H i r a g a n a Handbook by Rafael E. Beermann copyright 2006
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 1 Introduction to Hiragana (reading practice) 1. First Step to Read the 46 Basic Hiragana 2. Reading Additional Hiragana 2.1 How to read voiced and plosive sounds written in Hiragana 2.2 How to read long vowels written in Hiragana 2.3 How to read double consonants written in Hiragana 2.4 How to read palatal consonants written in Hiragana Introduction to Hiragana (writing practice) 3. First Step to Write the 46 Basic Hiragana 4. Writing Additional Hiragana 4.1 How to write voiced and plosive sounds in Hiragana 4.2 How to write long vowels in Hiragana 4.3 How to write double consonants in Hiragana 4.4 How to write palatal consonants in Hiragana
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 2 Introduction to Hiragana (reading practice) Hiragana ( or ) is one of the three main Japanese writing systems along with Katakana ( or ) and the Kanji ( or, name for Chinese characters in the Japanese language). Both Hiragana and Katakana belong to the syllabary Kana ( or ), the generic term for these two writing systems. Each symbol of Kana represents one sound like the letters of the alphabet, although it is mostly a combination of a consonant and a vowel, e.g. k + a =/ka/, m + o =/mo/, p + u = /pu/ etc., but there are also five vowels a,i,u,e,o and the consonant /n/. Kana represents every sound in the Japanese language. Therefore, you can theoretically write everything in Hiragana (or in Katakana). However, since Japanese is written with no spaces between single words, this will create nearly indecipherable texts. So nowadays Hiragana are used only for Japanese words * for which no Kanji exist (particles, suffixes, some adverbs) or for verb and adjective endings (known as Okurigana ), and as a reading aid of too difficult Kanji (Furigana or Rubi ). Hiragana are also widely used in materials for children, textbooks, animation and comic books. * Non-Japanese words are written in Katakana. The contemporary system of ordering the basic Hiragana is as follows: Table of basic Hiragana a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko sa shi su se so ta chi tsu te to na ni nu ne no ha hi fu he ho ma mi mu me mo ya yu yo ra ri ru re ro wa n please notice: Although you can learn this table easily and systematically by combining the ten sounds of the vertical row a,k,s,t,n,h,m,y,r,w together with the vowels a,i,u,e,o (and the last sound n) you must consider following exceptions: s-row: the Hiragana is to be pronounced / i/ and not /si/ t-row: the Hiragana is to be pronounced /t i/ and not /ti/ h-row: the Hiragana is to be pronounced /fw/ and not /hw/ y-row: there is neither a /ji/ nor a /je/ in contemporary Japanese w-row: there are no /wi/, /wu/, /we/ and instead of /wo/ for the Hiragana one uses the pronunciation /o /. So there is no phonetical difference between /o / of the first row and this. Do not forget the very last sound /N/. o
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 3 1. First Step to Read the 46 Basic Hiragana Exercise 1. Try to read line by line the following Hiragana by using the table of basic Hiragana as a key. Since Japanese is written either horizontally or vertically, you can read the lines from the left to the right or top-down beginning on the right side. Exercise 2. Now read Japanese words composed of and. picture hair tree morning red autumn house above station face past blue shell pond moss Exercise 3. Try to read line by line the following new and already studied Hiragana.
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 4 Exercise 4. Now try to read following words composed of and : stone morning seat comb hip leg, foot watermelon a little lie bait Sushi over there chair sweat basics Exercise 5. Here you find ten more Hiragana and fifteen already studied Hiragana. Try to read them all:
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 5 Exercise6. Here we have more Japanese words composed of and. Can you read them all? hand blood leg, foot summer iron fever cat dog cow comb hip shoulder stomach back umbrella octopus cuttlefish eggplant shell pond moss pear persimmon Sushi salt land, ground mouth Exercise 7. Here you find some more new and already studied Hiragana. Try to read them:
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 6 Exercise 8. You find some more Japanese words here consisting of and. Are you able to read them all? fire tooth eye wave sea feather own mother own father own elder sister daughter son own elder brother chopsticks secret honey string, cord load, luggage flower bone star breast story insect peach sleepy earth near bean nappies to bear Exercise 9. There are three more Hiragana among the old ones. Try to read them:
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 7 Exercise 10. There are more Japanese words including : arrow bow mountain wave sea feather midnight dream roof snow eyebrow cheap winter vegetable good Exercise 11. Now we try to read the rest of basic Hiragana all together with the others:
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 8 Exercise 2. Let s read Japanese words composed of sounds of 46 basic Hiragana: straw rock crocodile night spring winter black white cotton me peace next year science squirrel example snow forest ice secret to laugh weak to see back purple history contact,inform book logic inspection liaison reading and writing thing left behind explanation nationality Exercise 13. Now read phrases composed of basic Hiragana: my father and my mother my elder brother and my elder sister the mountain and the sea a dog and a cat a bird and a fish spring and summer autumn and winter things I like Japanese songs a beautiful flower fresh vegetables a friendly teacher things I don t like a big spider a cold winter night the stuffy Japanese summer
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 9 2. Reading Additional Hiragana In addition to these 46 Hiragana, which you should be able to read fluently now, there are some more Hiragana to learn. They have been derived from the basic syllables. 2.1 How to read voiced and plosive sounds written in Hiragana ga gi za ji da ji gu ge go zu ze zo zu de do ba bi bu be bo pa pi pu pe po As you can easily notice, the unvoiced sound-units become voiced by placing a symbol like a italicized double quotation mark:. (,, etc.) Further, there are five p-sounds (plosives) derived from the already mentioned h-sounds. These Hiragana are mentioned in the last row. They are marked by the symbol º ( ). Please be careful to pronounce as /dzi/ and not /zi/. The in the next row is also pronounced as /dzi/ and not /di/. The Hiragana is to be pronounced as /zu/ and not /du/! Anyway, and are very rarely used. Instead of them and are commonly used. Only if the Hiragana with the sound /t i/ is changed into /dzi/ in a compound word or the sound /dzi/ is preceded by the sound /t i/ in one word, can be used. blood nosebleed; curly hair; to shrink; In the same way, the rare Hiragana can be used, if the sound /tsú/ is changed into /zú/ in a compound word or the sound /zú/ is preceded by the sound /tsú/ in one word: moon the new moon; continuation; monthly; Exercise14. Try to read the following additional Hiragana together with basic Hiragana:
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 10 Exercise 15. Read now Japanese words including the Hiragana : comics key furniture eyebrows English language shadow cliff movie chin basket meal, cooked rice rabbit knee elbow water elephant letter, character wind Exercise 16. Now try to read more additional Hiragana together with other Hiragana: Exercise 17. Here are some more Japanese words including the Hiragana : branch arm window corner continuation friend sunrise tears child Exercise 18. There are five more voiced sounds and five p-sounds (plosives) together with others:
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 11 2.2 How to read long vowels written in Hiragana All separate vowels or vowels included in sound-units of the 46 basic Hiragana, and also those voiced and plosive sound-units written in Hiragana can be extended to long vowels by adding either, or depending on the vowel. and are used very rarely to mark long vowels ( exceptions). As you can see, and vowels of soundunits and are extended to long vowels by using the and not. Correspondingly, one uses the instead of to extend and. Strictly speaking, they are diphthongs and not real long vowels. (see also: Introduction to the Transcription and Pronunciation of Contemporary Japanese, chapter 2.3 ) aa ii uu ei oo kaa kii kuu kei koo saa shii suu sei soo taa chii tsuu tei too naa nii nuu nei noo haa hii fuu hei hoo maa mii muu mei moo yaa yuu yoo raa rii ruu rei roo waa gaa gii guu gei goo zaa jii zuu zei zoo daa jii zuu dei doo baa bii buu bei boo paa pii puu pei poo Exceptions: As already mentioned above, and are used very rarely to mark long vowels. Following common words including a long vowel are written for instance with or : yes, elder sister big, many, ten, far away, ice street
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 12 Exercise 19. Try to read the following long vowels: Exercise 20. Read now Japanese words including long vowel: student teacher airport ghost labourage polite law grammar political party police status mathematics traffic example structure English language wax bronze statue ( ) imagination elephant law tax movie Sumo mail peace airmail typhoon art economy politics age cleaning yesterday park war big small
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 13 2.3 How to read double consonants written in Hiragana All consonants included in the sound-units of basic Hiragana, with the exception of the last, and also those voiced and plosive sound-units written in Hiragana can theoretically be extended to double consonants (also called long consonants) by adding a little tsu (normal tsu: little tsu: ). The little tsu precedes the consonant to be held. Examples: (fault), (8,000), (school), (plating), (snapping turtle), (top), (splendid), (heart attack), (revival), (coincidence) etc. Generally speaking, long consonants are consonants held for a beat before being released like fish- show, cat-tail, bad-dream, etc. Only in case of combination of the last Hiragana with a syllable starting with a n- or m-sound (i.e. plus,,,,,,,, or ), there is no addition of this little. Examples: (everybody), (a half day), (cap opener), (real intention), (brainwash), (ten million), (federation), (people), (director). Exercise 21. Read now Japanese words including double consonants: fourth day third day soap magazine marriage result stamp wait fault absence this side difficulty exclusive duty speciality fall stone age Hokkaido aggravation revival torrid zone approach boil design instinct discovery faint Exercise 22. Read now single and double consonant pairs: slope writer down known cause more past ) parenthesis occurrence experiment ) fire applause ) west diary shoulder ) bought opinion first sight ) time really feel
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 14 2.4 How to read palatal consonants written in Hiragana The palatal consonants always consist of a consonant plus semi-vowel y and the vowel a, u or o. The pronunciation is a quick and smooth movement, it is a single sound (e.g. kya and not kiya, sha and not shi-ya etc). To show the difference between a palatal single sound like kya and the non-palatal two sounds like ki-ya, the syllables,, and are written small ( ). Palatal consonants can appear together with long vowels (,, etc.) and double consonants (-, -, - etc). Exercise 23. Now try to read the following Hiragana with and without palatal consonants:
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 15 Exercise 24. Now try to read some words including palatal consonants: company assistant voyage 9 address 100 300 last year both Judo guest permission obstacle contrary announcement absorption president of a company conductor business trip import train woman medical operation 99 savings doctor last year dictionary hundred export hobby diagram baseball company charge cooking pulse milk income goldfish 800 prime minister fishing family name today fashion studying abroad tea pouring parking lot testimonial intensive course 999
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 16 Introduction to Hiragana (writing practice) 3. First Step to Write the 46 Basic Hiragana Following sites give good introductions to the stroke order of Hiragana: www.kanjistep.com www.thejapanesepage.com www.japanese.about.com Exercise 25. Now write the following Hiragana as much as you can. It is very important to observe the right direction of the strokes and the stroke order. Generally speaking, every stroke is going from the top to the bottom and mostly from the left to the right. And all syllables should be written approximately the same size! Please notice that there are minimal variations in writing of some Hiragana caused by different types of font.
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Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 20 Exercise 26. Write the following transcribed basic sounds in Hiragana. a i u u o ri ni n te ma mo chi sa o wa ro ru ra ki sa yu ya me ka ku he shi tsu
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 21 ke ha wa re se so hi ya te ro ho mo mu nu ma ro to o (w-row) o (vowel) nu a me no mi yu ru ne ro wa re ra sa ki shi ku i ke ho he ha
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 22 re wa ne na ka fu na so mu o (vowel) re e n ro mo hi sa te u chi tsu ri he tsu shi ko ku ra ro wa no me nu mu o (w-row) mu na ta ke ho
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 23 ha yo ya ka ra e fu na mu ta ho ma ki mo ko shi so hi te to ya tsu na so su nu re wa ru ro hi me wa nu yu a
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 24 Exercise 27. Write the following transcribed words in basic Hiragana. These are all words from our textbook. ashi atama anata ani ane ie ike isu inaka inu iro ue ushiro uta uchi umi eki okashi okusan okosan otaku oto otona kao kasa katakana kanai kanemochi kami kawa kita kinu kimono kusuri kuchi kutsushita kuni kuruma kokonotsu saifu sakana saki sake sara shiken shita shima seki senaka senmon soto sofu tairiku chikaku chikatetsu tsukue temae tenki too tikei tori nanatsu namae
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 25 niku nihon nimotsu niwa neko nomimono nomiya norimono hako hasi hachi hana hitotsu hitori fuku hoka hon mae machi matsuri mikan mise michi minami mushi musuko musume men mono yaoya yasai yasumi yama yoko yon rei roku watakushi iya iroiro kirei kirai shinsetsu taisetsu tanoshimi tokui hima heta ikutsu ikura nan anshin imi unten kaimono kaiwa keikaku shitsumon sentaku hatsuon yotei kuru suru yaseru wareru mitsukeru kakeru kieru kimeru tsukareru tsutomeru torikaeru
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 26 4. Writing Additional Hiragana 4.1 How to write voiced and plosive sounds in Hiragana As we already know, the Hiragana sounds become voiced by placing a symbol like an italicized double quotation mark: (,, etc.) Further, there are five p-sounds derived from the h-sounds. They are marked by the symbol º (,, etc.). Exercise 28. Write the following voiced and plosive sounds in Hiragana.
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Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 28 Exercise 29. Write the following transcribed words in Hiragana. These are all words from our textbook and include voiced or plosive sounds. kongetsu kondo konban dakara dochira aida anatagata uwagi eigakan kazoku kaban kudamono kotoba kodomo jikan sitagi daigaku daidokoro chizu tebukuro deguchi denki denwa tomodachi hagaki hanbun hidari hiragana hirugohan hondana manga mizu miyage megane mondai anzen
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 29 4.2 How to write long vowels in Hiragana As you already know, long vowels are written as follows: - long vowels of a are written with like in (mother) - long vowels of i are written with like in (tasty) - long vowels of u are written with like in (airport) - long vowels of e are mostly written with like in (daily life), but rarely with like in (elder sister) - long vowels of o are mostly written with like in (lecture), but rarely with like in (big) Exercise 30. Write the following transcribed words in Hiragana. These are all words from our textbook including long vowels. iie imooto eiga eigo oobei okaasan ojiisan otoosan oniisan gakusei kuukoo keisatsu kooen kookoosei kooban koomuin sensei tsugoo denwabangoo doobutsuen hikooki fuutoo bunpoo bentoo yoofuku reizooko kekkoo binboo yuumei atarashii isogashii oishii kibishii suzushii tanoshii tooi hoshii yasashii
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 30 4.2 How to write double consonants in Hiragana You remember that consonants of normal syllables are extended to double consonants by adding a little tsu. Only in case of combination of with a syllable starting with a n- or m- sound (i.e. plus,,,,,,,,, or ), there is no addition of this little. Exercise 31. Write the following transcribed words in Hiragana. Since there are not many words in our textbook including double consonants, other words are added. gakkoo sekken mittsu muttsu kekkoo yattsu bikkuri zasshi kippu motto kissaten massugu katte damatte itte ippai ippon kesshin honne konnan sennin mattaku hatten sessuru mikka yokka hakka hossa hannin honnoo hassha ressha gesshuu kekka kokka sakka issai hossoku kessan setchaku suppai itta kottoo jikkan jikkoo hassei jisshuu hakken sesshoku bikkuri shippo teppen teppoo nesshin chissoku tekkoo ressha
Intensive Japanese I, Beermann. Hiragana Handbook 31 4.4 How to write palatal consonants in Hiragana We have learnt that palatal consonants always consist of a consonant plus the semivowel y and the vowel a, u or o. The sounds,, and are written small. Exercise 32. Write the following transcribed words in Hiragana. These are partly words from our textbook including palatal consonants. ojoosan kaishain gakushoku kanojo gyuunyuu kyuuri kyookasho kyoodai kyoomi koojoo ryooshin jisho jitensha jagaimo shashin shachoo juusho juudoo jugyoo shukudai shujin shufu shumi shoosetsu shokudoo chawan chuugoku chuushajoo densha toshokan hyaku byooin yuubinkyoku joobu chairoi benkyoo junbi sotsugyoo benkyoo ryoori ryokoo jama kyooshitsu kyoodoo kyuushuu kyoka gyaku gyuu-nyuu gyogyoo shuushuu kyooiku juukyo happyaku gyakuryuu ryokyaku chojutsu joosha