• Pronunciation Practice

• The Japanese Written Language (Information Only)

The Japanese Writing System

Basic Hiragana

Particles (wa, o, e)

The Diacritics ˚ (plosive) and " (voicing)

Long Vowels

Double Consonants (ā, ii, ū, ē, ō)

Palatalized Sounds (kya, myo, ryu)

Katakana

Kanji

Punctuation and Format

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Class Session 2a Chapter 1

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Pronunciation Practice – Unvoiced Sounds

あ A い I う U え E お O

か KA き KI く KU け KE こ KO

さ SA し SHI す SU せ SE そ SO

た TA ち CHI つ TSU て TE と TO

な NA に NI ぬ NU ね NE の NO

は HA ひ HI ふ FU へ HE ほ HO

ま MA み MI む MU め ME も MO

や YA - ゆ YU - よ YO

ら RA り RI る RU れ RE ろ RO

わ WA ゐ* (W)I - ゑ* (W)E を WO

ん N

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Pronunciation Practice – Voiced Sounds

が GA ぎ GI ぐ GU げ GE ご GO

ざ ZA じ JI ず ZU ぜ ZE ぞ ZO

だ DA **ぢ DJI **づ DZU で DE ど DO

ば BA び BI ぶ BU べ BE ぼ BO

ぱ PA ぴ PI ぷ PU ぺ PE ぽ PO

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Pronunciation Practice – Palatalized Sounds

ゃ YA ゅ YU ょ YO

きゃ KYA きゅ KYU きょ KYO

しゃ SHA しゅ SHU しょ SHO

ちゃ CHA ちゅ CHU ちょ CHO

にゃ NYA にゅ NYU にょ NYO

ひゃ HYA ひゅ HYU ひょ HYO

みゃ MYA みゅ MYU みょ MYO

りゃ RYA りゅ RYU りょ RYO

ぎゃ GYA ぎゅ GYU ぎょ GYO

じゃ JA じゅ JU じょ JO

ぢゃ DJA ぢゅ DJU ぢょ DJO

びゃ BYA びゅ BYU びょ BYO

ぴゃ PYA ぴゅ PYU ぴょ PYO

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Japanese writing consists of three different systems: kanji, hiragana, and katakana

Kanji (literally, Han Chinese characters) logographic characters

Hiragana A syllabic writing system

Katakana A syllabic writing system

All three systems are routinely used in writing Japanese:

私は中国とアメリカに行います。

(kanji, hiragana, katakana)

The Japanese Writing System

Kanji Characters 漢字

• Japanese was originally not a written language

• Kanji were introduced from China through Korea around the 5th Century AD by Korean scribes who could write Chinese

• In order to write Japanese, one had to learn (a form of) Chinese; writing was limited to the educated elite

• Over time, kanji were adapted to more directly represent the Japanese language

• Japanese and Chinese are linguistically unrelated languages

• Using Chinese characters to represent Japanese was a long and difficult process

• Today, written Chinese and written Japanese are two different systems, although they use some of the same characters

• Language reforms in 1947, 1972, and 1981 resulted in a list of 2,135 “common use” chararacters ( 常用漢字 , jōyō kanji)

• Many more characters must be learned to read older material

• Kanji characters are used to represent concrete meanings conveyed by nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs

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Kanji

• Kanji characters were developed in China 4000-5000 years ago

• Each kanji represents meaning rather than sound

• Many kanji have both a Chinese and a Japanese pronunciation

• Most of the simple kanji were created from pictures

• More complicated kanji were created by combining two or more simple kanji into a single character

食 N5154 SHOKU JIKI eat; food on-yomi (sound reading) and basic character meaning

Dictionary ta(beru) to eat 4 different kun-yomi (native reading) reference ha(mu) to eat (fodder, grass, etc) (archaic) number ku(rau) to eat or drink (vulgar) part in ( ) written in hiragana ku(u) to eat (vulgar)

物 N2857 BUTSU MOTSU thing, matter; object

mono thing; object Normally, the native reading is using when the character is written alone; the sound reading is normally used when two or more characters are used together (but there are many exceptions)

食物 shokumotsu – food

食物 tabemono – food (normally written 食べ物)

Example Kanji Characters

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Hiragana 平仮名

• Created from cursive forms of kanji characters used phonetically to represent Japanese sounds during the Heian Period (794-1192)

• Each symbol represents a syllable sound rather than a meaning (a syllabary)

• Used to represent grammatical items (verb endings and particles) and words that are not written in kanji or katakana

• Here is a sample sentence written normally, then in only hiragana:

私は中国とアメリカに行います。

わたしはちゅうごくとあめりかにいきます。

• There are 46 basic hiragana characters, two diacritics and a few conventions (discussed shortly)

• You can write anything in Japanese using hiragana

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Katakana 平仮名

• Katakana are the angular-shaped syllabic characters derived from parts of kanji characters (kata means “side”)

• The katakana syllabary was derived from abbreviated Chinese characters used by Buddhist monks to indicate the correct pronunciations of Chinese texts in the 9th century.

• Also consists of 46 basic characters, two diacritics, and some different conventions than are used with hiragana

• Used for foreign words, words that mimic sounds, scientific names of plants and animals, and to put emphasis on words

• Some new conventions have been developed to better represent foreign sounds

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Basic Hiragana

あ A い I う U え E お O

か KA き KI く KU け KE こ KO

さ SA し SHI す SU せ SE そ SO

た TA ち CHI つ TSU て TE と TO

な NA に NI ぬ NU ね NE の NO

は HA ひ HI ふ FU へ HE ほ HO

ま MA み MI む MU め ME も MO

や YA - ゆ YU - よ YO

ら RA り RI る RU れ RE ろ RO

わ WA ゐ (W)I - ゑ (W)E を WO

ん N

Unvoiced Sounds

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Particles (wa, o, e)

Convention used in the syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) include the use of the following symbols for particles:

ha ( は and ハ ) is used for the particle wa

(w)o ( を and ヲ )is used for the particle o

he ( へ and ヘ ) is used for the particle e

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The Diacritics " (voicing) and ˚ (plosive)

Two diacritic marks are added to the right, upper corner of some of the basic kana characters to represent sounds added to Japanese speech:

The voicing marker ″ changes the initial voiceless consonant of the syllable to itsvoiced counterpart. For example:

ka か becomes が ga ke け becomes ge げki き becomes ぎ gi ko こ becomes go ご ku く becomes ぐ gu

The plosive mark is added to ha, hi, fu, he or ho to convert them to syllables withThe consonant ‘p’

ha は becomes pa ぱ he へ becomes pe ぺhi ひ becomes pi ぴ ho ほ becomes po ぽ

fu ふ becomes pu ぷ

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Hiragana Long Vowels

Two hiragana characters are used to represent long vowels:

Putting a あ after ka か represents kā かあ

Putting u う after o お represents ō (sometimes romanized as ou or oo)

Putting i い after e え usually represents ē ( ええ may also be used)

A long i sound is usually represented by ii (rather than ī )

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Double Consonants

Double consonants are represented by a small tsu つ (hiragana) or ツ (katakana)

Kitte (stamp) and kekkon (marriage) include a double consonant and are written in hiragana as

きって

けっこん

The tsu is not pronounced but represents the brief pause (a glottal stop) beforethe next consonant

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Palatalized Sounds (kya, myo, ryu)

Palatized sounds (such as kya, kyu, kyo ) are represented by the kana characterthat represents the initial consonant plus the vowel i and a small-sized characterya, yu, or yo (hiragana や ゆ よ and katakana ヤ ユ ヨ )

hiragana katakanakyō (today) is written as きょう ( キョウ )

kaisha (company) is written as かいしゃ ( カイシャ )

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Katakana Unvoiced Sounds ア a

イ i

ウ u

エ e

オ o

カ ka

キ ki

ク ku

ケ ke

コ ko

キャ kya

キュ kyu

キョ kyo

サ sa

シ shi

ス su

セ se

ソ so

シャ sha

シュ shu

ショ sho

タ ta

チ chi

ツ tsu

テ te

ト to

チャ cha

チュ chu

チョ cho

ナ na

ニ ni

ヌ nu

ネ ne

ノ no

ニャ nya

ニュ nyu

ニョ nyo

ハ ha

ヒ hi

フ fu

ヘ he

ホ ho

ヒャ hya

ヒュ hyu

ヒョ hyo

マ ma

ミ mi

ム mu

メ me

モ mo

ミャ mya

ミュ myu

ミョ myo

ヤ ya

-- ユ yu

-- ヨ yo

-- -- --

ラ ra

リ ri

ル ru

レ re

ロ ro

リャ rya

リュ ryu

リョ ryo

ワ wa

-- -- -- ヲ (w)o

-- -- --

ン n

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Punctuation and Format

• Japanese is written vertically, top-to-bottom and right-to-left

• Japanese is also written horizontally, left-to-right

• No spaces are used between words

• Common punctuation marks include:

。 period

、 comma

「 」 quotation marks • No question mark is needed (but ? is sometimes used) • Except for the period, there are no strict rules on using punctuation