を wO , O

During the singing of 君をのせて (天空の城ピュタより) カラオケ kimiwonosete (from anime Laputa), ....


Forgive my "cow-like" voice , the song is best sung with a female / child voice.



...  it reminds me of the still-going debate of をor wO or O (depends on your school of thoughts) . Teachers and scholars alike argue that it should be pronounced O as in お ( O )  and as the standard, but many are pronouncing it as wO (with a small sound of w , this is also my preference) .

     The original singer of the song uses O but many others singing the songs (including Japanese natives) are using wO as in these examples .

Original singer 井上あずみ uses O (at 0:26, 1:45, 1:53.....etc)

She also uses another pronouciation of が ga (at 0:45, 1:08 , ...etc)  as I would sometimes use ,but this is left for another discussion.

She also uses the conversation pronounciation of 懐くしい　(natsukushii) (at 0:36). I use smaller font for tsu to emphasize the fact that this sound is suppressed, but in other singer's singing , they often pronounce tsu fully . I use the suppressed version as in regular conversation.



She is in some karaoke competition and is very good in singing the song.

At 0:21, 1:20 , 1:38 ....etc , she uses wO

She uses full pronounciation of tsu in 懐かしい natsukashii (at 0:30) . In real life conversation, this sound is suppressed (not silent).




...and in this choir version, wO is used by both younger and older members.

At 2:44 , 4:42, 6:14; 6:35, 6:45, ...etc

The choir also uses full pronouncation of tsu in 懐かしい natsukashii (at 2.58) as in many other singers.



I find in singing , it is usually wO including many famous anime singer such as ささきいさお  (Sasaki Isao - Space battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999 , Getter Robot , Danguard Ace and many other songs.) while 水木一郎 Mizuki Ichirou uses O.

At 1:05, 1:38, 2:01




Astro Ganga by Mizuki Ishirou. O is used.
At 0:34, 0:37




Kikaider 01 / UFO Dai-aporon OP singer 子門真人 Shimon Masato uses O. Could it be that Japanese from 昭和 Shouwa era use O more ? What about people in earlier period like 江戸時代 Edo period?

I use wO : ) but it is wO (small w sound, I sometimes use WO in my singing , it is not quite right but I just enjoy singing , who cares! )





..but in occasions such as 顔をしかめる, it would be pronounced Kaooshikameru and in this  顔を覆う kaoo oou, there is a lot of o's in the pronouniciation.

In my conclusion, I found that how を is pronounced will depend on regions in Japan. I met Japanese pronoucing it differenly depending on where they come from and this is the same experience from many others (judging from what I read from the internet). I use whatever the crowd I am with use , go with the flow :)  . Languages are human invention , unlike science, it can be changed depending on the culture and time , etc (that's why they change the dictionary annually, at lease for English) . I am not working for NHK in Japan , so I use wO most of the time unless in situations mentioned above.

What is your opinion?
Perhaps, my Japanese readers can give me some feedback.