Introduction to Japanese: Volume 1 Chapter 2 Hiragana In this first article, we will investigate hiragana, one of three (or four, on the o...
Introduction to Japanese: Volume 1
Chapter 2
Hiragana
In this first article, we will investigate hiragana, one of three (or four, on the off chance that you tally the Latin letter set) scripts used to compose the Japanese dialect. For those perusers who as of now have some learning of Japanese and were concentrating on with the Latin letters in order (romaji), hiragana speaks to the common next level. Perusers with zero or alongside zero learning of Japanese, however, can consummately begin their concentrates straightforwardly with hiragana.
What you need to know.
To begin with, you have to realize that hiragana is really a syllabary; each "letter" speaks to a syllable (called "kana") as opposed to a phoneme. Where English (or some other dialect which utilizes the Latin letters in order) would have one letter for the sound "m" and another for the sound "a" (then consolidating them for the sound "mama"), in Japanese you have an image that, without anyone else's input, sounds "mama": ま. Presently in the event that you need to keep in touch with "me", you are not just substituting the "a" for an "e". Rather, there is a totally diverse image for "me": め.
Sounds confused? It might be a bit for first-time learners, since it compels you to think as far as syllables instead of phonemes. Be that as it may, once you begin utilizing it, not just it will turn out to be second nature for you, you will likewise see how thusly of composing fits Japanese dialect extremely well, since every one of its words take after an inflexible syllable framework. Consider expressions of Japanese you definitely know and how effectively you can break them into syllables: ka-ra-te, su-shi, ki-mo-no, ka-ta-na, wa-sa-bi.
As yet supposing it is entangled? All things considered, consider that there is a coordinated correspondence between Japanese kana characters and sounds, not at all like in English. For instance, while the "ba" in "banana" and "narrows" sound altogether different, in Japanese the same images dependably have the same sound. Along these lines, the "me" image we saw prior dependably seems like "me" in "men", never as in the English word "me". You say tomato… I say "tomato" as well; that is the main choice we have.
Learning Hiragana is basic to learning Japanese, as it is utilized to compose local words for which there are no kanji, including linguistic particles, for example, "kara" ("from"), and postfixes, for example, "san" (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms), and in addition to compose words whose kanji structure is dark. At long last, verb and descriptive word affectations are additionally composed in hiragana, frequently taking after a verb or descriptor root that is composed in kanji. For instance, "see" and "saw" are composed in standard Japanese as 見る and 見た; the principal image gives the significance (see) while the second image, in Hiragana, gives us the verb conjugation.
Writing Hiragana
There are a sum of 46 kana or letters in Hiragana. How you remember them, at last, relies on upon every learner. There are an assortment of books, sites and PC programs promoting diverse techniques for remembrance. My proposal, however, is to utilize the same strategy you presumably used to take in the letter set: take a seat, pen and paper, and record them ordinarily. As you record them, rehashing their sound to yourself may likewise help you to retain every solid.
Something else you have to know before you begin composing hiragana away is that every image has an appropriate stroke request. Not that our letters don't have one, either – what number of you strike the dash on the A to begin with, for instance? Despite the fact that composition out-of-request does not as a matter of course mean you won't be comprehended, it can by and large be seen when the images were composed out of request and it makes for more chaotic penmanship, so please attempt to adhere to the request.
The 46 Hiragana symbols
Finally, on to the symbols! Let’s start with the always important vowels:
Hiragana – Vowels
A
I
U
E
O
Japanese, similar to English, has five vowels (yet in an alternate request). Recollect that, they generally have the same sound – "an" as in "banana", "i" as in "picture", "u" as in "zoo", "e" as in "elephant", and "o" as in "over".
Taking after Japanese "in order" arrange, our next prevent is the letters from what I call the "K-Group".
Hiragana - K Group
KA
KI
KU
KE
KO
This is the place you truly need to quit thinking as far as phonemes and think as far as syllables. Rather than learning one single letter "K" and going along with it to the five vowels you simply learned, you need to learn five unique images. Nonetheless, I will soon compensate for it. We should check the following gathering, the G-Group.
Hiragana - G Group
GA
GI
GU
GE
GO
Do they look commonplace? Without a doubt, the K-gathering and G-gathering are composed practically the same. The distinction, on the off chance that you can spot, is in the "dakuten marker" or "ten-ten image", otherwise known as this little image here ゛that resembles a punctuation. By including this marker, the hard K sound turns into the to some degree milder G sound. It would be ideal if you take note of that the G constantly solid in Japanese, so "ge" dependably seems like "Gerry", never as in "carport".
What's more, yes, before you ask, the dakuten marker is constantly composed last, and yes, since you won't ask, that is the reason the Japanese word for syllables, "kana", gets to be "gana" in "Hiragana", an association that would most likely lost in the event that you limited yourself to the Latin letters in order.
Hiragana - S Group
SA
SHI
SU
SE
SO
Advancing to the S-bunch! The most critical thing to see here is that there isn't a characteristic "si" sound in Japanese, just a "shi" one. This is the wellspring of endless jokes about the Japanese elocution of some English words, for example, "city". Kindly don't go there, as you dislike them ridiculing your elocution of Japanese! Another think to note: after you remember this line, you can as of now compose the word sushi in Hiragana:すし!
Hiragana - Z Group
ZA
JI
ZU
ZE
ZO
The Z-gathering is to the S-bunch as the G-gathering is to the K-bunch: simply compose the same images once more, this time trying to include the ten-ten image. Here, once more, it's the second image that may bring about us inconvenience, as there is no regular ZI sound in Japanese, with the じ sounding more like a JI sound, as in "Jimmy". It is likewise the "ji" in "Mount Fuji". That is the reason the Japanese word for Zimbabwe sounds something like "Jimbabwe".
Hiragana - T Group
TA
CHI
TSU
TE
TO
Have you begun seeing that the second segment is our issue tyke? There is no legitimate "ti" sound in Japanese, either; rather, we have "chi", as in "chicken", "cheddar" or "Al Pacino". Something else to keep an eye out is that in Japanese there is no "tu", yet just "tsu", as in "Mitsubishi" or the notorious "torrent". Additionally, take note of how you can as of now effortlessly separate each word I have specified so far into syllables: "Mi-tsu-bi-shi" and "tsu-na-mi".
Before we proceed onward to the D bunch, there is something else I ought to say. There is an image called "sokuon" (you don't have to retain these punctuation names) that looks simply like the "tsu" above. Truth be told, the Japanese simply call it "little tsu" (see, I let you know don't have to retain the linguistic names).
For your examination, here is the general one つ and here the littler oneっ. As opposed to having its own sound, the little tsu shows a delay in the word. In our letters in order we typically show this respite by composing two consonants after stopping for a moment, as in the words "Nippon" (one of the methods for saying "Japan"), "ippon" (most noteworthy score in judo or karate), or "bukkake" (a few things are better left unexplained).
Hiragana - D Group
DA
JI
ZU
DE
DO
You as of now get how this is going: the D-gathering is made by just adding the ten-ten imprint to the T-bunch. Once more, it's the second and third segments that need some consideration: the ぢ and づ have the very same sound as じ and ず. They are likewise once in a while utilized, so you don't have to stress over them until further notice.
Pretty much as an oddity, remember that some romanization frameworks compose ぢ and づ as "dzi" and "dzu" to separate them from じ and ず; this is the way "kudzu" got is present elocution in English, despite the fact that it sounds "kuzu" in Japanese. On the off chance that exclusive they had legitimately learned Hiragana (like you are doing now) rather than staying with our letter set, they would have known the right articulation!
Hiragana - N Group
NA
NI
NU
NE
NO
The N-gathering is a generally simple one – everything sounds pretty much as you would anticipate that them will do, and there are no special cases to stress over. Really, now that I consider it, this gathering is somewhat exhausting. How about we go to our next gathering, the H-Group!
Hiragana - H Group
HA
HI
FU
HE
HO
Aha! You most likely thought we would be just adding the ten-ten imprint to the N-bunch now. Really, the N-bunch has no other form (it is that exhausting). Rather we have these new images, which I recommend you getting acclimated to – as you will see a few articles from now, we will utilize the H-bunch, and particularly the は and the へ a considerable measure.
If you don't mind take note of that the H-bunch sounds like the English words "hellfire", "healing facility" or "helicopter" rather than the "quiet H" present in a few dialects like Portuguese or English words like "honor" and "legitimate".
If it's not too much trouble likewise observe the image ふ, which notwithstanding being perhaps the hardest kana to compose, sounds like "fu" (as in "kung-fu") rather than "hu". That is the reason we have words like "ofuro" and, once more, "Mount Fuji" (yes, essentially Mount Fuji exists to help us learners to remember Japanese about the correct articulation of Japanese sounds).
Hiragana - B Group
BA
BI
BU
BE
BO
Welcome to the B-group! Once again we are adding the ten-ten mark to the previous group. This time there are no exceptions whatsoever – everything is as it should be, so lets waste no time as we move to our next group.
Hiragana - P Group
PA
PI
PU
PE
PO
Surprise! The P-group also takes after the H-group, but this time instead of the ten-ten, we add a small circle called “handakuten” (again, please do not worry about remembering this) or “maru” (literally, “circle”). This is the only time we will use this marker. The “maru” is remarkably similar to the degree symbol (as in °C) and so you would be fine just writing it as so. There is not much to add, so let’s just move on to our next group.
Hiragana - M Group
MA
MI
MU
ME
MO
The M-group is very straightforward, having no exceptions whatsoever. Also, like the N-group before it, it does not have a “ten-ten” form; actually, none of the symbols we have yet to study have ten-ten forms. However, please note that as we learn more and more Hiragana, we start noticing some similarities between them: the ま symbol resembles somewhat the は from the H-group, and the め is very similar to the ぬ from the N-group, so please write them with attention.
Hiragana - Y Group
YA
YU
YO
The Y-group only has three symbols – YA, YU and YO – but we will spend considerable time talking about them. Not because their sounds are hard – they sound just like you probably think they do (“Ya” as in “Yahoo”, “yu” as in “you”, and “yo” as the greeting “Yo!”), but because they can be combined with the previous Hiragana (specifically, with those in the “I” column) to make many different sounds.
Sounds hard, but it isn’t. Let’s take a Japanese word that you probably know: ninja. Earlier we saw the hiragana for “ji” (in the Z-group, of all places), but we never saw the Hiragana for “ja”, so how do we write the word “ninja”? That is when the Y-group comes in handy. You see, to, write the sound “ja”, we combine the “ji” (じ) with “ya” (や) – actually, with a smaller version of it: じゃ.
Need another example? Let’s take the former capital of Japan, Kyoto. In the K-group we saw no “ky”, so how can we write it? Again, we take the “ki” symbol and add the “yo” symbol to it: きょ, or “kyo”. And by the way, to show you again the limitations of using the Latin alphabet to write Japanese, Kyoto is actually written きょうと, so the proper rendition of it would be “Kyouto”.
By the way, there are no Yi and Ye sounds in modern Japanese; their currency, which we call “yen”, is called “en” by the Japanese themselves.
Hiragana - R Group
RA
RI
RU
RE
RO
The R-group is a nice break after the Y-group. There are no exceptions, no special mentions, no asterisks – this is an easy group. Again, please mind the differences between る and ろ, and between れ and ね from the N-group. And finally, note that you can already write the word “Hiragana” in Hiragana: ひらがな. Rejoice!
Hiragana - Outliers
WA
N
WO
Finally, the last group, which I like to call “outliers”. First, there is “wa” and “wo”; wa is used in many words, such as “wasabi”, while wo is almost never used in words, but is often used as a grammar particle (we will get to those later). Finally, we have “N”, which is the single consonant sound you can write “alone” (what is, not followed by a vowel). That is how we make words such as “Nihon”, which means “Japan”. It is also the only symbol that can never begin a word in Japanese. The more you know!
Wrap-up
My intention with these articles was to introduce readers both to Hiragana and to basic concepts of Japanese language, namely, its syllabary nature. I also tried to ensure that our readers are able to properly understand and speak each of the syllables.
Your next step should be practicing what you have learned, writing these symbols down until you can write Hiragana without hesitation! Although numerous, you can probably memorize Hiragana in one or two weeks if you dedicate some time to it every day.
While it might see a bother, remember that sticking with romaji only will severely limit your ability to communicate with other Japanese speakers as well as delay your vocabulary progression. Good luck in your studies, and we’ll meet again in our next article!
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