Your Information to Studying the Japanese Alphabet in English

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Japanese famously has three writing programs: hiragana (平仮名), katakana (片仮名), and kanji (漢字). All are important for studying and writing Japanese, however solely the primary two could possibly be outlined as alphabets. What’s extra, whereas the English alphabet has 26 letters, the 2 Japanese alphabets have 46 characters every. With over thrice the variety of characters to be taught, it could possibly appear overwhelming at first, however that’s why we’re right here to make it simple. Studying the Japanese alphabet in English on this information is a good place to start out.

All three writing programs are tied neatly collectively within the Japanese language and also you’ll see the characters in your first day utilizing Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion methodology. The textual content, paired with pictures and audio from native audio system will reinforce your studying, serving to you decide up the written language naturally.

How do you write the Japanese alphabet in English?

Writing Japanese in English includes using “romanization,” or utilizing Roman letters to put in writing in a language that doesn’t use Roman letters. In Japanese, that is referred to as “rо̄maji” (ローマ字). Should you’ve ever written a Japanese phrase in an English sentence, you’ve already written the Japanese alphabet in English!

For instance, writing the phrase “kimono” with Japanese characters is both きもの or 着物. Whatever the writing system, they imply the identical factor and have the identical pronunciation. The important thing to the romanized kimono is figuring out how every Japanese letter sounds and the way it’s usually written within the Japanese writing programs. 

So, how does every Japanese character translate into English? Kanji have a number of solutions to that query, however for phonetic phrases, the reply lies in hiragana (平仮名) and katakana (片仮名).

What are the Japanese writing programs?

All three writing programs—hiragana, katakana, and kanji—play vital roles within the Japanese written language, and whereas there isn’t a one true alphabet for Japanese, the closest equal is hiragana. 

Hiragana is a phonetic system of letters or characters referred to as “kana” (仮名). There are a complete of 46 characters within the Japanese alphabet organized in gojūon (五十音, fifty sounds) ordering, normally depicted in a desk. Identical to English, there are 5 vowels. Not like English, these vowels are constant in Japanese pronunciation. There are additionally 14 consonants, almost all of that are paired with vowels to create a single sound.

The katakana writing system is one other type of Japanese alphabet. It makes use of the identical romanization as hiragana and retains the identical order. The first distinction between the 2 is how they’re used: hiragana is usually used for native Japanese phrases and katakana is usually used for international names or loanwords which might be adopted from one other language.

Kanji and the Japanese alphabet

Whereas kanji is the dominant writing system in Japanese, it might be tough to seek advice from it as an alphabet. There are over 2,000 particular person kanji which might be thought of frequent data and hundreds extra past that for rarer use. Most kanji even have a number of methods to learn them and pronunciations, and a few even have multiple which means. As such, the time period “alphabet” is extra applicable for hiragana and katakana.

The Japanese alphabets: hiragana and katakana

Thankfully, since each hiragana and katakana have the identical romanization and pronunciation, the hassle to be taught them is simpler. After you have mastered one, you might be midway to studying the opposite, which makes you are feeling extra assured in the event you’re questioning how lengthy it takes to be taught Japanese.

As for the right way to be taught the Japanese alphabet in English, publicity and follow are key. Utilizing the Rosetta Stone app to be taught the writing programs alongside grammar and vocabulary is one choice. For some folks, it might be higher to concentrate on figuring out the characters alone in phrases that use hiragana or katakana with out specializing in kanji but. Irrespective of which methodology you employ, dedicate time every day to develop your long-term reminiscence: Even working towards as little as 10 minutes a day will enable you to!

Along with the characters under, there are additionally just a few diacritical marks that barely change a number of the consonants. Dakuten (濁点), which appear to be ゛, and handaku-ten (半濁点), which appear to be ゜, are voiced variations of the consonants “okay,” “s,” “t,” and “h.” They’re added to the top of their related hiragana, so that you received’t must be taught any extra characters.

Grammar word: There was once two extra kana for every of the Japanese alphabets. The now-obsolete “we” and “wi” have been as soon as written ゑ and ゐ in hiragana and ヱ and ヰ in katakana, respectively. In fashionable Japanese, the “w” is dropped and they’re merely pronounced and written as “e” and “i”. Whereas they’re typically not used immediately, you should still discover them used for stylistic functions or in names of locations or merchandise.

The historical past behind the Japanese writing programs

The premise of the complete Japanese written language stems from Chinese language characters. The origins of kanji have been launched to Japan within the type of cash, ornamental objects, and different outcomes of commerce as early as the primary century A.D. It wasn’t till the fifth century {that a} scholar named Wani traveled to Korea and China to be taught the Chinese language written language. Two of a very powerful historic texts in Japanese historical past have been written based mostly on what he and people after him realized: the kojiki (古事記, Document of Historical Issues) and the nihon shoki (日本書紀, The Chronicles of Japan). 

In brief, the which means behind the Chinese language characters have been tailored to the present which means of the Japanese spoken language. For instance, although there was a Chinese language phrase and related kanji for the quantity six, Japanese saved its personal phrase and pronunciation however adopted the kanji for the written language.

Hiragana and katakana have been born from Chinese language characters as a type of cursive kind utilized in calligraphy. You’ll be able to see the similarities between the fashionable hiragana and katakana with their historic counterparts.

Ought to a newbie be taught hiragana or katakana first?

If studying Japanese is your aim, studying and understanding hiragana first is prime. As it’s used for native Japanese phrases, it is going to be the set of characters you employ essentially the most. Each, nevertheless, are extra useful to be taught first earlier than kanji. 

There are three most important methods hiragana is utilized in Japanese:

• for native Japanese phrases not utilized in kanji
• with okurigana (送り仮名), that are characters following a number of kanji to create a complete phrase
• with furigana (振り仮名), that are studying aids positioned above kanji to clarify the right way to learn it

Katakana is nearly solely used for international phrases or names. Because of this, it’s much less frequent however can nonetheless be discovered in all places you look. Until your identify is Japanese or Chinese language, it would undoubtedly be written in katakana. There’s additionally no scarcity of loanwords within the Japanese language, for which katakana is utilized in almost each case.

Ways in which hiragana is used within the Japanese alphabet

Some Japanese phrases are written in hiragana as a substitute of kanji as a matter of comfort. For instance, the 2 phrases for “this” (kono and kore) may be written as 此の and 此れ, respectively, however they’re most steadily written in hiragana solely as この and これ. (Evaluate the similarities within the examples.) Sure grammatical parts that enable you to perceive phrase order in Japanese, similar to particles, are additionally primarily written in hiragana.

Okurigana are simple: If a phrase consists of each kanji and hiragana, then any hiragana can be referred to as okurigana. That is typically seen in adjectives and verbs or different phrases based mostly on them. The very phrase okurigana, 送り仮名, contains one within the type of the ri (り) in the course of the phrase. They’re connected most frequently to the top of the phrase as within the adjective “lovely” or utsukushii (美しい), the place “shi” (し) and “i” (い) are the okurigana.

• Utsukushii desu! (美しいです！) = It’s lovely!

Furigana exist to help folks in studying Japanese. They’re small hiragana letters written above kanji to clarify the pronunciation in a manner that’s simple to learn and extremely seen. 

Most kanji have a number of methods to them. For instance, the kanji for the primary letter in Japan’s native identify, nihon (日本), may be learn as “ni,” “nichi,” “hello,” and extra relying on the context. Providing the pronunciation within the type of furigana permits anybody to learn them—no matter kanji data.

Which hiragana characters look the identical?

Sure hiragana characters bear a hanging resemblance to one another. They’re price evaluating facet by facet in order to establish how they’re totally different.

Grammar word: Studying stroke order in Japanese is one technique to fight the problem in studying similar-looking characters within the Japanese alphabet. The “stroke” refers back to the actual order and route every line of the letter is meant to be written. Youngsters writing English are additionally taught to start out letters in a specific manner for many Romanized letters.

How is katakana used?

Your identify will seemingly be among the many first belongings you write utilizing katakana. Japanese pronunciation differs from English pronunciation, which means many names will sound barely totally different however others could sound almost similar.

When touring in Japan, you’ll seemingly discover katakana utilized in a number of locations throughout your keep. Many travel-related Japanese phrases are mortgage phrases like lodge (hoteru, ホテル), bus (basu, バス), and comfort retailer (konbini, コンビニ). The identify of your nation can be prone to be written in katakana.

Grammar word: The loanwords for some international locations don’t come from English. In England’s case, the katakana identify comes from the Portuguese phrase “inglês” for “English.” The Portuguese have been the primary vacationers from Europe to make contact with Japan, so it’s no shock that a few of their phrases would stay part of the Japanese language immediately.

Which katakana characters look the identical?

Like with hiragana, there are a number of katakana characters that look related. Some folks discover the same katakana to be tougher to tell apart, however a cautious eye can discern which is which.

Study the ABCs of Japanese with Rosetta Stone

When studying the Japanese alphabet in English, you will need to keep in mind that it’s not the identical as English in any respect. Utilizing romanization as a stepping stone to studying the Japanese alphabet and writing programs is a superb technique to begin studying, however rising past the Romanized letters will speed up your understanding of Japanese as a complete. By studying Japanese with Rosetta Stone, you may skip romanization and go straight to Japanese textual content, immersing you within the language straight away.