Japanese Language

The Japanese language can be very daunting to the novice; however, a basic understanding can help even the novice appreciate the language.  Like all languages there is the spoken language and the written language.  This article will focus primarily on the written language but it will touch on some basics in pronunciation as it pertains to the written language.  The key points of the Japanese language that will be covered which will help you in your understanding of basic terms and make the language a little less daunting.

The Japanese language uses four different scripts to write the language. There is kanji, hiragana, katakana, and Rōmaji (The Japanese writing system, N.D.). 

Kanji (漢字), which literally means “characters from Han China,” are Chinese characters that have been incorporated and adapted to write Japanese nouns, stems of adjectives and verbs, and Japanese names (Introduction to Kanji, N.D.).  While the exact origins of how Chinese characters came to be used in Japan is debated and the different types of kanji can be quite complex, it is not necessary to delve into either of these areas here.  What is important to understand is that kanji can have several different pronunciations depending on context, meaning, location in the sentence structure, and how it is used in a compound.  Typically these pronunciations, or readings, are grouped into two categories which are called on’yomi (音読み) which literally means “sound reading” (音読み, 2015) or kun’yomi (訓読み) which literally means “meaning reading” (訓読み, 2015).   The on-yomi, often abbreviated as ON, is derived from the pronunciation of the Chinese character when it was imported from China and the kun-yomi, often abbreviated as kun, is the indigenous Japanese reading for the concept that the Chinese character represents (On-yomi and Kun-yomi, N.D.).  Unfortunately, characters can have more than one on’yomi because kanji were brought over from China at different times throughout history.  In addition, since kun’yomi are essentially a translation of a Chinese character, these characters can sometimes have multiple kun’yomi as well.  All of this increases the complexity and difficulty for the novice learner.   Lastly, it is important to remember that on’yomi are typically written in all capital letters and kun’yomi are written in all lowercase letters.

Hiragana (平仮名), which literally means “smooth kana,” (平仮名, 2015) is a syllabary that is used to write inflectional endings for adjectives and verbs, grammatical particles, words with no kanji equivalent (or perhaps unknown), to indicate how to read kanji, or to make reading easier.  When used to write inflectional endings hiragana are called okurigana (送り仮名) which means “accompanying letter” (Okurigana , N.D.); and, when it is used to give the pronunciation of kanji it is called furigana (振り仮名)which means “to assign a character” (Hiragana, N.D.) (振り仮名, 2015).  Hiragana consists of a basic set of characters called gojūon (五十音) which literally means "fifty sounds;" however, only 45 are in common use today (Hiragana, N.D.).   

Katakana (片仮名), which literally means “fragmentary or partial kana,” is also a syllabary that is used to write emphasized words, or words and names from a foreign language (Katakana, N.D.).  The words incorporated from foreign languages are called gairaigo (外来語) which literally means “foreign language or word” (外来語, 2015) and is usually translated as “loan word” or “borrowed word” (Gairaigo, 2015).  A good example is the word ‘cup’ which in rōmaji becomes kappu (カップ).

Rōmaji (ローマ字) which literally means “Roman character” (ローマ字, 2015) is the use of Roman characters, as used in the Latin alphabet, and Roman numerals to write numbers, international units of measurement, acronyms, and initials as well as transliterating Japanese terms into a written English text  (The Japanese writing system, N.D.).  While there are several different Romanization systems in use, the most widely used is the Hepburn system. 

The Hepburn Romanization system, hebon-shiki Rōmaji (ヘボン式ローマ字), is the Romanization system that was named after its inventor, James Curtis Hepburn.  His first Japanese dictionary was published in 1867 with his original Romanization.  His third edition was published in 1886; and, in this edition Hepburn modified his original Romanization based upon recommendations from a system of Romanization created by the "Romanization Club" or Rōmajikwai (羅馬字会).  It is this system that became known as Hepburn Romanization (Bullock, N.D.) which is also known as Traditional Hepburn.

Today we have a system called Modified Hepburn, Shūsei Hebon-shiki (修正ヘボン式), also known as Revised Hepburn, in which the rendering of a syllabic ‘n’ as ‘m’ before certain consonants is no longer used (Hepburn romanization, N.D.).  “This style was introduced in the third edition of Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (1954), adopted by the Library of Congress as one of its ALA-LC romanizations [sic], and is the most common version of the system today” (Hepburn romanization, N.D.).

The Revised Hepburn system of Romanization uses a couple key diacritic marks.  This system uses a macron (a straight bar placed above a letter) over the letters a, i, u, e, and o to indicate a long vowel pronunciation (Japanese, N.D.).  And, this system uses the apostrophe to note the separation of easily confused phonemes (one of the units of sound that distinguish one word from another in a particular language).  For example, the apostrophe is used  between syllables when the first syllable ends with the letter ‘n’ and the following syllable begins with the letter a, i, u, e, o, or y (Japanese, N.D.).

Here is an example of the use of the macron:

Tōkyō –The use of macrons follow the rules of the traditional and modified Hepburn systems.

 

Here is an example of the use of the syllabic ‘n’ in the Traditional Hepburn versus the Revised Hepburn:

In the Traditional Hepburn system, the ‘n‘(ん) is written as ‘n’ before consonants, but as ‘m’ before labial consonants such as b, m, and p.  In addition, ‘n’ is sometimes written as ‘n-‘(with a hyphen) before vowels and the consonant ‘y’ to avoid confusion (Hepburn romanization, N.D.).

In the Modified or Revised Hepburn system, the ‘n‘(ん) is written as ‘n’ before consonants and labial consonants; but it is written ‘n’ with an apostrophe before vowels and the consonant ‘y’ (Hepburn romanization, N.D.).

Bibliography

Bullock, B. (N.D.). What is Hepburn romanization? Retrieved 2015, from sci.lang.japan Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/hepburn.html

Gairaigo. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gairaigo

Hepburn romanization. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press: http://www.self.gutenberg.org/article/whebn0000036865/hepburn%20romanization

Hiragana. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Wa-pedia: http://www.wa-pedia.com/language/hiragana.shtml

Introduction to Kanji. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Wa-pedia: http://www.wa-pedia.com/language/kanji.shtml

Japanese. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/japanese.pdf

Katakana. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Wa-pedia: http://www.wa-pedia.com/language/katakana.shtml

Okurigana . (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press: http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Okurigana

On-yomi and Kun-yomi. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from University of Albany: http://www.albany.edu/eas/205/on-yomi%20and%20kun-yomi.pdf

The Japanese writing system. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Wa-pedia: http://www.wa-pedia.com/language/japanese_writing_system_kanji_hiragana_katakana_romaji.shtml

ローマ字. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E5%AD%97

外来語. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%96%E6%9D%A5%E8%AA%9E

平仮名. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D

振り仮名. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%8C%AF%E3%82%8A%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D

訓読み. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%A8%93%E8%AA%AD%E3%81%BF#Japanese

音読み. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%9F%B3%E8%AA%AD%E3%81%BF