Week 2 Module 1 Introduction To Japanese Language

Introduction to
Japanese Language
Learning Objectives
• Discuss briefly the origin of the Japanese
Language;
• Identify the three different types of letters
used in writing Japanese;
• Introduce the Romaji spelling for
Japanese syllables;
• Explain the use of the different
pronunciation, accent and intonation used
in Japanese language;
Japan is an island country lying off the east coast
of Asia. The entire land areas is taken up by the
country’s four main islands from north to south
and these are: Hokkaidō, Honshū, (is the largest
of the four) Shikokū, and Kyūshū. The national
capital of Japan is Tōkyō located in east-central
Honshū.
Japanese is a national language of Japan
spoken by more than 124 million people,
which is the 6th largest speaking population
in the world.
Japanese language is divided linguistically
into two major dialects of Hondo and Nantō.
The Hondo dialect is used throughout Japan
and may be divided into three major
subdialects: Eastern, Western, and Kyūshū.
The Nantō dialect are used by Okinawa
islanders from the Amami Islands in
Kagoshima Prefecture to Yonaguni Island at
the western end of archipelago.
The Japanese language is generally included
in the Altaic linguistic group and is especially
akin to Korean, although the vocabularies
differ.
Note: Altaic languages group of languages consisting of language
families- Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus that shows similarities
in vocabulary, morphological, and syntactic structure and phonological
features.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Altaic-languages
Before Chinese characters were imported,

Japanese language seems not to have a
script, but it is said that during the Kofun
period (3rd to 4th century), Chinese characters
(hereinafter “Kanji”) were started to flow in
along with the vocabulary and phonology.
In Heian Period (794 - 1185), Japanese
invented their own syllabic scripts called
Hiragana and Katakana, and started to develop
Japanese original literacy.
During the mid of Samurai period (1185 – 1600),
Japanese language evolved into closer to the
modern Japanese, and experienced the first
appearance of European loanwords.
Following the end in 1853, the flow of loanwords
from Western languages increased. English
loanwords in particular have become frequent,
and Japanese words from English roots have
multiplied
Source: https://doyouknowjapan.com/language/
The Japanese writing system is composed of
two syllabic scripts, called 平名 hiragana and
片仮名 katakana, and thousands of Chinese
characters, called 漢字 kanji. The three
scripts basically have different functions.
“Hiragana”, the first original syllabic script of

Japan was invented from Manyogana.
(Man'yōgana ( 万葉仮名 ), is an obsolete form
of kana in which kanji were used for their
sounds rather than their meanings. It is the
oldest native Japanese writing system.
“Katakana”, on the other hand is the
second syllabic script, which was
developed in the 9th century (during the
early Heian period) by Buddhist monks
originated from shorthand of Kanji.
Katakana is primarily used to write foreign

words to which it represents the same set
of phonetic sounds as Hiragana except all
the characters are different.
The Chinese writing system was first
introduced to Japan in the 5th century. It is
said that this is the start of Japanese
literacy. After the introduction of Chinese
characters (Kanji), Japanese started to use
Kanji with Japanese terms represented by
characters used for their meanings and not
their sound.
At present, there are 2,136 jōyō kanji

(regular-use kanji) plus an additional 983
kanji that may be used to write personal
names.
Characters used to represent meaning were
pronounced in two ways: (1) the 音読み
'onyomi or 'phonetic reading' and (2) the 訓読
み kunyomi or 'explanatory reading’.
Onyomi is a Chinese reading used with two or
more kanji in a Japanese word.
Example: 家族 (kazoku) 銀行員 (ginkōin)
Kunyomi is a Japanese reading used in a
single kanji followed by hiragana characters
forming part of the word.
Example: 食べる (taberu) 白い (shiroi)
However, because of the way verbs and
adjectives in Japanese language are
conjugated, Hiragana are suffixed to the ends
of Kanji to show verb and adjective
conjugations.
Hiragana can also be written in a superscript
called “Furigana” above or beside a Kanji to
show the proper pronunciation of the Kanji.
Example:
When learning Japanese, you most likely
start out with Romaji (Roman characters).
Romaji was developed by a Japanese
Catholic named Yajiro in 1548 which was
soon put into print by the Jesuit missionaries
from Portugal.
Romaji can be used as an aid until

adaptation of the hiragana, katakana and
kanji readings and writings are completely
mastered.
Let’s take a look at romaji, and the standard Japanese syllables.
HIRAGANA
あ (a) い (i) う (u) え (e) お (o)

k か (ka) き (ki) く (ku) け (ke) こ (ko)
s さ (sa) し (shi) す (su) せ (se) そ (so)
t た (ta) ち (chi) つ (tsu) て (te) と (to)
n な (na) に (ni) ぬ (nu) ね (ne) の (no)
h は (ha) ひ (hi) ふ (fu) へ (he) ほ (ho)
m ま (ma) み (mi) む (mu) め (me) も (mo)
y や (ya) - - ゆ (yu) - - よ (yo)
r ら (ra) り (ri) る (ru) れ (re) ろ (ro)
w わ (wa) を (o)
ん
(n)
Let’s take a look at romaji, and the standard Japanese syllables.
KATAKANA
アイウエオ
k カ (ka) キ (ki) ク (ku) ケ (ke) コ (ko)
s サ (sa) シ (shi) ス (su) セ (se) ソ (so)
t タ (ta) チ (chi) ツ (tsu) テ (te) ト (to)
n ナ (na) ニ (ni) ヌ (nu) ネ (ne) ノ (no)
h ハ (ha) ヒ (hi) フ (fu) へ (he) ホ (ho)
m マ (ma) ミ (mi) ム (mu) メ (me) モ (mo)
y ヤ (ya) - - ユ (yu) - - ヨ (yo)
r ラ (ra) リ (ri) ル (ru) レ (re) ロ (ro)
w ワ (wa) ヲ (o)
ン (n)
The Japanese syllabaries hiragana and
katakana consist of 46 characters each,
consisting of vowel sounds (-a, i, -u, -e, -o),
consonant plus vowel sounds, and a
syllabic –n.
The base vowel sounds can be combined

with the following consonant sounds: [k],
[s], [t], [n], [h], [m], [y], [r], and [w], and with
the following voiced consonants: [g], [z],
[d], [b], and [p].
There are five basic vowel sounds in
Japanese Language: a-i-u-e-o.
•A sounds is equivalent to the “a” in

father, but shorter.
•I sounds like saying the letter “e”.
•U sounds like the oo in zoo.
•E is like in pronouncing egg.
•O sounds like saying the letter “o” in
go.
Syllabic consonant ん (n)
Note that the sounds represented by this hiragana

vary depending upon what sounds follow it.
a. (n) before m, p, b is pronounced as [m] in “sample”.

ex: shinbun しんぶん (newspaper)
b. (n) before n, t, d, or z is pronounced as [n] in “man”.
ex: kantan かんたん (simple, easy)
c. (n) before k and g is pronounced a bit like a nasal

[ng] “sing”.
ex: sanko
In addition to the basic consonant and
consonant-vowel sounds, the Japanese
language contains some more complex
sounds indicated through the use of diacritical
marks.
Diacritical marks change the pronunciation of

the basic syllable. There are two diacritical
marks: two small marks and a small circle
placed immediately to the right of the
hiragana symbol.
Diacritical Marks
Mark Name Function

° Small circle Turns the /h/
“handakuon” or sounds into ‘p’
“handakuten” sounds
" “dakuon” or Make voiceless
“dakuten” into voiced sounds
Mark Name Function
" “dakuon” or Make voiceless into
“dakuten” voiced sounds
a i u e o
k g ga gi gu ge go
がぎぐげご
ガギグゲゴ
a i u e o
s z za ji zu ze zo
ざじずぜぞ
ザジズゼゾ
Mark Name Function
" “dakuon” or Make voiceless into
“dakuten” voiced sounds
a i u e o
t d da de do
だでど
ダヂヅデド
a i u e o
h b ba bi bu be bo
ばびぶべぼ
バビブベボ
Mark Name Function
° Small circle Turns the /h/
“handakuten” or sounds into ‘p’
“handakuon” sounds
a i u e o
h pa pi pu pe po
p
ぱぴぷぺぽ
パピプペポ
Yōon is formed by adding a “small –ya/yu/yo”
after the consonants:
kya kyu kyo gya gyu gyo

きゃきゅきょぎゃぎゅぎょ
キャキュキョギャギュギョ
sha shu sho ja ju jo

しゃしゅしょじゃじゅじょ
シャシュショジャジュジョ
cha chu cho

ちゃちゅちょ
チャチュチョ
Yōon is formed by adding a “small –ya/yu/yo”
nya nyu nyo

にゃにゅにょ
ニャニュニョ
hya hyu hyo bya byu byo

ひゃひゅひょびゃびゅびょ
ヒャヒュヒョビャビュビョ
pya pyu pyo

ぴゃぴゅぴょ
ピャピュピョ
Youon is formed by adding a “small –ya/yu/yo”
mya myu myo

みゃみゅみょ
ミャミュミョ
rya ryu ryo

りゃりゅりょ
リャリュリョ
Double Consonant (sokuon)
The sound that is represented by (small っ )
between two syllables is written with double
consonants in romanization (Romaji). Usually
it appears before the sounds p, t, s, k.
Example:
きっぷ ki p pu kippu(ticket)
きって ki t te kitte (stamp)
きっさてん ki s sa te n kissaten
(coffee shop)
にっき ni k ki nikki (diary)
Double Consonant
However, if a double consonant is
mistakenly pronounced as a single
one, the meaning of the word may be
completely changed.
Example:
kasai かさい kassai かっさい
(fire) (applause)
moto もと motto もっと
(former) (more)
Practice (Renshuu)
Let us practice pronouncing the

syllables of Japanese language.

Week 2 Module 1 Introduction To Japanese Language

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Week 2 Module 1 Introduction To Japanese Language

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Introduction to

Before Chinese characters were imported,

“Hiragana”, the first original syllabic script of

Katakana is primarily used to write foreign

At present, there are 2,136 jōyō kanji

Romaji can be used as an aid until

あ (a) い (i) う (u) え (e) お (o)

The base vowel sounds can be combined

•A sounds is equivalent to the “a” in

Note that the sounds represented by this hiragana

a. (n) before m, p, b is pronounced as [m] in “sample”.

b. (n) before n, t, d, or z is pronounced as [n] in “man”.

ex: kantan かんたん (simple, easy)

c. (n) before k and g is pronounced a bit like a nasal

Diacritical marks change the pronunciation of

Mark Name Function

kya kyu kyo gya gyu gyo

sha shu sho ja ju jo

cha chu cho

nya nyu nyo

hya hyu hyo bya byu byo

pya pyu pyo

mya myu myo

rya ryu ryo

Let us practice pronouncing the

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