Beginners Guide To Basic Japanese

[enyafriend]

From the many threads that are in existence, I find that there are many people who are really interested in learning the Japanese language, either as a second language or simply to have a better understanding of Jdramas or watching Anime.

My friend, HydeNobuyuki, has started a Basic Japanese lessons for this reason. With his gracious blessings, I will post part of the lessons in this forum for anyone who is interested to learn the basics of Japanese.

Lesson 1: bootstrapping? starting from scratch

Welcome
Much of this will be to encourage people to practice japanese, learn points, help study, etc... but you've got to start somewhere... So, if this is your first time studying Japanese we'll start with some of the basics.

For new learners, I recommend you get a course book, such as the Genki Series books or Japanese For Busy People (kana edition).

For more information on specific topics, you can always try reading wikipedia but remember not to accept it as absolute truths.



First and foremost, it is very important to learn how to read and write (or read & type) kana. Kana is the basic Japanese writing system. In this lesson we will use both the romanized version and the kana version of Japanese writing so you can get used to it; however, once you have learned how to use the kana please use it as much as possible. Using kana will positively reinforce your kana skills while using the romanized alphabet will be very detrimental to your learning.


Let's look at the writing systems used in Modern Japanese:

ROMAji (ローマ字)
This is a romanization of Japanese so that people can read Japanese without learning how to read Japanese or Chinese characters. In the modern day, it is also widely used on signs, marketing materials, etc.

hiragana (ひらがな)
Hiragana is the most widely used type of kana. All grammatical phrases and markers use hiragana.
Hiragana is made by simplifying chinese characters into what was considered a women's writing system (a long time ago). For more information on Hiragana, please see the wikipedia:
Hiragana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KATAKANA (カタカナ)[/b]
Katakana is predominantly used for modern loan words (words taken from other languages, in particular english, german, and french). Sometimes it is used to make words look cooler though.
Katakana is made my simplifying chinese characters into what was considered a men's writing system (a long time ago). For more information on Katakana, please see the wikipedia:
Katakana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

kanji (漢字)
Kanji are adapted from a small part of china several hundred years ago. They convey meaning because many words would be spelt the same in kana. For example: ki is both 気 (kinda like health and well-being) and 木 (tree) among other meanings
Perhaps about 20% of text is kanji


How writing systems are used
Words can often be written in more than one writing system and often (if not almost always) phrases will mix writine systems together. But before you fret, it's not as bad as it seems. The different writing systems actually make it one of the easiest languages to read (once you can read kanji and understand japanese). Meaning is usually conveyed with kanji, foreign words with katakana, and grammar with hiragana.

Let's take the phrase "Joe, be careful"
JOsan、ki wo tsukete
ジョさん、き を つけて
ジョさん、気 を つけて
Here, we have JO (ジョ) in katakana because it is a foreign word.
ki can be written in hiragana き or in kanji 気.
However, writing it in kanji means there is less confusion over which of the many many "ki"'s
everything else is written in hiragana.

As you can kanji always ways of writing it in hiragana
for example: to eat 食べる = たべる (taberu)
Here that kanji for eating 食 can be written as た (or numerous other ways if the situation is appropriate)


Well, this is only LESSON ONE. You may want to go to Asian Vee^^ Community :: aznV.NET 2005 (v4.2) for continuing lessons.
>>>Note: Just in case that you can't get in the forum, just register yourself and you'll get there.

Have fun.

[enyafriend]

Lesson 2: eh what? nice to meet you^__^

Welcome, to Lesson 2. Now that you're more familiar with the how the different writing systems are used, let's actually take a look at our basic kana writing systems.

Sounds in Japanese are usually CV = a Consonant sound, followed by a Vowel sound.
Luckily for us, there are only 5 vowel sounds (much easier than English, Chinese, etc...)

The 5 vowel are A I U E and O.

A (short a) as in father (in standard neutral region-free American English)
I (long e) as in eat
U (long u) as in food or zoo
E (short e) as in end
O (long o) as in Ohio

the Consonant sounds include K, G, S, SH, Z, J, T, TS, CH, N, H, F, B, P, M, Y, R, W.
These sounds as you expect them to sound in standard neutral english pronunciation except F is a cross between F and H, and R is a cross between R and L.

The consonants are paired up with a vowel.

for example, M + A = MA (which sounds like MA = Mother)

You can have only the Vowel (for example "A")
or you can have a Consonant+Vowel (for example "HA")
or you can have the ん /N/ glottal stop.
This character is special and we usually like to think of this an N/M with no vowel.
For example, YEN = YE + N

For more detailed information on Japanese pronuncation please see the wikipedia article on Japanese Phonology Japanese phonology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Characters with TENTEN or MARU
You may notice that some characters are almost the same except for a little mark in the upper right corner.
for example KA and GA (カ and ガ) These two little marks are called "ten ten" and they result in voice being added to a character.
GA is really a KA with voice added. Try saying it out loud and you will see they are the same except GA has more voice behind it.
Another example is HA, BA, PA (ハ、バ、パ) BA is a HA with the tenten and voice added. But PA is a HA but your lips start together to form the P sound. These character are noted with a little circle called maru

HA->PA, HI->PI, FU->PU, HE->PE, HO->PO. These are the only characters to use the maru.

K->G
T->D
CH->DZI (This is very rarely used in the modern age and it's a cross between D, CH and a song J sound)
S->Z
SH->J
H->B
In Katakana, U ウ can be turned into a V sound with a tenten.
However this is a relatively new addition to the language.
ヴァ、ヴィ、ヴ、ヴェ、ヴォ


Characters with different vowel sounds added
We can use A I U E O YA YU YO to also make new sounds.

The most common sounds we find are _I mixed with ya yu or yo.
for example KI + ya => Kya. き＋や＝きゃ
Please note, that when we mix these in, the vowel sound character is written smaller.
SHI + ya = SHA/SHYA , CHI+ yu = CHU/CHYU, RI + yo = Ryo, etc...

In Katakana we have more options to write to make foreign words when we use the smaller characters.
For example, Party = PA-TI
However, there is now TI character (instead there is a CHI character) we have to make one. We mix TE plus a small "i" テ＋イ＝ティ

Finally, we need to use moraic obstruent /Q/ also known as the double consonant. It is almost always found before a consonant sound (except for some modern writing of colloquial spoken language).
The double consonant causes you to stop speaking for a moment... kind of like a hiccup in the flow of a word, that makes your mouth or throat close. In romaji, we write this by repeating the consonant and in kana, we write it as a smaller TSU.
For example Japan = nippon = にっぽん


QUOTE
FYI:
The system they use as a timing unit (the equivilent of the syllable) is called a "mora".
each regular character is considered one more.
れ = 1 mora
ポ = 1 mora
ん = 1 mora
However, the vowel combined characters are also considered one mora.
きゃ = 1 mora
ショ = 1 mora
ティ = 1 mora
Furthermore, the double consonant is considered it's own mora.
nippon = ni p po n = にっぽん = 4 mora
* Mora is the basis of the Haiku, not syllables.

[enyafriend]

私 [watashi], 僕 [boku], 俺 [ore]

One should always address oneself as 私 [watashi] at all times. It is applicable to both male and female. It is a polite word for me or I.

For male, 僕 [boku] can also be used. It is a casual way of addressing oneself.
But 俺 [ore] should be used with reservations. It is a very masculine way of saying "I" and only used when speaking to similar age-group and very close friends within their circle. It is most inappropriate to be used in a forum where most are strangers to one another. The only time when you want use 俺 [ore] to stranger is when you want to pick a fight or trying to be rude.

For female, 私 [watashi] is the best choice in any situations. Though, thesedays, young and trendy girls sometimes do use 僕 [boku] to sound masculine. あたし [atashi] is also sometimes used to sound cute and affectionate. Then again, it is also used when one intends to sound rude or in a confrontation situation.

Though, you may want to use any one word for the fun of it, but I believe that if you want to learn, you should learn it the right way. Or at least, understand the word first so that you know what you are using and not just using it blindly. Have fun.

Anyone who has any Basic Japanese knowledge to add or to correct, or simply to give their two cents worth are most welcome to post or to re-post from other forums.

[lollijenn]

umm thank you??