Reading Japanese for Beginners (hiragana)

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Gojira
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Reading Japanese for Beginners (hiragana)

Post by Gojira » Tue Aug 01, 2006 21:06

That's right, it's a new lesson. I've decided to continue on with this in order to maintain my own memory so it doesn't go to crap. I make no guarantees about the next lesson though.

So this time, now that we've gone over katakana and pronunciations, we're moving on to hiragana, and we'll also be covering a little basic vocabulary while we're at it. So, tsutzukemashou (let's continue)!

Since I already covered how to get Japanese on Windows in the first lesson, please check that lesson if you still can't read or write Japanese characters on your OS.

HIRAGANA

This is the simplest character set used to write basic words in Japanese. Unlike katakana, hiragana is used mostly for native Japanese words. Although Japanese has adapted a kanji system for writing many nouns and verbs, there are still things that can only be written in hiragana, such as particles (we'll get to those later) and verb conjugations.

Pronouncing hiragana is pretty much the same as katakana. So we'll skip the specifics here. Here are the basic characters:
あa いi うu えe おo
*かka きki くku けke こko
*さsa しshi すsu せse そso
*たta ちchi つtsu てte とto
*はha ひhi ふfu へhe ほho
まma みmi むmu めme もmo
なna にni ぬnu ねne のno
らra りri るru れre ろro
やya ゆyu よyo
わwa をwo
んn

Just like with katakana, placing two dots in the upper right corner of some characters (I've marked these with a *star) changes the sound slightly, and with はひふへほ, placing a circle in the upper right gives another alternate 'p' sound. There's no need to worry about foreign sounds like 'l', 'v', and 'th' this time because we're dealing mainly with Japanese words.

So, did you get it? Here are ten basic nouns in hiragana:
き TREE
そら SKY
ほし STAR
やま MOUNTAIN
みぎ RIGHT
ひだり LEFT
いぬ DOG
ねこ CAT
じてんしゃ BICYCLE
きっさてん COFFEE SHOP

Next time, we'll use these to write basic phrases, greetings and the like.

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Post by Perfect Stranger » Wed Aug 02, 2006 07:58

Awesomeness, thanks very much, Gojira~

On a less serious note: I can't wait to see part 3: Reading Japanese for Beginners (Kanji). I predict the lesson will go something like this:

Step 1. Learn Chinese for 10 years.
Step 2. Now you can read Kanji! Kind of.

;p

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Post by Gojira » Thu Aug 03, 2006 00:07

Actually I think "reading Kanji for beginners" is kind of an oxymoron :P

Blastrezz

Post by Blastrezz » Thu Nov 09, 2006 15:29

Please go on with this!!
I never saw this before here else I had supported it earlier.

Don't people normally START learning Hiragana and Katakana after that?

--Blast

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Post by Gojira » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:08

Oh yeah, this. I should probably go on with it.
Don't people normally START learning Hiragana and Katakana after that?
Well it depends on where you're from. In eastern cultures it's easier to start with kanji. In western cultures it's easier to start with kana. This being an english forum I went with the western approach. (Not that I can even do an eastern one)

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