Quote:
Originally Posted by LainIwakura
ok so there is kanji, hiragana and katakana? 3 symbol alphabets?
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In a nutshell.... (hopefully your computer can see asian fonts)
Kana letters (of both hiragana and katakana) represent only one syllable.
ex. ま ち , マ チ ("ma" and "chi" in hiragana and katakana)
Hiragana is used to spell out japanese words or for connecting particles between kanji.
Katakana is used for names or foreign words that aren't from the japanese language.
Kanji is a pictograph type font, where normally each individual kanji symbol represents a single word or thing.
Romanji is easily explained as the english alphabet font. What you're reading now are romanji characters.
I'll use an example to help ya. (if you can see them on your computer)
kanji ---- hiragana ----- katakana --- romanji
本 ほん ホン hon