THE JAPANESE SOUND SYSTEM AND ITS ROMANIZATION

Japanese Phonetics

Vowels A I U E O

Consonants K S T N H M Y R W N

G Z/J D B P

Japanese is usually written in a combination of the following:

1. Hiragana – original Japanese character used for Japanese terminologies.
2. Katakana – a character used to write foreign loan words or other words.
3. Kanji – Chinese character with a slight difference.

For people who could not read the above-mentioned characters (especially for the
English-speaking)) nationalities, a system of Romanization was established which gave
rise to ‘ROMAJI’.

Two most commonly used systems in Romanization

1. Kunreishiki system – considered the ‘official system’ and most systematic
2. Hepburn system – easier to use for the native speaker of English and is mostly
used by Japanese – English dictionaries

HIRAGANA CHART
KATAKANA CHART
CONTRACTED SOUND (Hiragana)
CONTRACTED SOUND (Katakana)
Long Sound
OKAASAN/OKĀSAN おかあさん Mother
SABISHII/SABISHῙ さびしい Lonely
SUU/SŪ すう To smoke a cigarette
EIGA/EEGA/ĒGA えいが Movie
ONEESAN おねえさん Elder sister
OTOOSAN/OTOUSAN/OTŌSAN おとうさん Father
TOO とお Ten

Devocalized Sound (I, U)

SHITA した Under
DESU です Is, are, am

Syllabic Consonants
A. n (ん) will have the following sounds:
1. Before m, p, or b --- it is pronounced “m” as in “mama.”
2. Before n, t, d, s, or z --- it is pronounced “n” as in “no.”
3. Before k, g, or ng, and at the end of a work --- it is pronounced like the “ng” in
“king.”
4. Before vowels or sounds other than those mentioned above --- it is pronounced
by emitting air through the nose without the tongue touching either the roof of
the mouth or the gums.

In the Hepburn system of Romanization, n is represented by “m” before m, p,

and b.

Other m, n, ng sound
ARIGATŌ - ARINGATŌ ありがとう Thank you
SHINBUN - SHIMBUN しんぶん Newspaper
YONKYŪ - YONGKYŪ よんきゅう Level Four
KIN’EN - KINGEN きんえん No Smoking

B. Double Consonant Sounds (uses the small tsu, っ, for the first consonant when
writing the Hiragana or Katakana of the word.) Example: kitte - きって

YAPPARI やっぱり As expected

MOTTE もって Please Bring
SHIKKARI しっかり Firmly/tightly
MASSUGU まっすぐ Straight
KITTE きって Stamp
HAKKIRI はっきり Clearly/distinctly

The pronunciation of katakana and its combinations are the same as those of
hiragana, except for the following points:

1) The long vowels are written with ─ .

Examples:
KAA カー car
SUKII スキー ski
 SUUTSU スーツ suit
KEEKI ケーキ cake
BOORU ボール ball

When you write vertically, the ─ mark needs to be written vertically also.
Example:
TEEBURU テ table

ブ
ル
2) Additional combinations with small vowel letters.

Examples:
HAROWIIN ハロウィーン halloween
HAIWEE ハイウェー highway
MINERATUWOOTAA ミナラルウォーター mineral water
SHEFU シェフ chef
JEEMUSU ジェームス James
CHEKKU チェック check
FASSHON ファッション fashion
FIRIPIN フィリピン Philippine
KAFE カフェ cafe
FOOKU フォーク fork
PATTII パーティー party
DIZUNIIRANDO ディズニーランド Disneyland
DYUETTO デュエット duet

3) The sound ‘v’ is sometimes written with ヴ. For example, the word “Venus” is
sometimes written as ビーナス or ヴェーナス.

KANJI
 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 simplified Chinese
characters.
 Represents both meanings and sounds.
 Possess multiple readings.
 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.

2 Divisions of Kanji readings

1. On-yomi (Chinese readings)
 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.

2. Kun-yomi (Japanese readings)

  When people started to use kanji to write native Japanese words, Japanese
readings (kun-yomi) were added to kanji.

Four types of kanji based on their formation:

1. Pictograms. Some kanji are made from pictures.

2. Simple ideograms. Some kanji are made of dots and lines to represent numbers or
abstract concepts.
3. Compound ideograms. Some kanji are made from the combination of two or more
kanji.

4. Phonetic-ideographic characters. Some kanji are made up of a meaning element

and a sound element.