Subliminal Kanji™

A Subliminal Screen Saver™

User Guide
 Subliminal Kanji™ User Guide

Contents
1.0 Getting Started

2.0 Operation

3.0 The Japanese Language

3.1 Overview
3.2 Writing System
3.3 Glossary

4.0 Kanji

5.0 Basic Pronunciation

6.0 Comments & Questions

7.0 License Agreement

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 Subliminal Kanji™ User Guide

1.0 Getting Started

Thank you for purchasing this 50-kanji Windows screen saver in the Subliminal Kanji series, the first screen savers that
teach the kanji character set of the Japanese language.

Subliminal Screen Savers

The Subliminal Screen Savers series is designed to help you learn the Japanese writing system as rapidly and
effortlessly as possible. Among other screen savers in this series are Subliminal Hiragana, Subliminal Katakana, and
Subliminal Japanese Number System.

System Requirements
To run a Subliminal Kanji screen saver, the following are required:
! Microsoft Windows™
! Approximately 1.5 megabytes of disk space

Notes
• Network Installation
This release does not support network installation.
• Uninstallation
Delete the appropriate screen saver (.scr) file, either in /windows or /windows/system.

2.0 Operation
After unzipping the screen saver, click on the .exe file to install it as your system’s default screen saver.
To switch to a different screen saver, use the Windows Control Panel to select the active screen saver.

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 Subliminal Kanji™ User Guide

3.0 The Japanese Language

3.1 Overview
Japanese (Nihon-go), the official language of Japan, is spoken by about 126 million inhabitants of the Japanese
archipelago and a few million speakers abroad, mainly in Brazil.

3.2 Writing System

Modern written Japanese, the world's most complex writing system, consists of a mixture of two 46-character native
syllabic scripts (hiragana, katakana), thousands of imported Chinese characters (kanji), and the Latin alphabet used to
transliterate Japanese (i.e., rōmaji).

3.3 Glossary
bushu radical (kanji element used for classification)
diacritical mark a mark added to a character to give it a different phonetic value, i.e., a nigori-ten, a maru, and a
macron (aka diacritic)
furigana hiragana written above or to the right of an obscure kanji to clarify its pronunciation
-gana combining form of kana
gojūon-zu kana syllabary (literally, table of 50 sounds, of which 46 are commonly used)
hiragana cursive Japanese syllabary derived from kanji of the same sound (literally, ordinary kana)
-ji character
kana collective term for the two Japanese phonetic syllabaries, hiragana and katakana
kana-majiri mixture of kanji and kana in modern written Japanese
kanji Chinese character
katakana angular Japanese syllabary derived from kanji of the same sound (literally, side kana)
kun-yomi native Japanese pronunciation (literally, kun reading)
macron in rōmaji, a horizontal line over a vowel to indicate that it has a long (i.e., doubled) sound
maru small circle that indicates a vowel with a stop consonant (e.g., pa)
nigori(-ten) double-dot that indicates a vowel with a voiced consonant (e.g., ba)
okurigana hiragana suffix appended to a kanji word stem to show its inflection
on-yomi Chinese pronunciation (literally, on reading)
rōmaji Latin alphabet used to transliterate Japanese (literally, Roman characters; aka rōmaji)
(Usually implies the widely used Hepburn romanization system.)
syllabary a set of symbols that represents the syllables—rather than the alphabet—of a language
tate-gaki vertical writing (of Japanese)
transliteration in this context, the use of English letters to spell Japanese words
yomigana = furigana (literally, reading kana)

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 Subliminal Kanji™ User Guide

4.0 Kanji
The thousands Chinese characters (kanji) that form the backbone of written Japanese descend from Chinese ideograms
imported from China and Korea, beginning in the 6th century. The Japanese adapted these characters to their own
language and invented their own, sometimes using them as phonograms (i.e., for their associated speech sound values)
rather than as ideograms (which represent ideas).
Most of the content of Japanese text is written with kanji, which are used for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

On-yomi & Kun-yomi

Because kanji were imported from China, they have both Chinese and native Japanese pronunciations, both of which
are used in everyday Japanese. The Chinese reading is called the on (pronounced own) reading, which is the Japanese
imitation of the ancient Chinese pronunciation. The Japanese reading is called the kun (pronounced coon) reading,
which is the original Japanese word corresponding to the meaning of the ancient Chinese character.
The reading used depends on the word. Most Japanese words consist of a pair of kanji, both of which usually take the
on reading, e.g., kanji, which consists of kan (Chinese) and ji (character). (Occasionally, however, a word will combine
both the on and kun readings.) A standalone kanji is normally pronounced with its kun reading.
Japanese is complicated by the fact that a kanji may have multiple on and kun readings, and is further complicated by
the use of a particular on pronunciation for dozens of kanji. (Fortunately, each kun pronunciation is normally unique to
one kanji.) Because so many kanji share the same on reading, many Japanese words are homophones (i.e., pronounced
the same). Although this sometimes leads to confusion, the meaning usually is evident from the context and the kanji.

Stroke Order
Students learn to write each kanji in a particular stroke order, and strokes are generally written from left to right and
from top to bottom.

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 Subliminal Kanji™ User Guide

5.0 Basic Pronunciation

Despite the complexity of the Japanese writing system, the basics of Japanese pronunciation can be mastered quickly.
Japanese words are pronounced as a sequence of syllables, each of which ends in a vowel or “n.” For example,
“kuruma” (vehicle) is pronounced “ku-ru-ma.” Sometimes one or more vowels in a word is doubled (see below), as in
Tōkyō (Tokyo), which is pronounced “to-o-kyo-o.” That is, the sounds “ō” are held twice as long the ordinary vowel
“o,” but are never pronounced as two separate vowels.
On each kanji screen of this screen saver, the primary English meaning(s) appears at the lower left and the primary
Japanese pronunciation appears at the bottom right.

Vowels
The five Japanese vowels are pronounced like those in Italian and Spanish (i.e., father, ink, tube, elan, over).
Long vowels, which are indicated by a macron over the vowel, are pronounced twice as long as regular vowels.
In this manual, long (i.e., doubled) vowels are indicated by a macron over the vowel (e.g., ō, ū).
In the screen saver itself, long vowels are indicated by a circumflex over the vowel (e.g., ô, û).

Consonants
The basic 19 consonants (b, ch, d, f, g, h, j, k, m, n, p, r, s, sh, t, ts, w, y, z) are pronounced like their counterparts in
English, with the following exceptions:
f : food
g : good (When it is not the initial letter, g is sometimes pronounced ng.)
n : The only consonant used as a syllable, n is pronounced for the same duration as other syllables. It can appear as
either the first or last letter of a syllable. In ninja, for example, n is both the initial and terminal consonant of the
syllable nin. Its pronunciation depends on the subsequent letters:
• Before ch, d, j, r, t, ts, and z, it is pronounced no.
• Before k and g, it is pronounced ng.
• Before p, b, and m, it is pronounced m.
• In other positions, it is pronounced somewhat like the terminal ng sound in English.
r : Its pronunciation is intermediate between English r and l, and it is pronounced with the tongue positioned to
pronounce the English letter d.
z : Pronounced pounds when it is the first letter in a word and before u.

6.0 Comments & Questions

We gnomes at Japanorama welcome your comments and questions.
Contact us by e-mail or online at www.japanorama.com.

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 Subliminal Kanji™ User Guide

7.0 License Agreement

By installing this software, you agree to the following terms and conditions:
" Japanorama grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use this Subliminal Kanji screen saver
(hereinafter, “Program”) on one computer. You may install one copy of the Program onto the hard disk of one
computer, and may make one copy for backup purposes, provided the copy includes the Japanorama copyright
notice.
# The Program, including its graphic displays, data and related documentation, is copyrighted.
$ You may not:
! Rent, distribute or transfer copies of the Program or documentation to others;
! Modify, disassemble, reverse-engineer, create derivative works of, or translate the Program or documentation;
! Make any copies of the Program modules for use with other software; or
! Use the Program on more than one terminal of a network, on a multi-user computer, on a time-sharing system,
on a service bureau, or on any other system on which the Program could be used by more than one person at a
time.
% Japanorama's liability under this warranty is limited to providing you with a replacement file or the value thereof,
at Japanorama's sole option. This is the only warranty made with respect to the Product. Japanorama makes no
warranties, either expressed or implied as to the fitness of this Program for your needs or for any particular
purpose, nor do they warrant the quality, performance, or merchantability of the Program and its associated data
and documentation.
& The Program is distributed and licensed “as is.” You use the Program at your own risk. Japanorama shall not be
held liable for any loss of data, software, time, materials, income, investments, or any other damages, resulting
from its usage.
' Japanorama will provide technical support for the Program only to currently licensed, registered users.
( The license is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by destroying all copies of the Program.
It will also terminate automatically if you fail to comply with any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
) This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement and understanding between the parties and supersedes any prior
agreements, representations or understandings, whether oral or written, relating to the Program.
* This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, except as to copyright matters which are
covered by Federal Law.

Note that this software is NOT shareware or public-domain software.

+ Address questions or matters in connection with this License Agreement to Japanorama at www.japanorama.com.

Copyright © 2002 Japanorama All Rights Reserved Worldwide. ISBN 0-9646582-1-6

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