The Japanese
Writing System
The Japanese Writing System is
divided into three types, Hiragana,
Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is used
for native Japanese words, and
Katakana is used for words borrowed
from other languages. Kanji are
Chinese characters used to simplify a
word so you don’t have to spell it all
out. Hiragana is the system students
are supposed to learn first.
あ a - as in father
HIRAGANA and KATAKANA
are syllabaries, meaning there
is a symbol for every syllable in
い i – as in eel
the Japanese language. The
Japanese call these symbols: う
u – as in rule
Kana. The first kana in
hiragana are the vowels…
え e – as in end
お o – as in ode
か ka – as in car
HIRAGANA follows
with a different
き ki – as in keen
consonant sound
before the a, i, u, e, く ku – as in cool
or o sounds. For
example, next is
the K set…
け ke – as in keg
こ ko – as in cone
Next are the S, T, and N consonant sounds…
さ sa - salt た ta – tall
な na – nah
し shi - sushi
ち chi – cheek
に ni – need
す su - soon つ tsu – tsunami
ぬ nu – nude
せ se – send て te – tell
ね ne – net
そ so - soda と to – tote
の no - note
Followed by the H, M, and Y sounds…
は ha – hall
ま ma – mama
や ya – yard
ひ hi – heel
み mi – mean
ゆ yu – you
ふ fu – Mt. Fuji
む mu – moon
よ
yo - yoke
へ he – henna
め me – men
Note: There are no yi
or ye sounds in
ほ ho – home も mo - mocha
Japanese
Finally, come the r, w, and the “n” sound.
ら ra – ramen
わ wa - water
ん n
り ri - reel Note: there is no wu sound.
There used to be a kana for
wi and we, but they are
dubbed obsolete and are
る ru – rude not used today. If either
sound is necessary, the
Japanese prefer combining
u with either i or e
れ re – red (example: ui or ue).
wo – actually, it’s
を
pronounced
the same as “o,” like
ろ ro - rope before, but its
usage is different.
“Wait a minute,” you might be
thinking. “N?”
That’s right, ‘N’!
But this one can
only come after
another kana. ん
For example…
ten = sky/heaven en = Japanese money (yen)
ban = evening honto = truth
Following these are the voiced
consonant sounds.
Don’t worry, this part’s easier than it sounds. All
of these are the same kana we used before.
The difference is that there are two slashes at
the upper right of each kana. These mean that
now the consonant is voiced. So ka becomes
ga, sa becomes za, ta becomes da...
Maybe it would be easier to just show you…
が ga- as in mega
ざ za- lasagna
だ da- Mazda
ぎ gi- as in geek
じ ji- jeep
ぢ (ji)- jeep
ぐ gu- as in goop
ず zu- zoom
づ (zu)- zoom
げ ge- as in get
ぜ ze- zen
で de- den
ご go- as in ago
ぞ zo- zone
ど do- dome
The H’s have 2
different voice marks
One for a ‘b’ sound and the other for a ‘p’ sound.
ば ba- as in ball
ぱ pa- as in pop
び bi- as in beech
ぴ pi- as in peel
ぶ bu- as in boom
ぷ pu- as in pool
べ be- as in bed
ぺ pe- as in pen
ぼ bo- as in bone
ぽ po- as in poke
Next comes a part of hiragana called ‘Youon’
(pronounced YOON).Youon combines ya, yu or
yo with any other consonant. So now you can
make words like…
ryu = dragon
byouin = hospital
Kyoto = former capital of Japan
Tokyo = current capital of Japan
Youon are only combined with
consonants that have an ‘i’ ending.
Youon looks like this:
ぴょ pi + little yo =pyo
りゅ ri + little yu =ryu
ぎゃ gi + little ya =gya
There are many possible combinations. My patience can’t bear
putting them all down, so I hope you understand how Youon works ;)
Lastly, the other use for the
‘tsu’ symbol -つ
When つ appears as big as all the other
syllables, it is pronounced ‘tsu’, as usual.
However, when it appears much smaller
than the other syllables, it indicates the
syllable coming right after will have an
emphasis on whatever the consonant
sound is.
I know that must sound confusing. But really, its simpler than it sounds…
~examples~
Here つ appears as big as the other characters. Therefore it is pronounced ‘tsu’.
つなみ tsunami= tsunami つきひ tsukihi =time
しつもん shitsumon =question まつ matsu = pine tree
Here, つ is noticeably smaller, which symbolizes there is an emphasis on the
consonant proceeding , つ
もつと motto =more
こつか kokka= nation/country
がつこう gakkou =school
うすつぺら usuppera= thin
Note: this use of tsu also appears in katakana
That’s it for Hiragana
Katakana is fundamentally the
same as Hiragana
It’s used for onomatopoeias and words
borrowed from foreign languages.
Some borrowed words include:
アメリカ = amerika (America)
バナナ = banana (banana)
ナイフ = naifu (knife)
マクドナルド = makudonarudo (McDonalds)
ハンバーガー = hanbaagaa (hamburger)
Katakana also has this symbol
Which hiragana doesn’t have.
ー
This symbol indicates that the katakana
syllable before it is elongated… as in the
sound will last twice as long as usual.
~Examples~
mariina= marina aakeedo= arcade
mayoneezu= mayonnaise bataa= butter
pasupooto= passport piinattsu= peanuts
Note: the stressed consonant
symbol before the big tsu
一 is also the number 1 in kanji, which is coming up next. The
only way to tell whether 一 is meant as a long vowel or
number 1 is whether 一 is surrounded by katakana or kanji.
And Finally, Kanji
As I mentioned before, Kanji are Chinese
style characters that are assimilated for
Japanese usage. Kanji makes it so you don’t
have to write every single syllable.
For example, the word ‘big’
‘Big’ in Japanese is ‘ookii’
But instead of writing that, we can just write 大 cause that’s ookii too,
but more convenient
大 also can mean: ‘very’
Here are some more examples of kanji:
Mountain= yama やま
One= ichi
いち
Woman= onna
おんな
Samurai=
さむらい
There are many thousands of kanji in
Japanese. In fact, there are so many,
that even a Japanese scholar wouldn’t
know every last one of them. Just as
an English scholar wouldn’t know
every word in the English dictionary.
Omedetou! (Congratulations!)
You may not be able to speak Japanese, but
at least now you can read it.
