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Japanese: Written and Spoken

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Overview

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Example sentence
カラオケ くのが 大好 きです
I love to go to the Karaoke!

The Japanese Language implements three non-western writing systems:

  • Hiragana ひらがな
  • Katakana カタカナ
  • Chinese Characters 漢字


A Japanese sentence can - and often will - incorporate all of these writing systems. Each writing system has it's own function and use. In the next sections, each will be explained thoroughly. Besides the three mentioned systems, occasionally Alphabet (Abc…), Arabic numerals (123…) and Roman numerals (ⅠⅡⅢ…) are used.


When looking at the example sentence on the right, a few things are notable:

  • Japanese doesn't ordinarily contain spaces.
  • Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji accompany eachother.
    • Note: colors as illustrated above
  • Writing direction is left to right.
    • Note: Vertical style top to bottom is common in newspapers and paper magazines.
  • All glyphs have dimensions of equally large squares.

Transcription & Pronunciation

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The 50 Sounds

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Japanese Syllables & Sounds

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Though arbitrary, the Japanese language is said to have 50 sounds (5 vowels × 10 consonants). There are actually more than 50 sounds, but this will be explained later.


Each sound starts with a consonant, followed by a vowel.

  • Except for:


Sounds in Japanese for example are:

  • う (u)
  • か (ka)
  • が (ga)
  • て (te)
  • の (no)

Pronunciation

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For people who haven't learned Hiragana and Katakana yet, it's necessary to write Japanese words with Roman Alphabet. Converting from Japanese to Roman Alphabet is often called Romanization or Transcription. Another popular word to indicate Romanized text is "romaji", after the Japanese word ローマ字 roomaji, meaning "Roman Characters".

There are a number of ways to transcribe Japanese of which two are most common:



Hiragana

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Hiragana Chart
Basic Syllables
 
     
   
     
 
Additional Syllables
Variations:
  • k + ”= g
  • s + ”= z
  • t + ”= d
  • h + ”= b
  • h + °= p

Hiragana is a writing system in which each sound is represented by a symbol. Taking the table on the right, combining the s-collumn with the u-row makes the sound and symbol す (su). Note that ん n is a single consonant and is 'not followed by a vowel. There is no system in the shape of the symbols. Though some look similar, this has not much to do with their pronunciation.


Each sound existent in Japanese can be written in Hiragana. Therefor, theoretically, Japanese could be written entirely in Hiragana. However, Chinese Characters had long become the foundation of the Japanese language before Hiragana came to be, so the writing of Chinese Characters had been, and is maintained even now.




Katakana

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Katakana Chart
Basic Syllables
 
     
   
     
 
Additional Syllables
Variations:
  • k + ”= g
  • s + ”= z
  • t + ”= d
  • h + ”= b
  • h + °= p

Just like Hiragana, the Katakana chart consists of the 50 symbols representing the same sounds. The only feature to Katakana that is not inherent to Hiragana, is the lengthening bar (ー), used to duplicate the previous vowel. In Hiragana vowel repetitions (or long vowels) are simply "spelled out" by an extra syllable.


  •  ka
  • カー
     kaa (car)


Katakana has several uses:

  • For writing words imported from foreign languages
  • Putting emphasis on a word (compare CAPITAL LETTERS; bold)
  • As some other form of style


Other examples:

  • コンピューター
     konpyuutaa (computer)
  • ナイフ
     naifu (knife)
  • カード
     kaado (card)



Combined Consonants

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Combined Consonants
Hiragana
りゃ みゃ ひゃ にゃ ちゃ しゃ きゃ ya
りゅ みゅ ひゅ にゅ ちゅ しゅ きゅ yu
りょ みょ ひょ にょ ちょ しょ きょ yo
Katakana
ch sh
リャ ミャ ヒャ ニャ チャ シャ キャ ya
リュ ミュ ヒュ ニュ チュ シュ キュ yu
リョ ミョ ヒョ ニョ チョ ショ キョ yo

The Hiragana and Katakana chart show all the syllables currently in use in Japanese, but one can not produce all sounds by writing them this way. Some Kana's can be combined in a specific way to form extra sounds. This phenomenon happens as well in Hiragana and in Katakana. The system is as following:


  • An i-vowel syllable (such as き ki, に ni, み mi)
  • Followed by a small version of や ya , ゆ yu or よ yo
    • The small versions are: ゃ ya, ゅ yu and ょ yo


Examples in actual words:

  • きゅうどう
    kyuudou (Art of Japanese Archery)
  • ショー
    syoo (show)
  • ニューヨーク
    nyuuyooku (New York)


Glottal Stop

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As a final chapter of Japanese Sounds and Kana, this one is about the Glottal Stop which occurs in Japanese. The Glottal Stop (holding one's breath / stopping air flow in the middle of a word) is written with a small つ tsu (っ). In romaji this is expressed by duplicating the following consonant.


  • ねこ neko
    (cat)
  • ねっこ nekko
    (root - i.e. of a plant)


In most West European languages a double consonant changes the sound of the previous vowel. Such as later and latter. This is not the case in transcriptions of Japanese as a glottal stop should have no effect on the pronunciation of the vowels.


Speakers of languages that don't implement glottal stops as much, often have difficulties in recognizing and correctly pronouncing words with glottal stops.


Glottal Stops and double vowels:

  • きた kita
    (I came; south)
  • きった kitta
    (I cut - p.t.)
  • きいた kiita
    (I asked; I listened)


In all these words the vowels and consonants are pronounced the same. As a conclusion, one could say that paying attention to vowel lengths and glottal stops is quite important.

Chinese Characters

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