Guild Wars: EPoS Forums: Guild Wars: EPoS Forums -> Japanese Lesson 4 - Hiragana and Katakana

Okay, throughout these lessons I have been writing the conversations in both Kana, Rōmaji and English. Kana being the Japanese characters, Rōmaji being the Japanese sentences in Latin characters.

In Japanese, there are 3 main writing forms (4 if you want to be technical and count Rōmaji). These are:

• Kanji: The Chinese characters which represent words, not sounds.
  
• Hiragana: Japanese symbols derived from Kanji, each is assigned to a sound. Hiragana is used for Japanese words (When kanji is not used). It is also used after Kanji on certain words, such as verbs.
  
• Katakana: Katakana is similar to Hiragana, but the symbols are more geometrical instead of rounded like Hiragana. Like Hiragana, they all represent a sound and are used for foreign 'loan words'. It is also used to emphasise words, similar to the use of bold in English.

Before I write show the Hiragana and Katakana tables, you need to be able to pronounce the sounds. This will be very helpful in speaking later on.

Vowels

• A = Similar to the expression 'Ah!'
  
• I = Similar to the pronunciation of the vowel E.
  
• E = Similar to the expression 'Eh?'
  
• U = Similar to the sound 'Ooh' but shorter.
  
• O = Similar to the 'o' in 'got'.

Remember that all the vowels above are short unless elongated. In Hiragana, this is done by adding a 'u' symbol after the end of a symbol that ends in the 'o' or 'u' sound (apart from the 'n' symbol) and in Katakana, this is done by using the elongation line (ー). For other Hiragana sounds, it is done with the same letter, an 'a' sound will have an 'a' after it, and this applies to 'e' and 'i' ('aa' 'ii' and 'ee'). The elogation symbol in Katakana is used instead of another letter in Katakana..

Double Consonants
In Japanese, there are times when words have double consonants within them. this is written with normal characters, but before the symbol which starts with a double consonant, a small 'tsu' symbol is written. When pronouncing this, all you have to do is pause slightly when you get to the consonant. So the English word Button would be said as "Bah-(brief pause)-ton". This will become easier the more you practice speaking.

Hiragana - 平仮名 - ひらがな



Katakana - 片仮名 - カタカナ



Phew, this post took AGES to do. So I think I will leave it here for today. Look at the tables above and learn as much as you can. The more you know, the more it helps.