Seay J10A Beginners’ Japanese | ‘Dome IAF HALOIbEI ‘The University of the West Indies, Mana Campus Department of Modern Languages and Literatures= INTRODUCTION 1, General Features of Japanese 1. Parts of Speech act ‘The Japanese language is comprised of verb, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, conjunctions and particles. 2. Word Order ‘A predicate always comes a the end ofa sentence. A modifier always comes before the word or phrase to be modified 3. Predicate “There ae ttee (pes of predicates in Japanese: noun, verb and adjective. A predicate infects according to whether iti (1) affirmative or negative and (2) non-past or past. ‘Adjectives are divided into two types according to their type of inflection, “They are called \ adjectives ind tr -adjectve. Ta Japanese, words donot infect for person, gender or number. 4, Particle {A particle is used to show the grammatical relation between words, to show the speaker's intention orto connect sentences. 5. Omission ‘Words or phrases are often omited if they are understood from the context. [Bven the subject and object of sentence ae often omitted. |. Japanese Script “There are tcee kinds of ltrs in Jepanese:hiragana,katakana and kanji (Chinese characters). Hicagana and katakana are phonetic representations of sounds, and ‘each letter basically corresponds to one mora (a unit of sound. See II). Kanji ‘convey meanings as well as sounds. ‘In Japanese script, ll tree types of letters are used together. Katakans are used to write foreign names and loan words, 1945 kanji eters are fixed as essential for ‘daily use. Hiragana are used to write particles, the inflectable parts of words, et, Other than these three types of letters, romaji (Roman letters) are sometimes used for the convenience of foreigners. You may see-romaji at stations and on sign- boards. Below are examples of all four types of script. z hav fH S84 oud 42 00 4 000 Me. Tanaka i going to the department store with Mr. Miller. AM Osaka O * (O-kanji C-hiragana A—katakana — yr-romall) I‘The Japanese language is based on five vowel sounds: 4 (a). * (), 4 (0), & (@) and % (0) (see the table on the previous page). All spoken sounds are derived from these five vowels. They are used alone or are attached to either @ consonant (eg. k+a= 4) or a consonant plus the semi-vowel “y" (eg, k+ y ta= 3). ‘The exception to this is a special mora, A. (n), which is not followed by vowels, All of these sounds are of equal length when spoken. {Note 1] A mora is a unit of sound in Japanese. Note 2} In order to waite the Japanese language according to the pronunciation, kana are used. (See “Kana and Mora” on the previous page.) One kana liter or one kana leter accompanied by a small kana letter (€.g.. 3 +) basically corresponds to one mora. 2. Long Vowels ‘Along vowel is pronounced twice as long as the ordinary vowels 3, °, 3, % and #3. If you count the length of the vowel % as one, the length ofthe long vowel 4 & is counted as two. This means 4 is one mora long, whereas 4 & is two moras long. ‘Whether a vowel is long or not can change the meaning ofthe word BILEL (aunt): BLS A (grandmother) BUEA (uncle): BELA A (grandfather) 4 (snow) 10 5% (courage) 4K (Picture) :% A (yes) EH (take): F455 (pass) SS (here): 54.5 4 thigh school) ~*room): SL~4P(plain) (card) 7 (axl) FHT (ape) / =! (notebook) s [Note] 1) How to write the long vowels in hiragana (1) The long vowels ofthe 4-line ‘Add & to the hiragana letters belonging tothe $line. @) The long vowels ofthe line ‘Add ‘tothe hiragana letters belonging tothe \ ‘line. @) The long vowels ofthe 3 -line ‘Add_ 3 to the hiragana letters belonging tothe 4 line. (4) The long vowels ofthe 2-line ‘Add tothe hiragana letters belonging to the 2ine. (exceptions: 2 Ayes, 142 say, BAAS A, elder sister) (5) The long vowels ofthe #5-line ‘Add 7 to the iragana letters belonging tothe $line. (exceptions: BLE" big, HZ! many, & 134° far, and some others)2) How to write the long vowels in katakana For all the lines, add“ 3, Pronunciation of A, A. never appears at the beginning of a word. It constitutes oxe mora. For ‘easier pronunciation, the way it is said changes according to the sound that comes after 1) Itis pronounced fn before the sounds in the 2:-, -, 5-and Yi-rows eB. (AKA (opposite) FEF (pom) ELA (rail) AA* (all) 2) Its pronounced /n before the sounds in the If, [Z- and # rows. eg, LSA (newspaper) AAU (pencil) 7 4,%4» (destiny) 13) It is pronounced /0/ before the sounds in the #- and 4%-rows. a eg. TAS (weather) ItAA*< (visit) 4. Pronunciation of > appears before a sound belonging to either the 4-, ¥-, #¢- or (£-row. In writing loan words, it is also used before sounds belonging to the +¥-row, 4 -cow, ete It constitutes one mora and has one mora’s length. eg.) 584 (subordinate) : 53-24" (commostty price) S04 (fire) : > S4 (applause) BE (ound) : $52 (husband) (528 Gary) ¥ 2 (magazine) % 2 T (stamp) VDI @oupof=) 227 Glass) Sz F (bed 5. Pronunclation of Letters Combined with #, or & a,7,L,U, 6, (, @, UU, 4 or ") can combine with +, » or t, and the two letters together constitute one mora. eg. UX Gump): Ue ¢ (hundred) 15 freedom): Lp 3 (ten) ELIA (beauty pastor): U2 F\*A (hospital) Lx (shirt) BH (wea) Fo 710 7 (milk) 223 (today) 5° 25 (department chief) !) 2 = 3 (travel) 6. Pronunciation of the #-row ; ‘The consonant ofthis row, when it comes at the beginning of a word, is pronounced {9}. In other cases, itis usually pronounced (0. Recently some Japanese do not differentiate between [9] and [0], and always vse (9).7. Devoicing of Vowels [i] and [ul The vowels fi] and (u] are devoiced and not heard when they come between voiceless consonants. 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