To know how to write a syllable with
hiragana you must look for the consonant and cross with the vowel: 'ba' is
written ば, row b and column a. The vowels: a is the sound a in manga, e is similar to the vowel e in egg, i and o are similar to the vowels in kimono, u is similar to the vowel oo in good. Some syllables have a different pronunciation from the one we expect (ji,dsu,fu,chi,tsu,o). The n (ん) followed by consonants or at the end of the word doesn't need to cros with vowels and pronunciation of n followed by b,p,t is m(enpitsu has pronunciation empitsu). To double a consonant use this type –t ( っ ) similar to tsu but written smaller (Es. yatta= やった ). The last two rows of the table (I will call them small letters) aren't a repetition but letters you can type with your IME typing x+vocal and xy+vocal. For a correct pronunciation is very important the right beat: every syllable has the same length of time, so manga is said ma-n-ga with 3 syllable of equal length (kyoto becomes kyo-to, Reiko becomes Re-i-ko, nihongo which means Japanese language becames ni-ho-n-go). Japanese has not accents but an high or low tonality (but I will not explain it because it's not really important). Besides u is said o when the preceding sound within the word is o (ex. shoujo is said sho-o-jo). Attention: ya, yo, yu written with small letters form a single syllable with the consonant of the hiragana letter preceding, like j, ch and sh: bi, di, gi, hi, ki, mi, ni, pi e ri with ya forms the syllables bya dya gya hya kya mya nya pya rya ( びゃ ぢゃ ぎゃ ひゃ きゃ みゃ にゃ ぴゃ りゃ ), with yo forms syllables byo dyo gyo hyo kyo myo nyo pyo ryo (びょ ぢょ ぎょ ひょ きょ みょ にょ ぴょ りょ), with yu forms syllables byu dyu gyu hyu kyu myu nyu pyu ryu (びゅ ぢゅ ぎゅ ひゅ きゅ みゅ にゅ ぴゅ りゅ). The gray fonts are used only for imported words and have the only purpose to complete this table, but it is possible to find other syllables for imported words formed by a single letter hiragana (used like a consonant) and a vocal written with small letters (the ones in the row x),for example: di(でぃ), du(どぅ), zi(ずぃ), fa (ふぁ), fe(ふぇ), fi(ふぃ), fo(ふぉ), fyu(ふゅ), ti(てぃ), tu(とぅ), tsa(つぁ), tse(つぇ), tsi(つぃ), tso(つぉ), wo (うぉ), bye(びぇ), hye(ひぇ), mye(みぇ), nye(にぇ), rye(りぇ), pye(ぴぇ). © 2000 Alessandro Pisan |