The 4 Forms of Japanese Writing
Introduction
In Japan, there are 3 types of writing that you will come across often. These are Hiragana (hee-rah-gah-nah), Katakana (kah-tah-kah-nah), and Kanji (kah-n-jee). The fourth style is called Romaji (roh-mah-jee). Us Americans use Romaji more than a native Japanese person.
Each of the four forms is used for a different purpose, and the first three can all be used in the same sentence!
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Hiragana
Hirigana is the first form of writing you will learn about. Hirigana is used to write native Japanese words.
Hiragana looks like this: あいうえお. These are the first 5 characters, 'a' 'i 'u' 'e' and 'o'.
Katakana
Katakana is the second form. Katakana is used to write words that the Japanese use that are not actually Japanese. For instance, our English word "camera" is what the Japanese use when talking about a camera, only they write it in Katakana. It looks like this: カメラ
The first symbol, "カ", is the sound 'ka'. The second symbol, "メ", is the sound 'me' (meh). The final sound, "ラ", is the sound 'ra'.
The first symbol, "カ", is the sound 'ka'. The second symbol, "メ", is the sound 'me' (meh). The final sound, "ラ", is the sound 'ra'.
Kanji
Kanji is the third writing form. Kanji are complex Japanese symbols (some aren't as complex as others, though).
The history behind Kanji is that when the Chinese brought thier language to Japan, the Japanese changed symbols and meanings to develop Kanji. (I learned this from the app HumanJapanese)
The history behind Kanji is that when the Chinese brought thier language to Japan, the Japanese changed symbols and meanings to develop Kanji. (I learned this from the app HumanJapanese)
Kanji written in kanji (w) looks like this: 漢字. It combines the kanji for "Chinese" and the kanji for "character".
Romaji
Romaji is the final form. Remember when I said that we Americans use Romaji more than the average Japanese? That's because Romaji is phoenetic Japanese. When we read Romaji, we are reading the Romanized (English) version of the Japanese symbols.
So, while the Japanese read "goodbye" as さようなら, to the English speaker, we read "sayōnara". You can see this on the main Language tab here.