>>6717420In Japanese the last letter in one part becomes smaller, especially when it is a 'u' as explained in the desu masu talk above. For desu and masu the u can pretty much completely disappear but when saying names like that which the audience is familiar with and the announcer or whoever is being less formal, the 'u' or whatever can become smaller as they then emphasis the next part of the name. It's not so much pronunciation changing as it is emphasis. A name like Asuka can be three kanji, A Su and Ka, in that case, traditionally in Japanese when speaking you can't see the kanji so people emphasis when the next character starts, so listen to an announcer say it with grandeur and you'll be able to clearly put emphasis on every letter that is the start of the next kanji, as a result, the 'u' in Su sounds smaller.
Other examples are places like Tokyo, The characters are Tou and Kyou, so you emphasize the T and K parts. Also for words with one character that have the same pronunciation but different meanings, this can be used, for example hashi can mean bridge or chopsticks. One is smoothly said as hashi in one movement while the other is HaShi with the h and s emphasized.
