Introduction
The writing system for the Japanese language consists of three types of characters: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. All three types are used for different purposes and all three are needed to write a Japanese sentence. Because these three unique types of characters are used together and they can have very complicated applications, the Japanese written language is considered one of the most difficult languages to master.
For most of the Japanese sentences we use a combination of Hiragana and Kanji. But sometimes, when using foreign words, you might also need to use katakana like the sample below.
The sentence says: I am an American (person)
| 私 | は | アメリカ | 人 | です |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KANJI | HIRAGANA | KATAKANA | KANJI | HIRAGANA |
| WATASHI | WA | AMERIKA | JIN | DESU |
Hiragana and Katakana are unique to the Japanese language. These are syllabic characters, which means that each character corresponds to a sound. In the DVHS online courses, we practice Hiragana during semester 1 of Level 1 and Katakana during Semester 2 of Level 1.
Hiragana & Katakana
Hiragana characters are mostly used for native Japanese words and grammatical elements such as particles and conjugations. There are 46 basic characters which all symbolize syllabaries, or 71 including diacritics. Each sound in the Japanese language corresponds to a character in the syllabary.
Katakana characters are mostly used for foreign words and names, loanwords and in modern manga writing. Like hiragana, there are 5 singular vowels, 40 consonant-vowels and 1 singular consonant. Katakana usage is to italics in English, where it represents transcription of foreign language words into Japanese. Foreign names are similarly also written in katakana. If you have a non-Japanese name, you should practice writing your name using Katakana instead of Hiragana.
We often see both hiragana and katakana in a 5×10 grid like the one below, called gojyuon ( 五十音), or “fifty sounds.”
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Long Vowels
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Long Vowels
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Hiragana & Katakana chart by Ager, Simon. "Omniglot - writing systems and languages of the world".
24th June 2019. www.omniglot.com and https://www.omniglot.com/charts/print/kana.pdf
Romanization charts
Hepburn romanization (ヘボン式ローマ字, Hebon-shiki rōmaji) Hepburn-style used to phonetically transcribe sounds/representation of kana. It is the most widely used system of romaji (roman letters like the ones used in English). Originally published in 1867 by American missionary James Curtis Hepburn. for example, the syllable (し) is written as shi and (ちゃ) is written as cha, reflecting their spellings in English.
Hepburn remains the most popular method of Japanese romanization. It is learned by most foreign students of the language, and is used within Japan for romanizing personal names, locations, and other information, such as train tables and road signs.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization
| Gojūon | Yōon | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| あ ア a | い イ i | う ウ u | え エ e | お オ o | |||
| か カ ka | き キ ki | く ク ku | け ケ ke | こ コ ko | きゃ キャ kya | きゅ キュ kyu | きょ キョ kyo |
| さ サ sa | し シ shi | す ス su | せ セ se | そ ソ so | しゃ シャ sha | しゅ シュ shu | しょ ショ sho |
| た タ ta | ち チ chi | つ ツ tsu | て テ te | と ト to | ちゃ チャ cha | ちゅ チュ chu | ちょ チョ cho |
| な ナ na | に ニ ni | ぬ ヌ nu | ね ネ ne | の ノ no | にゃ ニャ nya | にゅ ニュ nyu | にょ ニョ nyo |
| は ハ ha | ひ ヒ hi | ふ フ fu | へ ヘ he | ほ ホ ho | ひゃ ヒャ hya | ひゅ ヒュ hyu | ひょ ヒョ hyo |
| ま マ ma | み ミ mi | む ム mu | め メ me | も モ mo | みゃ ミャ mya | みゅ ミュ myu | みょ ミョ myo |
| や ヤ ya | ゆ ユ yu | よ ヨ yo | |||||
| ら ラ ra | り リ ri | る ル ru | れ レ re | ろ ロ ro | りゃ リャ rya | りゅ リュ ryu | りょ リョ ryo |
| わ ワ wa | ゐ ヰ i † | ゑ ヱ e † | を ヲ o ‡ | ||||
| ん ン n /n' | |||||||
| が ガ ga | ぎ ギ gi | ぐ グ gu | げ ゲ ge | ご ゴ go | ぎゃ ギャ gya | ぎゅ ギュ gyu | ぎょ ギョ gyo |
| ざ ザ za | じ ジ ji | ず ズ zu | ぜ ゼ ze | ぞ ゾ zo | じゃ ジャ ja | じゅ ジュ ju | じょ ジョ jo |
| だ ダ da | ぢ ヂ ji | づ ヅ zu | で デ de | ど ド do | ぢゃ ヂャ ja | ぢゅ ヂュ ju | ぢょ ヂョ jo |
| ば バ ba | び ビ bi | ぶ ブ bu | べ ベ be | ぼ ボ bo | びゃ ビャ bya | びゅ ビュ byu | びょ ビョ byo |
| ぱ パ pa | ぴ ピ pi | ぷ プ pu | ぺ ペ pe | ぽ ポ po | ぴゃ ピャ pya | ぴゅ ピュ pyu | ぴょ ピョ pyo |
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization
- Each entry contains hiragana, katakana, and Hepburn romanization, in that order.
- † — The characters in red are historical characters and are obsolete in modern Japanese.[30][31] In modern Hepburn romanization, they are often undefined.[22]
- ‡ — The characters in blue are rarely used outside of their status as a particle in modern Japanese,[23] and romanization follows the rules above.
Kanji
Kanji are pictorial characters imported from China. Although there are more than 50,000 kanji, most native Japanese don’t know nearly as many. The sample below shows 3 kanji characters used to signify Japanese Language - NIHONGO.
The word "Nihongo" written in Kanji (horizontal placement of characters). The text means "Japanese language" in Japanese by OsamaK and changed by Yurko~commonswiki. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.