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Which We'll Further Discuss at The Beginning of This Lesson
Which We'll Further Discuss at The Beginning of This Lesson
There are three types of scripts in Japanese: kanji, hiragana, and katakana (which we’ll
further discuss at the beginning of this lesson). Japanese does not use an alphabet, and all three
systems are commonly used. Kanji has blocks of meaning and thousands of characters while Hiragana
expresses the grammatical relationship between kanji symbols and katakana is used for foreign
names. The good news is that hiragana and katakana have only 46 characters each, and words are
written as they are pronounced. In the entire course, we’ll be focusing on hiragana and katakana
(often called kana).
Let’s Learn
There are three kinds of characters in Japanese: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.
ひらがな カタカナ 愛
Hiragana Katakana Kanji
Hiragana and Katakana, like the alphabet, represent sounds. As you can see in the above
example, hiragana has a roundish shape and is used for conjugation endings, function words, and
native Japanese words not covered by kanji. Katakana, which has rather straight lines, is normally used
for writing loanwords and foreign names. For example, the Japanese word for “television” is written in
katakana as テ レ ビ (Terebi). Kanji, or Chinese characters, represent not just sounds but also
meanings. Mostly, Kanji are used for nouns and stems of verbs and adjectives.
A. Hiragana Characters
わ ら や ま は な た さ か あ
wa ra ya ma ha na ta sa a
ka
Japanese Language
The syllables し ち
つ and ふ are Romanized
as shi, chi, tsu and fu,
respectively, to closely
り み ひ に ち し き い
ん ri mi hi ni chi shi ki i
n/m る ゆ む ふ ぬ つ す く う
ru mu fu nu tsu su ku u
yu
れ め へ ね て せ け え
re me he ne te se ke e
を ろ よ も ほ の と そ こ お
wo ro yo mo ho no to so ko o
Note: There is another writing system called romanji (Roman letters) a 26 western letter alphabet
which is used for station names, signs and so on.
が ga ぎ gi ぐ gu げ ge ご go
ぢ (ji) and づ are
ざ za じ ji ず zu ぜ ze ぞ zo pronounced as the
s a m e a s じ (ji ) and
だ da ぢ ji づ zu で de ど do ず (zu), respectively,
have limited use.
ば ba び bi ぶ bu べ be ぼ bo
P – Sound (はんだくおん)
The P-sound is indicated through a little circle “。” on the upper right side of the characters on the
は row. This sound can only be created with the は row.
ぱ pa ぴ pi ぷ pu ぺ pe ぽ po
Small “ゃ”, “ゅ”, “ょ” are called contracted sound. It consists of two letters, but
its sound is only one mora long. The sounds from the i-vowel hiragana, except い are used to
transcribe contracted sounds.
ゃ ゅ ょ
Japanese Language
き ki きゃ kya きゅ kyu きょ kyo
じ ji じゃ ja じゅ ju じょ jo
There is another small letter, っ, which is used when transcribing double consonants such as tt
and pp.
B. Katakana
Japanese Language
ワ ラ ヤ マ ハ ナ タ サ カ ア
wa ra ya ma ha na ta sa ka a
リ ミ ヒ ニ チ シ キ イ
ン ri mi hi ni chi shi ki i
n ル ユ ム フ ヌ ツ ス ク ウ
ru mu fu nu tsu su ku u
yu
レ メ ヘ ネ テ セ ケ エ
re me he ne te se ke e
ヲ ロ ヨ モ ホ ノ ト ソ コ オ
wo ro yo mo ho no to so ko o
ジャ ja ジュ ju ジョ jo
The pronunciation of katakana and its combinations are the same as those of hiragana, except for the
following points.
When you write vertically, the – mark needs to be written vertically also.
Example:
ボ
ボ–ル |
ル
b. Additional combinations with small vowel letters are used to transcribe foreign sounds
which originally did not exist in Japanese.
c. The sound “v” is sometimes written with ヴ . For example, the word “Venus” is
sometimes written as ビ-ナス or ヴィ-ナズ.
C. Kanji
Japanese Language
Kanji are Chinese characters which were introduced to Japan more than 1,500 years ago
when the Japanese language did not have a writing system. Hiragana and Katakana evolved later
in Japan based on the simplified Chinese Characters.
Kanji represents both meaning and sounds. Most kanji possess multiple readings, which
are divided into two types: on – yomi (Chinese readings) and kun – yomi (Japanese readings).
On – yomi is derived from the pronunciations used in China. Some kanji have more than one on
– yomi due to temporal and regional variances in the Chinese pronunciation. Kun – yomi are
Japanese readings. When people started to use kanji to write native Japanese words, Japanese
readings (kun – yomi) were added to kanji.
By the time of high school graduation, Japanese are expected to know 2,136 kanji (called
Joyo kanji), which are designated by the Ministry of Education as commonly used kanji. A total
of 1,006 kanji are taught at the elementary school level, and most of the remainder are taught in
junior high school.
a. Pictograms
Kanji made from pictures
b. Simple Ideograms
Kanji made of dots and lines to represent numbers or abstract concepts.
c. Compound ideograms
Kanji made from the combination of two or more kanji.
Japanese Language
D. Peculiarities of Japanese Pronunciation
A. Long Vowels
When the same vowel is placed one right after the other, the pronunciation of the vowel
becomes about twice as long as the single vowel. Be sure to hold the sound long enough,
because the length of the vowel can change one word to another.
uu すうじ suuji
B. Pronunciation of ん
ん “ n” is treated like a full syllable, in terms of length. Its pronunciation varies, however,
depending on the sound that follows it. Japanese are normally not aware of the different sound
values of ん.
Japanese Language
きんりん kinrin neighborhood
2. When used before the ば Row, ぱ Row, and ま Row, it sounds like “m”. “し
んばし”, “しんび”.
3. Before the か Row and が Row, it sounds like "ng”. “ たんき ”, “ かんが
え”.
C. Vowels to be dropped
The vowel I and u are sometimes dropped when placed between voiceless consonants
(k,s,t,p and h), or at the end of an utterance preceded by voiceless consonants.
Japanese has pitch accent; all syllables are pronounced basically either in high or low pitch.
Unlike English stress accent in which stressed syllables tend to be pronounced longer and
louder, in Japanese each syllable is pronounced approximately in equal length and stress. The
pitch pattern in Japanese vary greatly, depending on the region of the country.
2. First is low, next part being high, and then by the end of the word, it becomes a
low accent.
Japanese Language
3. The beginning is low, and then continues to become high.