And now for the rest of the alphabet...
The trick is remembering this:
A
Ka
Sa
Ta
Na
Ha
Ma
Ya
Ra
Wa
N
If you know that, you can continue with the vowels until it looks like this:
A I U E O
Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko
Sa Shi Su Se So
Ta Chi Tsu Te To
No Ni Nu Ne No
Ha Hi Hu He Ho (Notice Hu is more like 'who' and sometimes "fu" wink
Ma Mi Mu Me Mo
Ya X Yu X Yo (There are no Yi's or Ye's. Sorry.)
Ra Ri Ru Re Ro
Wa X X X Wo (Nope, no Wi, Wu, or We. Too Chinese sounding)
N
Then you add two strokes to some characters and you get the following:
Ga Gi Gu Ge Go
Za Ji Zu Ze Zo
Da Ji Zu De Do
Ba Bi Bu Be Bo
Pa Pi Pu Pe Po (for these you add circles in stead of two marks.)
The third set of letters are comprised of the "i" letters and the "ya" letters.
Ie:
Kya Kyu Kyo
Sha Shu Sho
Cha Chu Cho
Nya Nyu Nyo (These are very nasal!)
Hya Hyu Hyo
Mya Myu Myo
Rya Ryu Ryo (Possible the hardest to say. In Street Fighter, Americans always call Ryu "Raiyu" but it's actually "Ri-yu." It means dragon)
Then:
Gya Gyu Gyo
Jya Jyu Jyo
Bya Byu Byo
Pya Pyu Pyo
And there you have it. The entire Japanese alphabet! You're an expert now, right?
Hai. <--- That means yes.
Iie. <--- That means no.
But the Japanese don't like to say no often because it's very rude. So you can say, "Chotto," instead when means, "Ah, well maybe kinda not, just a sec, I dunno..." You will find that the polite things Japanese people say mean a lot of things.
But wait a minute!!! I just taught you a word that has two consonents next to each other! "Chotto." WHAT? I thought it was always a vowel after every consonent, right? Well... you'll have to find out later how that happens.
blaugh
 Kawariyasui · Fri Dec 03, 2004 @ 07:23am · 0 Comments |
