In Japanese, "river dolphin" is カワイルカ (kawa iruka). It is a noun.
Listen to the pronunciation:
カワイルカ is written in katakana. Romanised as kawa iruka, it sounds roughly like "kah-wah ee-roo-kah" to an English ear.
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Buy on Steamカワイルカ is romanised as kawa iruka. Say it roughly like "kah-wah ee-roo-kah" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.
カワイルカ is a neutral, everyday word that works in both casual and polite speech. The level of formality comes from the sentence structure around it, not from the word itself.
カワイルカ is written using katakana. Katakana is typically used for words of foreign origin or to give emphasis.
This word is part of the vocabulary taught in the Japanese language learning game Noun Town, where words are introduced through play rather than memorisation.
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