Greetings, Friends. Igor Korotkov is with you. You are on the website Venasera.ru. Today we will talk about Japanese writing .
Traditionally, the Japanese language uses a vertical way of writing, i.e. The characters go from top to bottom and the columns go from right to left. This method continues to be widely used in fiction, as well as in newspapers. But in everyday life they usually use the standard, familiar to us, European way of writing , i.e. from left to right from top to bottom.
Writing in the Japanese language is divided into 2 Japanese syllabic alphabet Hiragana and Katakana , as well as kanji (hieroglyphs) .
ひらがな
Hiragana is used to write inflected parts of words, grammatical particles, or words whose hieroglyphic spelling has fallen out of use.
Hiragana characters are characterized by rounded, soft writing. Hiragana (平仮名) is translated from Japanese as “smooth alphabet” - that is, not “angular” like Katakana (片仮名). Hiragana was used by female authors of diaries and novels in the 9th to 12th centuries. Japanese poetry was written with it. Hiragana was a kind of “lightweight” letter, since it was believed that hieroglyphs for women were very difficult.
about how to easily and quickly remember the Hiragana alphabet in this video.
Romaji
In addition to the three writing systems in Japan, one can also see the Latin alphabet used to represent sounds. Rōmaji (ローマ字) can be used when Japanese text is intended for non-Japanese speakers, such as on street signs, dictionaries, textbooks, or passports.
Romaji is also used when typing on a computer. Although Japanese keyboards are capable of typing using kana, many people use the Roman alphabet to type syllables for later input of Japanese characters.
At the initial stage of learning hieroglyphs, romaji will help you read Japanese words.
カタカナ
Another alphabet is katakana , used to write borrowed words from foreign languages. Those. Your name will also be written using the Katakana , because... it's foreign. Also, sometimes katakana is used to write the names of animals, plants, and also as a stylistic device to highlight the desired word.
Literally, Katakana (片仮名) is translated from Japanese as “angular alphabet.” Katakana characters are angular and sharp, in contrast to hiragana characters, which differ significantly in their smoothness. Compare! This is Hiragana and this is Katakana.
We talked about how to easily and quickly remember the Katakana alphabet in this video.
Katakana was invented by monks to rewrite Chinese texts, in particular Buddhist sutras, and just like Hiragana, it originated from Chinese characters, but not from whole characters (as was the case in Hiragana ), but from their parts. Unlike hieroglyphs the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries convey only sound, without any meaning.
In order not to waste your time, we will not dwell in more detail on the origin of Japanese writing , but will move on to examples.
Hiragana
Hiragana consists of 71 letters and is the foundation of Japanese writing. All Japanese children learn hiragana first, and your Japanese learning should start there as well.
- どうして (doushite)
- なに (nani)
- いつ (itsu)
- こんにちは (konnichiwa)
- ではまた (dewamata)
The hiragana format may be a little unusual for Russian people, because it is called the “syllabic alphabet”. If in writing systems familiar to us, such as the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, symbols (letters) almost always correspond to individual sounds (“a” = [a], “b” = [b], etc.), then in syllabic systems one symbol corresponds to one syllable , most often made of two sounds (“く” = [ku], “る” = [ru], “ま” = [ma]).
An example of using Japanese alphabets
Now some examples.
As we have already said, the changeable parts of a word are written in Hiragana: for example, there is a verb to look 見る (WORLD), the root of the hieroglyph (i.e. its unchangeable part) is written first -見 (MI) . It will be written in hieroglyphs. This word has a variable part - the ending る, which will change depending on the need, for example, if you need to convey the tense of the verb or the style of politeness. So 見るcan change to 見ます, 見ました, etc. Also, do not forget that grammatical particles in Japanese are also written in Hiragana , for example:私はイーゴリです。 “I am Igor.” In this case, the grammatical particle Ba and the copula Des will be written in Hiragana . My name is not Japanese, i.e. it is borrowed from the Russian language, so it is written in Katakana alphabet. I am Watashi is a Japanese word and it is written in Kanji, i.e. hieroglyph. As you may have noticed, Japanese writing consists of a combination of the Hiragana/Katakana alphabet and hieroglyphs .
Now some examples about Katakana alphabet . Japanese has quite a lot of borrowed words, such as Basu - bus, it is borrowed from English, so it is written in Katakana , the word Pan bread is borrowed from Portuguese, so it is also written in Katakana . Such words are called Gairaigo 外来語.
Now let's look at an example not related to borrowed words. The word “Cat” ( Neko) is written not only in hieroglyphs or Hiragana alphabet , but is also often written in Katakana alphabet - like this. This word is not borrowed, however, animals and plants can also be written in Katakana . And the names of plants are almost always written in katakana , because it’s not even difficult to imagine that it’s much easier to write ツツジ this way than 躑躅. In the post-war reforms, it was recommended to write in katakana , regardless of origin.
Most often, onomatopoeic words are written in Katakana, and figurative words in Hiragana, but this is not so important. 
But again, everything is individual, for example, in everyday life such words as Cat, Dog or Cow can often be found in hieroglyphs, and already such words as イノシシ, タコ or ツツジ, etc. Words are most often written in katakana.
I would like to note that when I talk about using Katakana (the theme with animals), do not take everything literally, because... there are a lot of nuances, for example, the type of animal Octopus - Tako, will be written in katakana, and on the store window, as a Takoyaki dish it will be written たこ焼き or タコ焼き, but a simple Japanese will write a Takoyaki dish like this: たこ焼き.
Katakana was also used to write Japanese telegrams when they existed.
The same with general imitative (擬態語) and onomatopoeic (擬声語) words. Usually the Japanese write general imitation words in Hiragana and onomatopoeic words in Katakana, but sometimes they write differently. Don’t focus your attention on this; at the initial stage it is absolutely not important.
Also, sometimes, in various shows, they want to highlight a certain word and make a stylistic highlight of this word, which is usually written in Hiragana or a hieroglyph. For example, it is usually written like this. And they changed it like this.
If we summarize and simplify to the maximum all of the above, then, roughly speaking, Hiragana can be attributed to the function of the main alphabet, and katakana can be attributed to the recording of borrowed words.
Grammar
This time in grammar we are studying a new particle ( but
) and location. In addition, let's try to read the dialogue in Japanese.
Theory with examples
The particle の denotes ownership (whose is it?) or determines the property of something.
私の先生です (わたしのせんせいです),
watashi no sensei des(u)
- “my teacher”.
Whose teacher? My. And this is how the particle の is used less often:
本当の話 (ほんとうのはなし),
honto: no hanashi
- “true story.”
Less commonly used because you can usually just pick up an adjective. In Japanese, adjectives most often end with the letter い ( and
,
th
- after vowels, Japanese い is read as
th
), although not only adjectives can end with い.
可愛い猫です (かわいいねこです), kawaii neko desu
- “sweet pussy”.
Now the locations. In Russian there are 3 of them: here, there, where. In Japanese there are 4 of them: here with me, here with you, there where. In fact, to indicate a location, you first need to know 4 prefixes.
- こ ( ko
) - “here with me” (closer to the speaker) - そ ( so
) - “here with you.” (closer to the interlocutor) - あ ( a
) - “there”. (far from everyone) - ど ( to
) - “where”. (interrogative part)
By the way, even if your interlocutor is on the other side of the globe and you are communicating in a video conference, then pointing to the figurine in his room you will still say “here with you.”
Then after one of these prefixes an ending is placed, for example, れ ( re
).
- これ ( kore
) - “this is (closer to the speaker).” - それ ( sore
) - “this is (closer to the interlocutor).” - あれ ( are
) - “that (thing).” - どれ ( dore
) - “which thing” (essentially a request to show what the thing of interest looks like).
猫はどれですか？, neko wa dore desu ka?
- “Which is the cat?”
Oh yes, か ( ka
) is placed at the end of a phrase if the phrase needs to be made interrogative.
The question here is that there is a cat and some other things somewhere, and the person asking has probably never seen cats and does not know what they look like. In Russian it would probably sound like “what is the cat here”, but in this case the cat can be not only here, but anywhere.これです, kore desu
- “this is this” (probably “this” is in proximity to the speaker).
それは猫です, sore wa neko desu
- “this is a cat” (“you have”; perhaps the interlocutor is holding a cat in his hands, for example).
Another ending is こ ( ko
), means the place itself.
- ここ ( koko
) - “this place” (where the speaker is). - そこ ( soko
) - “this place” (who has an interlocutor). - あそこ ( asoko
; something like an exception) - “that place” (far from everyone) - どこ ( doko
) - “what place” (where the subject of the question is located).
ここはどこですか？, koko wa doko desu ka?
- “where is the place I am in.”
Although if a person suddenly finds himself in an unfamiliar place, he will most likely say first of all something like:
ここどこ？,
koko doko?
— all service elements are omitted here, just two words.
Both phrases, by the way, in Russian will sound something like “where am I?” Another ending is の ( but
) (like the particle の, so it's very easy to remember).
- この ( kono
) - “this” (from the speaker). - その ( sono
) - “this” (from the interlocutor). - あの ( ano
) "that one". - どの ( dono
) - “which” (from some set of similar ones).
Let's imagine that Sakura (that's the Japanese name) came to buy a cat in a store, but she had already used the Internet to choose a cat and came to the store to pick up this cat.
Sakura: どの猫ですか？,
dono neko desu ka?
- “which cat?”
Seller: あの猫です, ano neko desu
- “that cat over there.”
Now う ( y
, but after the sound “o” this means doubling this very sound “o”).
- こう ( ko:)
- “so” (for the speaker). - そう ( so:)
- “so” (from the interlocutor or in general). - どう ( do:
) - “how”.
どうですか？, do: desu ka?
- “Well, how?”
そうです, so: desu
- “exactly like that.”
うして ( usite
).
- こうして ( ko:site
) - “as the speaker does” (doing or having done something). - そうして or そして ( so:site
or
sosite
) - “in the same way as the interlocutor” (doing or having done something; although more often it means “after something”, “later”) - どうして ( do:site
) - “how”, “in what way”, “why”.
どうしてあなたは猫ですか？, do:site anata wa neko desu ka?
- “why are you a cat?” (It sounds stupid, of course, but it’s useful for learning the material).
Dialogue
But Sakura bought a cat and went home, and on the way she met her friend Sumomo.
Sakura: こんにちは,
konnichiwa
- “Hello.”
Sumomo: こんにちは, konnichiwa
- “Hello.”
Sumomo: それは何ですか？, sore wa nan desu ka?
- “What do you have?”
Sakura: これ？, kore?
- "This?".
Sumomo: はい、それ, hai, sore
- “yes, that.”
Sakura: これは私の猫です, neko desu
- “this is my cat.”
Sumomo: 可愛い猫です, kawaii neko desu
- “sweet pussy.”
( kawaii
is read essentially as
kawaii
-
and
not short at the end) Sakura: あなたの猫も可愛いです,
anata no neko mo kawaii desu
- “your cat is cute too.”
Sumomo: そうそう、またね, so: so:, mata ne
- “yeah-yeah, well, bye.”
Sakura: またね, mata ne
- “bye.”
Dictionary
- ( honto
:) - “truth”. - ( hanashi
) - “conversation” or “story”. - ( sensei
) - “teacher” (more often Japanese words with
hey
are read as
e:
, but the reading on
hey
also occurs, in this case it is better to read as
sensee:
) - あなた ( anata
) - “you”. - 可愛い ( kawaii
) - “cute”, “adorable”.
(as mentioned above, reads like kawaii
) - ( neko
) - “cat”. - は ( konnitiva
, the last letter is read as
wa
, as it goes back to the thematic particle は
wa
; more often written only in kana: こんにちは) - “good afternoon”, “hello”. - ( nani
nan
is read before です) - “what”, “what is” (this is already a request for a description, and not for pointing a finger at a suitable object). - ( hai
) - “yes.” - ( watashi
) - “I”. - またね ( mata ne
) - “bye”, “see you later”.
漢字
The next video will be about hieroglyphs, but in short, hieroglyphs or Kanji (as they are called in Japan) were borrowed from China in ancient centuries and the Japanese used them for their own needs. Before kanji, Japan did not have its own writing system, because... the same invented alphabet Hiragana and Katakana are derivatives of hieroglyphs .
Hieroglyphs , as a rule, have at least 2 readings: on'yomi (the so-called Chinese reading) and kun'yomi (the so-called Japanese reading). We will talk in more detail about which readings and when to use in the next video.
That's all for today. If you liked the video, like it, tell your friends, subscribe to the channel, and also to our groups on social media. Networks, Igor Korotkov was with you. See you in the next video!
Japanese Hiragana alphabet - learn in 5 steps
The Hiragana alphabet (Japanese 平仮名) conveys vowel sounds, syllables and 1 consonant (n ん), is used to write function words, particles and suffixes, as well as for phonetic clues when reading hieroglyphs. Hiragana is used in informal correspondence instead of kanji in cases where the kanji is unknown to the writer. Japanese textbooks use a lot of hiragana and often students know hiragana better than katakana. This kana comes from the cursive writing of the hieroglyph, which is why it is so round and ornate.
A Complete Chart for Beginners Learning Hiragana Online
Derivative syllabization
Derivative syllable formation is intended to form new syllables of the form “consonant + derivative vowel”. The principle of construction is the same as in katakana. That is, a basic syllable of the form “any consonant + and” is taken, for example the syllables “ki, mi, pi, ri”. After this syllable, a derivative vowel is written that is slightly smaller in size than the syllable itself. This combination is pronounced as one syllable of the form “consonant + derivative vowel”. Let me explain: the combination of the syllables “ki” + “ya” gives the syllable “kya”. I think you understand the principle. Here are some examples:
Note:
sometimes the derived vowel is written in the same size as all other syllables. In this case, if it comes after the syllable “consonant + and”, then we are still dealing with a derived syllable. And if it comes after any other syllable, it sounds on its own.
Examples of spelling words
Now we can move on to practical examples. I hope you have mastered the spelling and pronunciation of all syllables? Next I will give several examples of writing simple (and, most likely, well-known) words and expressions. So, I will give the original notation (kanji + kana), then the same, using only hiragana, after which I will write the Russian transcription, Russian notation and translation.
Not difficult, right? By the way, now do you understand why the Japanese have not yet abandoned kanji - a complex system of hieroglyphs? Yes, because it’s much shorter to write with them than with canoe alone! And reading them is also much faster. Next I will dwell in more detail on the features of writing words in hiragana.
