Introducing Japanese Sounds, Word Order, and Writing Systems (日本語の音、語順、表記体系の紹介)

Japanese sounds are easy to pronounce, but the Japanese writing system can seem complex. Sentences can be written horizontally or vertically. A Japanese sentence can be written by combining two sets of kana phonetic symbols, hiragana and katakana, as well as approximately 2,000 kanji characters, which are Chinese characters adapted to Japanese.

Basic sounds (基本音)

Japanese has five basic vowels:

a, which sounds like the vowel in aha
i, which sounds like the vowel in eat
u, which sounds like the vowel in boot, but without lip rounding
e, which sounds like the vowel in eight
o, which sounds like the vowel in oat

These vowels have long counterparts, which are specified by a macron above them, as in ā, ī, ū, ē, and ō.

Pitch (ピッチ)

Pitch can make a difference in word meanings in Japanese. For example, in Tokyo, the Japanese two-syllable word "ame" means "rain" if the first syllable is in high pitch and the second syllable is in low pitch, but it implies "candy" if the first syllable is in low pitch and the second syllable is in high pitch.

Intonation (イントネーション)

Every character in Hiragana (and the Katakana equivalent) corresponds to a [vowel] or [consonant + vowel] syllable sound, with the single exception of the 「ん」 and 「ン」 characters. This system of letters for each syllable sound makes pronunciation absolutely clear with no ambiguities. However, the simplicity of this system does not mean that pronunciation in Japanese is simple. In fact, the rigid structure of the fixed-syllable sound in Japanese creates a challenge in learning proper intonation. The intonation of high and low pitches is a crucial aspect of spoken language. For example, homophones can have different pitches, resulting in a slightly different sound despite sharing the same pronunciation. The biggest obstacle to obtaining proper and natural-sounding speech is incorrect intonation. The most pragmatic approach is to gain a general sense of pitches by mimicking native Japanese speakers through careful listening and practice.

The Scripts (スクリプト)

Japanese consists of two scripts (referred to as kana) called Hiragana and Katakana, which are two versions of the same set of sounds in the language. Hiragana and Katakana consist of approximately 50 "letters", which are actually simplified Chinese characters adapted to form a phonetic script. Chinese characters, called Kanji in Japanese, are also heavily used in Japanese writing. Most of the words in the Japanese written language are written in Kanji (nouns, verbs, adjectives). There are over 40,000 Kanji, with approximately 2,000 representing more than 95% of the characters actually used in written text. There are no spaces in Japanese, so Kanji is necessary to distinguish between separate words within a sentence. Kanji is also useful for distinguishing between homophones, which occur frequently due to the limited number of distinct sounds in the Japanese language. Hiragana is used mainly for grammatical purposes. Words with extremely difficult or rare Kanji, colloquial expressions, and onomatopoeias are also written in Hiragana. It's also often used by beginning Japanese students and children as an alternative to Kanji they don't know. While Katakana represents the same sounds as Hiragana, it is mainly used to represent newer words imported from Western countries (since there are no Kanji associated with words based on the Roman alphabet). The following three sections will cover Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Basic Hiragana (基本のひらがな)

Hiragana is the basic Japanese phonetic script. It represents every sound in the Japanese language. Therefore, you can write everything in Hiragana. Hiragana are used to describe grammatical items such as verb inflexions and particles, as well as content words that are not written in kanji or katakana. There are 46 basic hiragana characters, each of which represents a syllable sound. They are shown in the following table:

The character を is pronounced as o, just like the character お, although some people pronounce it as wo when reading a hiragana table. をo is exclusively used as a grammatical particle. The character ん n forms an independent syllable for Japanese, although it is a consonant. は is read as wa when used as a topic-marking particle, but it is read as ha in all other contexts. Similarly, へ is read as e when used as a direction-marking particle, but it is read as he in all other contexts.

Diacritics for Kana (かなの発音記号)

By adding the diacritic ゛or ゜to the upper-right corner of some characters, you can make their beginning consonant voiced or change it to p, respectively. For example, ゛changes k to g, s to z, and t to d. Note that ゛changes h and f to b. On the other hand, ゜changes h and f to p. All characters that these diacritics can mark are listed in the following table:

Tables & Flowchart (1080 x 1100 px) (16).png

The syllables ji and zu are usually represented by じ and ず, respectively. Still, they are represented by ぢ and づ in some limited cases, as in the following examples:

つづく tsuzuku (to continue)
はなぢ hanaji (nose bleeding)
ちぢむ chijimu (to shrink)

Representing double Consonants and Long Vowels (促音と長音)

To express the brief, abrupt pause found in double consonants, use the small つ tsu. For example, kitte (postage stamp) is written as きって. To represent a long vowel, just add a character that means the same vowel. For instance, tōri (street) is written as とおり. There are some discrepancies between kana and the actual pronunciation in certain words due to historical reasons. A kana character with a vowel o and the kanaう u that directly follows it are read as one long syllable with the long vowel ō. For example, おとうさん (father) is pronounced as otōsan. Similarly, a kana character with a vowel e and the kana い i that directly follows it are read as one syllable with the long vowel ē. For example, せんせい (teacher) is pronounced as sensē. Here, ē in such cases is still specified as ei in romaji, following the standard practice in most romaji Japanese dictionaries.

Representing Palatalised Sounds ( 口蓋音の表現)

Japanese syllables may begin with a palatalised consonant, a consonant pronounced with the body of the tongue raised toward the roof of the mouth. To express such syllables, use the hiragana that has the consonant you need and the vowel i, and add smallや ya, ゆ yu, or よ yo, depending on the vowel you need. For example, to represent kya, use the letter き ki because it has the consonant k and the vowel i, and add a small やya because it has the vowel a. The following table lists all such palatalised syllables:

Katakana (カタカナ)

Katakana are used to represent non-Chinese foreign names and words. They are also commonly used to represent onomatopoeic expressions. Katakana consists of 46 characters, just like hiragana, as shown in the following table:

With katakana, you can use the same diacritics and conventions used with hiragana. However, unlike in hiragana, in katakana long vowels are represented by adding an elongation mark (ー). Note that the katakana system allows some combinations of characters that are not available in the hiragana system to approximate the pronunciation of foreign words. Such examples include ファ (fa), フィ (fi ), フェ (fe), フォ (fo), ティ (ti),トゥ (tu), ディ (di), ドュ (du), ヴァ (va),

ヴォ (vo),ヴェ (ve),ウォ (wo), ウェ (we), チェ (che), シェ (she), and ジェ (je).

Kanji (漢字)

Kanji characters are Chinese characters imported from China and adapted for use in the Japanese language. Japanese people learn about 2,000 kanji characters by the time they graduate from high school. Each kanji character represents a meaning rather than a sound. For example, the kanji character 人 represents a person. Some kanji characters were created from pictures or signs. For instance, 人 (person) was created from a picture of a standing person viewed from the side. Some were made from signs. For example, 三 (three) was produced from three bars. Many kanji characters were created by combining two or more kanji. For instance, 明(bright) was created by combining 日(sun) and 月(moon). Remember that kanji characters that represent verbs and adjectives need to be followed by hiragana that show inflectional endings, as in 書くkaku (to write) and 書いた kaita (wrote). Most kanji characters have multiple pronunciations, some of which are the Japanese native way and others the Chinese way. For example, the Japanese way of pronouncing 人 is hito, and the Chinese way of pronouncing it is nin or jin.

The following are some of the relatively simple and frequently used kanji characters. A hyphen is added in romaji to show the pronunciation of each kanji character separated from the surrounding kanji, hiragana, or katakana, if such a division is available.

Basic Word Order and Particles (基本的な語順と助詞)

The order between the subject and the object is flexible in Japanese. However, a verb needs to be placed at the end of a sentence. A sentence can be understood correctly regardless of the word order because the subject and the object are directly followed by the subject-marking particleが ga and the object-marking particle を o, respectively. For example, the following two sentences both mean He ate an apple:

彼がリンゴを食べた。Kare ga ringo o tabeta.
リンゴを彼が食べた。Ringo o kare ga tabeta.

English prepositions such as to, from, in, on, at, and with correspond to postpositions, or particles placed after nouns, in Japanese. For example, the English preposition to corresponds to the Japanese particle に ni when expressing destinations. Instead of saying to Tokyo, you need to say something like Tokyo to—actually, 東京に Tokyo ni, as in the following sentence:

ケンが東京に行った。Ken ga Tokyo ni itta. Ken went to Tokyo.

Speech Styles (話し方)

There are three basic speech styles in Japanese: a plain/informal style, a polite/neutral style, and a formal style. For example, you can ask a question like Did you buy it? in three different ways:

買ったの。Katta no. (plain/informal)
買いましたか。Kaimashita ka. (polite/neutral)
お買いになりましたか。O-kai ni narimashita ka. (formal)

Which style you use depends on the “social hierarchy,” based on age, status, position, rank, and experiences, and the “social grouping,” such as family vs. non-family or colleagues vs. clients. When addressing siblings, parents, close friends, or assistants, you can use the informal form of address. However, when communicating with teachers, clients, or superiors, it is advisable to use the formal style. If you are not sure, or if you’re speaking to strangers or to your classmates or colleagues, it’s safe to use the polite/neutral style, although you may also use the other two styles, depending on the context. For example, even when speaking to a stranger, your speech style may depend on the location (for instance, at a bar versus at a conference). Be aware that formal styles show your respect to your addressees, but also create some distance between you. Similarly, plain/informal styles sound very friendly but might also make you sound quite rude or childish. Which one to use depends on the context and your attitude.