Writing System

• Letters:
  • There are 46 phonemes (unique, fundamental sounds) in the Japanese Language
  • There are 2 types of letters to represent those 46 phonemes: hiragana & katakana
    • Hiragana: primarily used to represent Japanese words
    • Katakana: represents foreign words
• Kanji: Kanji is the symbolic character used in the Japanese writing system
  • Kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese
  • The term kanji (漢字) in Japanese literally means “Han characters”
  • Japanese Kanji may differ from Chinese Kanji in symbol and meaning (borrowed from Chinese, but modified)
• A sentence in Japanese language is written with the combination of Kanji, hiragana and katakana

Hiragana Letters

[Audio courtesy: Abe, Namiko. “How to Pronounce Hiragana - Japanese Hiragana With Audio Files.”
ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, https://thoughtco.com/how-to-pronounce-hiragana-japanese-hiragana-with-audio-files-4077351]

Katakana Letters

[Audio courtesy: Abe, Namiko. “How to Pronounce Hiragana - Japanese Hiragana With Audio Files.
ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, https://thoughtco.com/how-to-pronounce-hiragana-japanese-hiragana-with-audio-files-4077351]

Kanji Writing Rules

• Kanjis are composed of strokes
• Strokes have direction and order
  • Direction: top to bottom, left to right
  • Order: strokes are written sequentially, maintaining order

Example: