(This is about native (American) English speakers who don’t speak Japanese or speak very little and haven’t quite got the grasp on the pronunciation of words in Japanese yet) (also I’ve noticed it’s only in the stressed “a” sounds, not the unstressed)
I get that people have accents when using words that aren’t from your native language and will pronounce them with phonemes that they are more accustomed to. Like, for example, saying a “w” sound in place of the French “r” in “croissant”, accidentally saying “jalapeno” with an English “J” sound instead of the Spanish (yes I know it’s supposed to be ñ in there, I’m stubborn). Heck, even Japanese people with the “L”s and “R”s in English and other languages and merging them together into らりるれろ.
But why do (Some? Most? A lot of?) Americans/English speakers with American accents say the Japanese “a” sound like it’s the “a” in Received Pronunciation “grass”? It’s not in the Japanese phonology and it’s rarely used in the General American one as well (besides the likes of “palm”, “calm”, basically anything “-alm”). So why is this a thing? I was watching videos of a non-Japanese speaker saying “manga” and “sakura” and just remembered hearing people around me before I learned Japanese saying them like that and sometimes being “corrected” for not saying it “properly”. So does anyone know why that’s the case? Would be interesting if there is actually an answer to it.
Extra: midway through writing this I realised I, as a Brit, say “tsunami” with that RP “a” sound but that’s because i do that to a lot of “a” sounds in my accent.
(By “RP “a” sound” I mean the IPA /ɑ/ (open back unrounded vowel) sound)
by Shinosei