Language/Japanese/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

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Japanese-alphabet-pronunciation.png

Japanese language uses three ways to express sounds and writing ː Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

There are to simple symbols tables called "Hiragana" and "Katakana" and the borrowed chinese caracters called Kanji.

Hiragana

Hiragana is the most common character used to write things. You can find it everywhere, in restaurant name, dishes, train stations...

A KA SA TA NA HA MA YA RA WA
I KI SHI CHI NI HI MI RI
U KU SU TSU NU FU MU YU RU N
E KE SE TE NE HE ME RE
O KO SO TO NO HO MO YO RO WO

Also, to form some sounds like Z, P or B we have to use some additional symbols to complete basic ones.

 (dakuten) Makes K becomes G, S become Z, T becomes D, H becomes B

° (handakuten) Makes H becomes P

GA ZA DA BA PA
GI JI DI BI PI
GU ZU DZU BU PU
GE ZE DE BE PE
GO ZO DO BO PO

Notes ː

as you can see, for "W" sound, there is only A and O.

Concering the "Y" section, there is no I or E.

Also, to form some sounds like Z, P or B we have to use some additional symbols to complete basic ones.

 Makes K becomes G, S become Z, T becomes D, H becomes B

° Makes H becomes P

The pronunciation of じ and ぢ, ず and づ are the same.

Katakana

Based on the same concept than hiragana, katakana is especially made to translate foreign names and words

A KA SA TA NA HA MA YA RA WA
I KI SHI CHI NI HI MI RI
U KU SU TSU NU FU MU YU RU N
E KE SE TE NE HE ME RE
O KO SO TO NO goo MO YO RO WO
GA ZA DA BA PA
GI JI DI BI PI
GU ZU DU BU PU
GE ZE DE BE PE
GO ZO DO BO PO

There is a small difficulty in katakana symbols table due to the very similar looking of some characters ː ノ、ソ、ン、シ、ツ...+ゾ、ジ、ヅ。

The pronunciation of ジ and ヂ, ズ and ヅ are the same.

Kanji

Sometimes, kanji are used to make the sound only, without any consideration for the meaning.

One first example ː 可愛い KAWAII which means cute.

可 (KA) means possible, so nothing relative to cute.

愛 (AI)

い ( I̟s ̟) unsoud for I I " letter

.

So we have KA AI I . As it is no easy to pronounce AAII a W has been added to help the flow of word.


Authors

BriceJ

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