The Japanese Writing System

When first learning a language, it is important to learn its writing system first. This way, you don't get any bad habits and you get immersed more easily in the language. The Japanese language has 3 writing systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji.

KANJI

Kanji are Chinese characters that were imported to Japan during the third century. They are symbols that represent a thing or an idea. A kanji can have different meanings and different readings. When two kanji are combined, they sometimes form a new word. As you can guess, it is a bit difficult to learn kanji, specially considering that there are a bit more than 2 000 of them. But don't get discouraged! With practice, you'll get there (that's what I tell myself). To learn kanji, I use Wanikani (it's free for the first three levels). There are also a lot of different apps for mobile where you will learn a lot more information.

HIRAGANA

The hiragana system uses symbols to represent sounds, not ideas. It is used at the ends of words and adjectives, as well as for particles, but it can also be used to write words of Japanese origins if you don't know the Kanji for it. There are sometimes little hiragana called furigana on top of kanji to show how to read the kanji.

To read the characters, simply take the consonant at the top with the vowel to the left. For example, ''か'' reads ''ka''. The column with no consonants is for vowel, so ''い'' is ''i''. However, there are some exceptions. ''し'' is not read as ''si'' but as ''shi''. ''ち'' and ''つ'' are not read as ''ti'' and ''tu'' but as ''chi'' and ''tsu''. Finally, ''を'' is not read as ''wo'' but as ''o''. It is used as a particle.

PRONUNCIATION

The pronunciation in Japanese is not the same as in English. Here are the ways to pronounce the vowels:

A --> America

I --> shEEp

U --> bOOt (the lips are relaxed when pronouncing ''u'')

E --> Editor

O --> Oval (once again, the lips are relaxed)

For the consonants, it pretty much the same as in English, except for the ''r''. The ''r'' is more similar to an ''l'' then an English ''r''.

CONSONANT MODIFICATION

The sound ''b'', ''p'', ''g'', ''z'' and ''d' exist in Japanese through the modification of the consonant. To modify a hiragana, you have to add a ''〃'' (called tenten) or a ''○'' (called maru). Here are the consonant modifications:

With tenten

K --> G (か (ka) to が (ga))

S --> Z (さ (sa) to ざ (za))

T --> D (た (ta) to だ (da))

H --> B (は (ha) to ば (ba))

With maru

H --> P (は (ha) to ぱ (pa))

It's important to note that づ and ず are both pronounced ''zu'' and that じ and ぢ are both pronounced ''ji''.

CONTRACTIONS

When you take a hiragana from the ''i'' line and put a tiny や (ya), ゆ (yu) or よ (yo), the sound of the two characters together changes. It is important to note that contractions are only present if the character with a ''y'' is little. For example:

ひや (hiya) is not the same as ひゃ (hya)

にや (niya) is not the same as にゃ (nya)

しや (shiya) is not the same as しゃ (sha)

ちよ (chiyo) is not the same as ちょ (cho)

きゆ (kiyu) is not the same as きゅ (kyu)

LONG VOWELS

Some Japanese words can be very similar. For example, (furin) and (fuurin) are almost identical. The only difference between the two of them are that in one of the words, the ''u'' is longer. That little difference of length in the pronunciation of ''u'' is very important since the two words mean respectively ''adultery'' and ''wind chime'', two completely different words. The way to elongate a vowel is different depending on said vowel. To make あ(a), longer, you just double the letter. To elongate い(i) and え(e), you have to add い(i). For う(u) and お(o), you add う(u). For example:

おばあさん is pronounced ''oba-asan''

かわいい is pronounced ''kawai-i''

くうき is pronounced ''ku-uki''

せんせい is pronounced ''sense-e''

とうきょ is pronounced ''to-okyo''

DOUBLE CONSONANTS

Just like long vowels, double consonants can completely change a word's meaning. A double consonant is an elongated (in a way) consonant. It sounds slightly like a tiny pause before the consonant. To understand better how to pronounce it, I suggest looking at videos on YouTube. To write a word with a double consonant, you put a little つ(tsu) before the consonant that is doubled. However, you have to put ん(n) instead of a little つ to double ''n''. For example:

ちょっと is pronounced ''chot-to''

みんな is pronounced ''min-na''

はっけん is pronounced ''hak-ken''

ざっし is pronounced ''zash-shi''

さっぽろ is pronounced ''sap-poro''

Once again, it is important to notice the difference between a little and a regular つ. Notice the difference between さっぽろ(sapporo) and さつぽろ(satsuporo).

KATAKANA

Just like hiragana, the katakana characters represent sounds. They are used to write words of foreign origins that are used in Japanese, like ''elevator'' or ''toilet''. They are also used to write the names of foreigners.

The rules are the same as hiragana when it comes to pronunciation consonant modification, contraction, double consonant (you put a little ツ instead of a little つ). The only difference is for the long vowels, where you simply add a ''ー'' after the vowel that needs to be elongated.

And that's all I had to say about the writing system for now!