· TUTTLE Learning Japanese e I r a a n a a a a n a and Learning Japanese Hiragana Katakana and Learning Japanese Hiragana andKatakana (WORKBOOK AND PRACTICE SHEETS) Takagaki & Henshall TUTTLE PUBLISHlNG Tokyo · Rutland, Vermont · Singapore Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12 Singapore 534167 and 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759 U.S.A. Copyright © 1990 by Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. LCC Card No. 90-70374 ISBN-IO: 0-8048-3815-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-8048-3815-3 Previously published in 2005 as A Guide to Learning Hiragana & Katakana ISBN 0-8048-3391-5 First edition, 1990 Printed in Singapore Distributed by: North America, Latin America and Europe Tuttle Publishing 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436, USA Tel: (802) 773 8930 Fax: (802) 773 6993 E-mail: [email protected] www.tutt1epublishing.com Japan Tuttle Publishing Yaekari Building, 3rd Floor, 5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032 Tel: (03) 5437 0171 Fax: (03) 5437 0755 E-mail: [email protected] Asia Pacific Berkeley Books Pte Ltd 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12 Singapore 534167 Tel: (65) 6280 1330 Fax: (65) 6280 6290 E-mail: [email protected] www.periplus.com II 10 09 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 T U TT LE PU B Ll S H I N G ® is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. CONTENTS How to Use This Book 7 An Explanation of Kana 9 PART I: HIRAGANA 17 Practice a - ko 19 Mini Review a - ko 24 Practice sa - to 26 Mini Review sa - to 31 Practice na - ho 33 Mini Review na - ho 38 Practice rna - yo 40 Mini Review rna - yo 44 Practice ra - n 46 Mini Review ra - n 50 Voiced and Half-Voiced Sounds 52 Review of Voiced and Half-Voiced Sounds 54 Review of Double Vowels and Consonants 57 Combined Sounds 59 Review of Combined Sounds 61 Review through Place Names and Period Names 63 General Review 65 PART II: KATAKANA 69 Practice a - to 71 Mini Review a - to 81 Practice na - n 83 Mini Review na - n 96 Voiced and Half-Voiced Sounds 98 Review of Voiced and Half-Voiced Sounds 100 Combined Sounds 102 Review of Combined Sounds and Double Consonants 104 Review through International Place Names 106 PART nl: FINAL REVIEW 109 About Japan 111 Food Items Quiz 113 Rora and Fauna Quiz 114 Personal Names Quiz 115 Kana Word Search 116 Quiz Answers 117 Do-It-Yourself Kana Charts 118 The Iroha Verse 120 6 HOW TO USE THIS BOOK The main aim of this book is to help students achieve competence in reading and writing kana, the phonetic symbols that are fundamental to written Japanese. The book starts with a section entitled An Explanation of Kana, which contains everything the student will need to know about the two kana systems of hiragana and katakana. Part I of the workbook sec tion then systematically introduces each hiragana symbol, voiced form, and combination, and provides ample practice and review. Part II does the same for katakana, while Part III provides an overall review. The Explanation of Kana outlines the function and origin of kana, the difference between the two kana systems, the various sounds, the combinations, and the conventions of usage. It attempts to be detailed and thorough so that it can be used for reference at any stage. Though all the information about kana is grouped together in this one section for ease of reference, it is not expected that the student will read it all before starting on the practice pages. In fact, to do so might give the impression that kana are perhaps rather formidable, which is not really the case at all. (Just ask any Japanese child!) We recommend that the student start work on the hiragana practice pages after reading the first three subsections - on the function, origin, and basic sounds of kana. After fmishing practice of the forty-six basic hiragana symbols the student should go back to the Explanation and read the subsec tion on additional sounds, then work through the rest of the hiragana practice pages before moving on to the katakana practice. The final subsection, on other points to note, is mostly concerned with special katakana combinations and can be left until the appropriate point in the katakana practice pages, just prior to the final review. Students may modify this order, but we recommend fmishing practice of one kana system before moving on to the next. In the practice pages of Parts I and II each kana symbol is allotted half a page, permitting plenty of writing practice in the boxes given. We suggest working in pencil, rather than ink, as this will allow for erasing and repeated use. Stroke order and a pronunciation guide are also given for each symbol. In addition, for each symbol there is an illustration of its graphic evolution from its "parent" character (see Explanation of Kana) and a reference number for that character as it occurs in A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters (Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988), together with the character's pronunciation. This may be of interest to readers wishing to continue their studies of written Japanese to an advanced level. (However, some of the original characters are no longer commonly used and there fore are not included in A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters.) 7 After approximately every ten symbols there are "mini review" pages for further practice, this time using whole words. These are cumulative, containing symbols not only from the group just completed but from earlier groups. The mini reviews can be used purely for copying practice, or, by covering the cue kana on the left side of the page, as more chal lenging writing exercises. They can also be used as vocabulary exercises. Part III, the Final Review, contains exercises, quizzes, and "do-it-yourself' charts. Unlike the reviews in the fIrst two parts it combines the two kana systems, as is natural in Japanese texts. And for a more natural effect the boxes used earlier in the book to help achieve even spacing and proper stroke lengths are dispensed with in this fInal part. The words appearing in the reviews have been carefully chosen in keeping with an addi tional aim of this book, which is to expose readers to key words related to Japanese society and culture. The prime criterion for selecting review words was their suitability for practic ing the kana symbols, but we thought it would be helpful to students if in addition these words could, whenever possible, have particular relevance to Japanese culture. About half of the 450 or so vocabulary items in the book fall into this category. It is beyond the scope of the book to explain these in detail, but students who take the trouble to fInd out more about them will be rewarded with a broadened appreciation of Japan's society and culture. In short, we intend that these words should be used as a sort of checklist for an exploration of Japan, rather than simply memorized as isolated vocabulary items. Readers will occasionally encounter a semicolon between English equivalents given for a Japanese review word. This indicates that the Japanese word is a homophone, that is, a word having a different meaning but the same sound as another. Normally these homo phones would be written with different characters, but when expressed in phonetic kana script or romanization such differentiation is not possible. The English words separated by a semicolon thus refer to different Japanese words sharing the same kana form. (Commas between English words simply indicate nuances of the same word.) It should also be noted that there is sometimes a subtle difference in intonation between "homophones," which can not be determined from the kana or romanization. Finally, readers are advised to seek specialist or native-speaker guidance on intonation and pronunciation. It should be appreciated that the pronunciation guides given in this book can only ever be approximate, owing to the variety in pronunciation of the same English word in different parts of the world. Also, some Japanese sounds cannot be precisely represented by English letters. The Japanese "r," for example, actually falls between the English "r" and "d" But remember that, with both speaking and writing, practice makes perfect! 8 AN EXPLANATION OF KANA The Function of Kana Kana are purely phonetic symbols. That is, they are written representations of pronuncia tion. They can express the entire Japanese language in writing, though in practice the writ ten language uses a mixture of kana and kanji (characters taken from Chinese). There are two kana systems: katakana and hiragana. Katakana is now mainly used for words taken from languages other than Chinese. Hiragana is the more important of the two systems, and is used for everything not written in katakana or kanji. Kanji show meanings of words, though they also have pronunciations. Normally they are used for nouns and the the unchanging part (the stem) of verbs, adjectives, and adv~rbs, while hiragana symbols are used for the changing parts (notably endings). For example, the verb iku means "go," while ikanai means "not go." The stem is i-, and this is usually written with a kanji, while the variable endings -ku and -kanai are written in hiragana. Hiragana is also used to \\rite particles, and other words where kanji are not appropriate. To all intents and purposes the two kana systems are not interchangeable, and are rarely mixed within a given word. The rule is: katakana for non-Chinese loan words, hiragana and kanji for the rest. The student of Japanese should ideally aim to learn all the two thousand kanji in common use. They playa very practical role in graphically and distinctively conveying the meaning of a written statement, unlike a purely phonetic script, and thereby aid rapid understanding. And naturally, no one can expect to read unedited Japanese texts without a knowledge of kanji. However, learning the kanji is a time-consuming task. Many of them are structurally complex, and many have a wide range of meanings and pronunciations. Kana, on the other hand, are much fewer in number, with only forty-six basic symbols in each of the two systems. They are simple to write, and, with very few exceptions, they have fixed pronunciations. If you don't know the kanji for a particular word, but know the pronunciation, you can just express that entire word in kana (hiragana, that is; remember that katakana is for non-Chinese foreign words). In other words, while not ideal, kana (hiragana) can substitute for kanji. This means that even beginners can express themselves in functional written Japanese with relatively little effort. 9