This is a very brief introduction to the structure of the Japanese language
Japanese has five vowels which are A, I, U, E, O
Japanese Word
Okonomiyaki
English meaning
Savoury pancake
Pronunciation
O/ko/no/mi/ya/ki
Written
お好み焼き
Sentence construction
English: I am looking for the book
Subject: I
Object: book
Verb: looking
Japanese: (Watashi wa) hon o sagashite imasu
Subject: I
Object: book
Verb: searching
💥 You will notice the order is different
Scripts
1. Hiragana - 50 symbols
Words of Japanese origin are written in this script, for example:
a, i, u, e o
あ、い、 う、え、お
ka, ki, ku, ke, ko
か、き、 く、け、こ
sa, shi, su, se, so
さ、し, す、 せ、そ
Learn more about Hiragana here
2. Katakana - 50 symbols
Words of foreign origin are written in this script,
for example:
a, i, u, e, o
ア、イ、ウ、エ、ｵ
ka, ki, ku, ke, ko
カ、キ、ク、ケ、コ
English word
Ice Cream
Pronunciation
aisukuree-mu
Written in Katakana as
アイスクリーム
Learn more about Katakana here
3. Kanji - thousands of Chinese characters
Characters of a Chinese origin are used to convey sounds, words, pictures, and ideas,
for example:
English Word
Dog
Japanese word
inu
Written in Kanji as
犬
In Japanese, many Chinese characters have more than one meaning,
for example:
On'yomi 音読み:
Readings derived from the Chinese pronunciations.
Kun'yomi 訓読み:
The original, indigenous Japanese readings.
For example:
The character 城 has many meanings
* Onyomi or Chinese reading is JOU which means castle
* Kunyomi or Japanese reading is SEI
* Japanese reading which is Shiro or white
To simplify the Chinese characters in Japan multiple meanings are applied to the same character which reduces the number of characters learners need to memorize but increases the number of meanings one has to remember and try when reading the character.
Learn more about Japanese Kanji here
4. Romaji - This is when Japanese words are written in English characters, for pronunciation, using a dictionary and for teaching non - Japanese.
Writing
* Written Japanese combines the three scripts
Katakana, Kanji, Hiragana together.
English Sentence:
Do you like ice cream?
Romaji:
Pronunciation
Aisukureemu wa suki desu ka?
Written in Japanese as
アイスクリームは好きですか
Katakana = アイスクリーム
Hiragana = は きですか
Kanjii = 好
💥 Note in Japanese:
There is no spacing between words and the reader must identify the grammar, nouns, and verbs to correctly read the characters and therefore the right pronunciation.
* Japanese is written in columns starting at the top right-hand corner of the page and continuing to the left-hand side of the page.
* Newspapers, books, and magazines are read from the back page to the front page.
🌸 Hope you found this useful!
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