Japanese Writing System ‘There are three kinds of characters in Japanese: hiragana, katakana, and kanji.’ All three characters can be seen in a single sentence. Fve ee RE Ft. I watch television. katakana — kanji hiragana Hiragana and katakana, like the alphabet, represent sounds. As you can see in the above ex- ample, 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 # V € (terebi). Kanji, or Chinese characters, represent not just sounds but also meanings. Mostly, kanji are used for nouns and the stems of verbs and adjectives. @Hiragana 1. Basic Hiragana Syllables ‘There are forty-six basic hiragana syllables, which are listed below. Once you memorize this chart, you will have the skill to transcribe all of the Japanese sounds. 45 uN 4 z 6 @ i u ¢ ° a x + = ka | i ku ke ko x vu > tt = sa | “shi su se i _ 80 = is B 2 16 x ta “chi “tsu Ps to ty tz #2 ta D na ni mu ine no (t Bo Ss oS (Z ha hi | Fi he ho t ' There is another writing system called rdmaji (Roman letters) which is used for station names, signs, and so on.Japanese Writing System +++ 25 _ ra ri 2 2 8 * ‘The syllables L, , >, and are romanized as shi, chi, tsu, and fu re- spectively, to closely resemble English pronunciation. a J °"£ isalso pronounced as “wo.” Be ‘The romanization is given for general pronunciation reference. 2. Hiragana with Diacritical Marks You can transcribe 23 additional sounds by adding diacritic marks. With a pair of short diagonal strokes (” ), the unvoiced consonants k, s, f, and h become voiced consonants g, 2 d, and b, respectively. The consonant h changes to p with the addition of a small circle (* ). ae ¥ < iF z | se | ge ge = 7 as e ze za ji au ze 0 Efe fs | tle da ji zu de io (f u 3 x“ (F ba |i bu be bo ve Ted *& (ji) and J (zu) are pronounced the (f u 3 a (f same as U (ji) and + (zu), respec- pa Pi ad F po tively, and have limited use. 3. Transcribing Contracted Sounds Small ¥, 1D, and £ follow after letters in the second column (i-vowel hiragana, except \) and are used to transcribe contracted sounds. The contracted sound represents a single syl- lable.26 xe em) Fk ¥k bya | yu kyo go (Pee |e ert ea lee Us | sha ‘shu ‘sho jo Bm be cha chu cho | = [Ile | [Ilo pis - : - me fom | mw | [ee | ee |] Oe Oe | Oo | Os be | bw | be abs yu el Ue | Eo | Ee A 2» A » & t _Pya pyu pyo mya | “mw | “myo Ye) Uo) Ue ya ry 0 4. Transcribing Double Consonants ‘There is another small letter, 2, which is used when transcribing double consonants such as tt and pp. Examples: 4° 7: katta (won) cf #4: kata (shoulder) X24 sakka (writer) lZol£ happa (leaf) XL zasshi (magazine) Note double consonant 1's as in sannen (three years) are written with 4 +a hiragana with an initial n sound (#2, I<, #8, 4, and M), Examples; A414 sannen (three years) SAVY annai (guide) 5. Other Issues Relating to Transcription and 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.Japanese Writing Syster 27 aa BILHXA obaasan (grandmother) cf. BIE* A obasan (aunt) ii BUWAA ojiisan (grandfather) ce BUSA ojisan (uncle) uu FIU suuji (number) ee ‘The long ee sound is usually transcribed by adding an \ to an e-vowel hiragana. ‘There are a few words, however, in which @ is used instead of \y. ava eega (movie) BATA oneesan (big sister) 00 The long 00 sound is in most cases transcribed by adding an 3 to an o-vowel hiragana. There are, however, words in which the long vowel is transcribed with an &, for historical reasons. 1235.9 — hooritsu (law) ts too (ten) B. Pronunciation of Av A “n” is treated like a full syllable, in terms of length. Its pronunciation varies, however, depending on the sound that follows it. Japanese speakers are normally not aware of the different sound values of {.. Therefore, you do not need to worry too much about its pronun- ciation.” C. Vowels to Be Dropped ‘The vowels i and w are sometimes dropped when placed between voiceless consonants (ks, f, p,and h), or at the end of an utterance preceded by voiceless consonants. Example: $2 TF s(u)kides(u) (1like it.) D. Accent in the Japanese Language 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 patterns in Japanese vary greatly, depending on the region of the country. ? One variety of the A. pronunciation merits discussing here. When it is followed by a vowel or at the end of an utterance, A. indicates that the preceding vowel is long and nasalized. (Nasalized vowels are shown here with a tilde above vowel letters. You hear nasalized vowels in French words such as “bon,” or the English interjection “ub-ub,” as in “no.") ex. MLB real (romance) (24 hd (book) Followed by nt, d, and zsounds, 4 is pronounced as “n.” ex. BAt ona (woman) Followed by m, p, and b sounds, 4 is pronounced as “m.” ex. SALE sampo (stroll) Followed by k and g sounds, & is pronounced as “ng” asin “song.” ex. 44% mayga (comics)28 Examples: 4 * sal (morning) wer gg’ (ame) \ nO Ge aa (high) @Katakana [r]a]9 + x | a i 4 e ° 4 + 2 7 a ka ki ku ke ko 4 Y z + Y sa “shi su se so a ia y Tr k ta “chi *tsu te to | = 7 na ni nu ne no ZN E 7 eS ins ha hi ft he ho Zz 3 4 | = ma mi mu me mo +, a2 a ya yu yo 7 ) wv L 0 ra ri mw re 0 | Wi 7 | |__ wa Ly “the syllables ¥, +, Y,and 7 are 5 - romanized as shi, chi, tsu, and fu, re- 7 spectively, to closely resemble English n pronunciation, go NEN 8 ey z0__ Japanese Writing System>>» 29 \ Tv Ty Vy aueleely da ji a de | do ae E < K ba bi bu | be bo ° ° ° © * ¥ (ji) and */ (zu) are pronounced the 7% E ia aR same as 7 (ji) and X (zu), respec- pa a pu ba fe) tively, and have limited use. cata ete cial tata | teal a | kya kyu hyo | ga gu ‘go 5 5 5 | oS 5 “vr 72 Ya | vr Va sha shu sho | ja jo Fr | Fa Fa cha chu | cho =y ]| a2] =3 me {| ov | on e+] ta] es Ey | Ean Es bya byw byo hya hy hyo eer ea es py a ig pya | py yo. mya my myo Yr | Ja | ae ra nu 10 ‘The pronunciation of katakana and its combinations are the same as those of hiragana, ex- cept for the following points. (1) The long vowels are written with — Examples: #7 — kaa (car) 7% kecki (cake) R¥— — sukii (ski) 1 booru (ball) A-Y — suutsu (suit) When you write vertically, the — mark needs to be written vertically also. Example: * K-w I30 (2) Additional combinations with small vowel letters are used to transcribe foreign sounds which originally did not exist in Japanese. Examples: 74 OTA harowiin (Halloween) Ox haiwee (highway) or mineraruwootaa (mineral water) yen shefu (chef) Yu jeemusu (James) Fx chekku (check) Ir fasshon (fashion) 74 firipin (Philippine) 7x kafe (cafe) a4 fooku (fork) F4 paatii (party) F4 F4ARa-Fy ek Dizuniirando (Disneyland) F2 Faxtyth dyuetto (duet) (3) The sound “v” is sometimes written with *%. For example, the word “Venus” is some- times written as E—+ % or V4 — FR. 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 meanings 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. ‘There are roughly four types of kanji based on their formation,(1) Pictograms Some kanji are made from pictures: ge = kh = Rew sly (- => 9 = BF @ayssun) ax (2) Simple ideograms Some kanji are made of dots and lines to represent numbers or abstract concepts. = + Ztthreey 1 = Ew) (3) Compound ideograms Some kanji are made from the combination of two or more kanji. Ey Geay:sun) + A (moony) -+ BA (bright) A (erson) + IK tee) - AIK (to rest) (4) Phonetic-ideographic characters Some kanji are made up of a meaning element and a sound element. Meaning element Sound element On-yomi 5 (water) + F sei (vive) = FF sei lean) Ey Geayssun) + BP sei ue) + BREF sei (lear sy)