Confusion with pronunciation in some words: 'm' and 'n' sounds when there is 'g'


It has been bugging me for a while; I'm using memrise for learning and for
example:

>   * ちゅうごく China → I hear it pronounced chūmoku
>   * かがく science → I hear it pronounced kanaku
>

Is this an error from memrise's side or are there rules for pronouncing some
hiragana/katakana differently?




Probably you were hearing ["velar nasal g"
[ŋ]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velar_nasal), which is an _allophone_ of
[g] mainly heard in eastern parts of Japan. In Japanese, [ŋ] and [g] in がぎぐげご
are variants (allophones) of the same sound (phoneme), and most people are
totally unaware of the difference. If you're not sure what I'm talking about,
please read these first:

  * [Why doesn't Japanese have a special Katakana form for "hu"?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/16266/5010)
  * [Why do Japanese speakers have difficulty pronouncing "L"?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/8324/5010)

Many professional announcers, actors and vocalists still actively distinguish
them depending on the place of がぎぐげご in a sentence. [This fact confuses some
foreigners because they can easily notice different native Japanese speakers
pronounce がぎぐげご differently](https://www.jref.com/forum/threads/my-g-
pronunciation-woes.52084/). However, they are the same sounds to many average,
untrained Japanese speakers like me. Even though you feel "m" or "n" sounds in
が/ご, they're が/ご to Japanese ears. (Is your mother language English, by the
way?) You'll have to get to used to them.

For more information, read [this
section](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Weakening) on
Wikipedia.

When you speak Japanese, it's totally fine to always stick to [g]. Some
sources say 80% of the Japanese people do not use [ŋ] at all when they
pronounce がぎぐげご in sentences. However, if you seriously want to be a
professional announcer of Japanese, there are some rules you have to respect.
See the linked article above.

Another example of consonant variation is
[yotsugana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsugana). But remember that most
Japanese people are totally unaware of this fact.




Probably you were hearing ["velar nasal g"
[ŋ]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velar_nasal), which is an _allophone_ of
[g] mainly heard in eastern parts of Japan. In Japanese, [ŋ] and [g] in がぎぐげご
are variants (allophones) of the same sound (phoneme), and most people are
totally unaware of the difference. If you're not sure what I'm talking about,
please read these first:

  * [Why doesn't Japanese have a special Katakana form for "hu"?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/16266/5010)
  * [Why do Japanese speakers have difficulty pronouncing "L"?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/8324/5010)

Many professional announcers, actors and vocalists still actively distinguish
them depending on the place of がぎぐげご in a sentence. [This fact confuses some
foreigners because they can easily notice different native Japanese speakers
pronounce がぎぐげご differently](https://www.jref.com/forum/threads/my-g-
pronunciation-woes.52084/). However, they are the same sounds to many average,
untrained Japanese speakers like me. Even though you feel "m" or "n" sounds in
が/ご, they're が/ご to Japanese ears. (Is your mother language English, by the
way?) You'll have to get to used to them.

For more information, read [this
section](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Weakening) on
Wikipedia.

When you speak Japanese, it's totally fine to always stick to [g]. Some
sources say 80% of the Japanese people do not use [ŋ] at all when they
pronounce がぎぐげご in sentences. However, if you seriously want to be a
professional announcer of Japanese, there are some rules you have to respect.
See the linked article above.

Another example of consonant variation is
[yotsugana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsugana). But remember that most
Japanese people are totally unaware of this fact.

