Learn Japanese Book Page 04

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Compilation of this textbook has becn a cooperative endeavor, and we deeply ap-preciate the collective efforts and individual contributions of Mss Sachiko . Adachi, Nori Andó, Haruko Matsui, Shigeko Miyazaki, Sachiko Okaniwa, Terumi Sawada and Yuriko Yobuko. For English translations and cditorial assistance, we wish to thank Ms. Dorothy Britton.

10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

WRITING AND PRONUNCIATION

There are three kinds of Japanese writing:

1.    Kanji: Chinese characters or ideographs, each conveying an idea, most of

which have at least two readings.    ^K

2.    Hiragana: A phonctic syllabary. The symbols are curvalinear in style.

3.    Katakana: The second syllabary used primarily for foreign names and place names and words of foreign origin. The symbols are madę up of straight lines.

Writtcn Japanese normally makes use of all three, as in the following examplc:

“I ani going to Canada.” fAti iJ i‘ ft-ff $ £ To kanji Watashi fi    i- łf

hiragana    wa {i    ni ł- kimasu § £ T

katakana    Kanada ii T Y

Besides these three forms of writing, Japanese is sometimes written in rómaji (Roman letters), particularly for the convenience of foreigners. This is generally used in teaching conversational Japanese to foreigners when time is limited. There are various Systems for transliterating Japanese in the Roman alphabet. In this book we use the modified Hepburn system.

HIRAGANA, KATAKANA AND RÓMAJI

The kana to the left are hiragana; katakana are in parentheses. I Basic Syllables: Yowcl, Consonant plus vowel and n

N. V C	a h i ; )	i i* (O	u i (7)	e x (x)	o is ( + )
. k	ka ił* < i))	ki * (4)	ku < [9)	ke (-) {*r)	ko ; (7)
I s	sa £ t-łf)	shi l (v)	su -V (X)	se -t* (-t)	SO * (7)
i t	ta fi i 9)	chi f, (-?-)	tsu n ("j)	te r (r)	to iz ( M
i n	na & «.-#■>	ni iz {-)	nu tł. (3?)	ne tł (T)	no co (7)
.^11	ha {i (/')	hi V (e)	fu A. (7)	. he ^ (^)	ho i* (*)
1 ni	ma $ •.	mi h (^ )	mu t' (A)	me tó (7)	mo (^)
i y	v2 * ■; *)	(i t' M )]	yu ty (x)	[e x (x)]	yo £ O)
i r	ra b i 9)	ri »> <>j)	ru -5 r;u) .,	_.re łi (u)	ro ^ (a)
| w	wa h ś 7)	fi o (4)]	[u Ó <7))	[e x (x)J	o §r (7)
n, m	— K i >)

Notę: The ęyilables yi. ye, wi, wu and we do not occur in modern Japanese.

11