Reading Basic Japanese Signs

INTRODUCTION

If this is for reading, why do we care about pronounciation below? Well, because we need to compare the sounds in English with the corresponding Japanese sound. But clearly, our needs are less critical than those who must speak the sounds.

You might think that in major cities, there would be enough information or signs in English so this is unnecessary. Unfortunately, most maps and signages in Japan are in Japanese with a smattering of English. The latter might not be enough.

In a recent trip to Fukuoka, for the ASCM (Asian Symposium on Computer Mathematics, Dec 2009), I was looking for JAL SEAHAWK HOTEL in Fukuoka. This is a landmark (35 storey) hotel, next to the huge Yahoo Stadium, home of Fukuoka's baseball team (Seahawk). But I could not find an online map with this English name on the map. (Someone put a marker in Google maps for this hotel, but it was in the middle of the sea, and quite far from the actual location.) You will need to find the name SEAHAWK spelled out in Katakana (not Hiragana, since it is foreign word):

Note that terminal consonants represent a standard problem in transcribing foreign sounds into Japanese --- every terminal consonant will introduce a superfluous terminal syllable. E.g., FORK in English must be transcribed as [Fo Ku] or, with prolongation, [Fo--Ku]. But there is some indeterminacy here: if we want a terminal [K] sound, which of the characters in the K-row ([Ka], [Ki], etc) should you use? In practice, it seems that [Ku] and [Ko] are preferred.

For the purposes of signs, the Katakana script is perhaps slightly more important than Hiragana script. But the two systems are parallel, so for good measure, we throw in Hiragana as well. Actually, you will need to recognize Hiragana characters, if only to ignore them! It is true the curvy script of Hiragana usually distinguishes it from Katakana. But until you master the scripts, it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are reading Katakana or Hiragana. In that case, you want a table of both alphabet (see below) for comparison.

OVERVIEW

• There are 3 written scripts in Japanese:
• HIRAGANA, the "curvy script" is considered the simplest, and is phonetic.
  NOTE: The curvy nature comes from brush strokes. It helps to know a bit about the dynamics of writing with a brush, as in Chinese calligraphy. Brush strokes imparts three tell-tale characteristics on typography:
  (1) curves on what are essentially straight strokes,
  (2) hook flourishes at the end of a stroke, and
  (3) traces of connection between different strokes.
  All these are reflected in the typographic design of the characters. Unless you know calligraphy, you might miss these characteristics or get them wrong in your own writing.
• The next script, KATAGANA is also phonetic and is useful for foreign words.
  NOTE: This is slightly easier to read, having an "angular script" (i.e., not derived from brush strokes, though you still see some characteristic curves)
• The last, KANJI, derived from Chinese characters is hardest and non-phonetic. Of course, if you know Chinese characters already, this would be the easiest.
  NOTE: You should try to learn a few basic Kanji characters as they will be interspersed with the other two scripts!

Hiragana and Katakana Character Sets

• There are 5 columns and 11 rows in each table. Since 7 entries are missing, we have a total of 47 characters in each table.
• The first row has five vowels.
  In Hiragana, A= あ , I= い , U= う , E= え , O= お
  or in Katakana, A= ア , I= イ , U= ウ , E= エ , O= オ .
  Please lookup some internet source for how to pronounce them -- suffices to say that these vowels are always short.
  HINT: it is good to memorize them, including their ordering.
• The last row (like the first) is an anomaly. The remaining 9 rows contain SYLLABLES (= consonant + vowel).
  The vowel is constant in each column (in particular, it is inherited from the vowel in the first row.) So we can label the columns as A-column, I-column, U-column E-column and O-column.
  Similarly, the consonant is constant for each row. So we can label each of the 9 rows by the corresponding consonant. These consonants are (K,S,T,N,H,M,Y,R,W).
  E.g., row 2 is the K-row with (Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke, Ko).
• The Y-row has only three entries (Ya, Yu, Yo) but no Yi and Ye.
  The W-row has only three entries (Wa, Wu, Wo) but no Wi and We. (NOTE: Sometimes, Wu is also omitted!)
  <<<<<<< japanese.html The last row for [-n] is special because this is a terminal N sound, but never the initial N sound.
• The T-row has somewhat irregular sounds:

  	A	I	U	E	O
  (K)	た	ち	つ	て	と
  (H)	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト
  Sounds	[Ta]	[Chi]	[Tsu]	[Te]	[To]

  A similar irregularity in the H-row is that the sound for ふ (H) or フ (K) is [Fu] and not [Hu]. ======= The last row for [-n] is special because this is a terminal N sound, but never the initial N sound. >>>>>>> 1.8
• The T-row has somewhat irregular sounds:

  	A	I	U	E	O
  (K)	た	ち	つ	て	と
  (H)	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト
  Sounds	[Ta]	[Chi]	[Tsu]	[Te]	[To]

  A similar irregularity in the H-row is that the sound for ふ (H) or フ (K) is [Fu] and not [Hu].
• If you were looking for certain consonants ([G], [Z], [D], [B] and [P]), you would not find them in any row! These are be obtained by modifying related consonants using accent marks. There are two so-called TEN-TEN marks. They are the ``double quote'' mark ( ゛) and the ``degree'' mark ( ゜)
  The double quote mark converts certain consonants to their "tensed form". For instance, in Katagana we have:

  K ゛ becomes G	E.g., Ka カ becomes Ga ガ
  S ゛ becomes Z	E.g., Si シ becomes Zi ジ
  T ゛ becomes D	E.g., Tu ツ becomes Du ヅ
  H ゛ becomes B	E.g., He ヘ becomes Be ベ
  H ゜ becomes P	E.g., Ho ホ becomes Po ポ

  There is a similar correspondence in Hiragana.
• Combination of these syllables is possible in a very limited form: the Y-row (Ya, Yu, Yo) can be combined with the I-column (Ki, Shi, Chi, Ni, Hi, Mi, Ri).
  E.g., [Ki Ya]
• Interestingly, the vowels comes in two sizes: large and small! I suppose if the vowel is not the beginning of a syllable, it would be small. LARGE: あ い う え お
  SMALL: ぁ ぃ ぅ ぇ ぉ
• Both Hiragana and Kataganna has prolongation sound marks: ー (long)     or     ｰ (short). See our SEAHAWK example above. Also, the characters っ [Tu] in Hiragana, and ッ [Tu] in Katakana, are used to shorten a vowel.
• Note that each symbol in Hiragana and Katakana is intermediate between a ``letter'' (as in the English alphabet) and a ``full character'' (as in Chinese script). So I will call them ``characters'' and not ``letters''.

Some Examples

• Let us say "Thank You!" (arikatou kozaimashta). This is written in Hiragana since it is a pure Japanese expression, not a foreign one:

  あ	り	が	と	う	ご	ざ	い	ま	し	た
  [A]	[Ri]	[Ka']	[To]	[U]	[Ko']	[Sa']	[I]	[Ma]	[Shi]	[Ta]

• Another useful expression is "Doumo" (literally ``Very''):

  と	う	も
  [Do]	[U]	[Mo]

  This expression can mean "Thank you", "You are Welcome" or "Goodbye". But unlike the other "Thank you" [A-Ri-Ka-To], this one can only be a response, not the initial "Thank you". <<<<<<< japanese.html

Confusing Pairs