[steven]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

It should also be pointed out that きゃ and きょ do not exist in English, to the best of my knowledge.

I'm going to be rackin' my brain thinking of an exception to this. I'm sure you know this, but in this situation you can't look at one word at a time, you have to look at the sounds that connect words together.

Like a lot of people will say there is no small つ in English, when there are tons of examples ("bookcase" is probably the most obvious).

This is a cop out, but think of this phrase: "Think yo!"
That last "K" in think and the "yo" will probably produce the きょ sound.

Similarly, when talking about Yoda (from Star Wars)...
"I think Yoda is cool"

You'd hear a きょ in there.

It is my opinion that きゃ　きゅ　きょ　aren't exactly hard to say for English speakers. It's that everyone hears Tokyo pronounced Tokio, so it sticks. I think people who study Japanese who pronounce Tokyo as Tokio are people A) doing it on purpose or B) doing it on accident (due to a low level of Japanese knowledge).

If you look at it とうきょう you see a き and you see a よ, so it becomes き and よ to a beginners eyes. とう (To/Tow) is not a sound English speakers are used to hearing before a きょ-like sound though, so it mght just be a matter of practicing "きょ" in the context of Japanese.

As for きゃ, I think people in the sound (of America) would be good at this. I don't know if people in Texas say "'yall" or not. I've heard people say stuff like "I think'yall crazy" or something like that. that thinkyall is quite similar to a きゃ. The "L's" at the end kind of ruin it, but the sound is there and is capable of being made.

However, it's a matter of people realising they can make these sounds and knowing when they need to employ them. I've had Japanese teachers with TERRIBLE accents. If that's all the exposure you have to Japanese then you're kinda screwed.

But ya, I hope I haven't confused things with my ramblings.

And Shinjon, for the record, you shouldn't be seeing any "small あ、い、う、え、orお’ｓ" in hiragana. Small つ’ｓ、や’ｓ、ゆ’ｓ、& よ’ｓ are prevelant though. Worry about small-other-kanas and other unorthadox kana-combinations once you get to katakana.