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Princess Mononoke Film ComicJapanese Alphabet Table
If your browser supports Japanese characters, you may prefer
this version in EUC or
this version in JIS.
There are two phonetic "alphabets" in Japanese: hiragana and katakana, collectively called the kana. Hiragana is used for native words, particles, and verb endings. Katakana is used for foreign words and names, and for emphasis. There is also a symbolic writing system, called kanji, which comes from Chinese and has thousands of symbols.
Here is a quick summary of the kana, in modern order. There is another ordering, the "i-ro-ha" order, which turns the whole alphabet into a poem, but that isn't as easy for the beginning student. Instead, remember: "Ah, kana. Surely take note how many you read well. (N)" The first letter of each word gives the order of the first main consonant lines. Each line contains vowel sounds in the order "aiueo". All syllables end with a vowel except for syllabic 'n'.
Between the main consonant lines are lines with softer, voiced sounds, made by adding marks to main characters. Many dictionaries list a softened consonant in the same section with its main consonant.
When there are two readings, the first is a standard Romanization that makes typing into a word processor easier; the second, Hepburn Romanization, is closer to how the syllable would sound to an English speaker.
With a few other rules, one can sound-out anything written in kana:
Vowel and "y" symbols, written half-size, add their sounds to the consonant
sound that comes before. In this case, we have "bya, byu, byo".
The "tsu" symbol, written half-size, causes the consonant that follows it
to be held for a beat. Here we have "t-te".
When used as particles, these are pronounced "o", "wa", and "e"
respectively. The first one is never used for anything but the "o"
(direct object) particle.
Many people have asked about how to write their names in Japanese. Many common names are on this page from Eri Takase Artworks.
You may want to refer to the Japanese Alphabet Book to practice on children's literature written in hiragana. For a slightly more advanced book with a little bit of kanji try Totoro.
