z a]

Liquid Consonants
The liquid consonants are those ones that groups the lateral and rothic consonants. Generally the languages tends to have 2 liquid consonant, one lateral (generally associated to the L) and one rothic consonant (generally associated to the R).

In the Japanese there isn't a clear distinction between the both, so for the Japanese R there exist an array of lateral and rothic allophones which doesn't hold a clear difference between them, being perceived by the Native Japanese Speakers as one phoneme. Despite this, the sound of the Japanese R has been defined as an intermediate sound to the /ɾ/ alveolar flap ( the American flapped D) and the /l/ lateral flap.

The user probably will need combine the liquid phonemes of the English System ([l0], [l] and [r]) between them or with the [d] and [D] to achieve a closer pronunciation of the Japanese R. Usually the [r] phoneme (/ɹ/ alveolar approximant) doesn't works well alone, the Japanese speakers tend to perceive it as a [w].


 * Examples:

Conversion 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 Vocaloid 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 to 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 (with exception of the Nasal Consonants) 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

Trivia

 * The word "Engrish is commonly used to describe odd Asian -> English words, the word itself originates from Japanese users habbits of using a "r" instead of a "l" when spelling English words. In the Overseas Vocaloid fandom, the word is also often used to describe a Japanese Vocaloid singing in English, this is not as an act of disrespect, but rather just a note that Japanese phonetics were used to make "English".