Bored of reading about how to write? Great, because in this lesson you’ll finally have the opportunity to listen about how to speak. Moreover, you’ll also learn hiragana, and even pick some new Japanese words to brag about. But first, let’s look at the basics of Japanese pronunciation…
Hiragana table
Nowadays, gojūon (五十音, lit. Fifty sounds) is the standard system of ordering kana. It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, however, the grid is not completely filled and there is an extra character added outside of the grid. The current number of distinct kana is 46. Some of these gaps have always existed and other appeared as the respective sounds became obsolete.
Cultural note: Japanese script reform
The Japanese script reform was the attempt to correlate standard spoken Japanese with the written word, which began during the Meiji period.
The first issue leading to the reforms was kana usage. The original Japanese kana syllabaries were a purely phonetic representation used for writing, however, the syllabaries were not completely codified and alternate letterforms, or hentaigana, existed for many sounds until standardization in 1900. In addition, due to linguistic drift the pronunciation of many Japanese words changed, mostly in a systematic way, from the classical Japanese language as spoken when the kana syllabaries were invented.
Despite this, words continued to be spelled in kana as they were in classical Japanese until a Cabinet order in 1946 officially adopted spelling reform, making the spelling of words purely phonetic (with only 3 sets of exceptions) and dropping characters that represented sounds no longer used in the language.
The second issue was the frequent use of obscure kanji characters. Although a proposal to eliminate certain kanji from use was implemented in a number of regions and overseas territories already near the end of the Taishō period, it is not until the middle of the 20th century that the kanji usage became standardized.
Many Japanese post-war linguists considered to abandon the Japanese writing system in favor of rōmaji, and some even considered to start using French exclusively. As a result, gradual abolition of kanji became an official policy and led to the tōyō kanji list, containing 1850 characters, which was published on 16 November 1946 with the intention of completely abolishing the use of kanji in the future. The list reduced the number of kanji deemed appropriate for daily use, and categorized certain kanji for specific use in official publications and documents.
The tōyō kanji list has undergone frequent criticism from Japanese scholars and anti-reformists and the policy was later abandoned. The jōyō kanji list, consisting of 1945 characters, was published by the Japanese government in 1981 to serve as a replacement for the tōyō kanji list. This newer list was based on the older tōyō kanji list, though jōyō kanji was more of a guide to kanji usage while tōyō kanji was created to gradually eliminate kanji usage.
A good understanding of the hiragana table is essential if you’d like to fully comprehend Japanese, even if you’d only ever like to be able to speak it. For example, it will allow you to conjugate verbs much more easily in the future. If you’ve missed the kana cheat sheet in Lesson 02, please download it below and refer to it as you go through the lesson.
Reading hiragana
AIUEO — Japanese vowels
The first row of the hiragana table is formed by vowels. There is a total of five vowels in the Japanese language, each with a single way to pronounce it. As each additional row except one represents a consonant sound with each of the five vowel sounds, it is crucial to learn how they are pronounced before you move on.
To practice the pronunciation of vowels, try reading each of the following words, then listen to the recording.
あう (to meet)
いえ (house)
おい (nephew)
うえ (above)
いう (to say)
KA, KI, KU, KE, KO
SA, SHI, SU, SE, SO
TA, CHI, TSU, TE, TO
NA, NI, NU, NE, NO
HA, HI, FU, HE, HO
MA, MI, MU, ME, MO
YA, YU, YO
These three characters may not look special at first, but not only will ya be used as a particle, all three of these will also be used to form an important feature of the Japanese language called digraphs (more on this later in the lesson).
A ye sound was also present in Old Japanese, however, as it was replaced with e before the invention of kana, there is no corresponding character, and you won’t ever meet it in a Japanese text.
RA, RI, RU, RE, RO
While most of the sounds are pretty straightforward, this row deserves careful attention as there is no equivalent sound in English. If you speak Spanish or French, you may notice that the Japanese pronunciation of r is closer to these languages than it is to English.
WA, WO
The 10th row of the kana table presents only two characters—wa and wo. Not only that, but the latter is also only used as a particle (more on that later). Unless you decide to dive into some older literary works you won’t ever find it used otherwise.
Historically, two more characters—wi and we—were also frequently used. Over time, Japanese pronunciation evolved, and the two were finally replaced by i and e after the language 1946 reform. One modern-day usage of ゑ is in the name of the beer Yebisu, which is actually pronounced ebisu, and is occasionally written ゑびす or ヱビス (katakana). Similarly, ゐ can be seen in the Japanese spelling of Nikka Whiskey: ニッカウヰスキー (ゐ is written ヰ in katakana).
N
This is the last row of the kana table and it consists of only one single character, which moreover isn’t even a syllable. N is the only Japanese consonant which can appear alone. You also won’t ever find it at the start of a word.
To practice the pronunciation of n, try reading each of the following words, then listen to the recording.
きん (gold)
おんな (woman)
おんがく (music)
あんい (simple, easy-going)
なに (what)
なん (what)
こんにちは (hello)
Before we move onto some more advanced kana characters, listen to this beautiful AEIOU hiragana song by the famous Japanese group Pizzicato Five.
Dakuten
Dakuten (濁点) and handakuten (半濁点), also called nigori and marunigori, are diacritic signs used to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be voiced or that a syllable starting with h should instead be pronounced with p, respectively.
The dakuten resembles a quotation mark, while the handakuten is a small circle, similar to a degree sign, both placed at the top right corner of a kana character:
Historically, written Japanese did not distinguish between voiceless and voiced consonants, however, this became standard practice in the Tokugawa era (1603–1868).
Note that ぢ is read like じ, and づ is read like ず.
Double consonants
A doubled or geminated consonant is represented with a small tsu called sokuon (促音) or chiisai tsu (小さいつ, little tsu). For example, compare さか (saka, hill) with さっか (sakka, author).
Note that the small tsu cannot be used to double the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables’ consonants—to double them, add the singular n (ん) in front of the syllable. For example さんにん (sannin, three people).
To practice the pronunciation of doubled consonants, try reading each of the following words, then listen to the recording.
ざっし (journal)
はっぴゃく (800)
まっすぐ (straight ahead)
Long vowels
A frequently used feature of the Japanese language are long vowels. In hiragana, different vowels are extended differently: a with あ, i and e with い, and u and o with う. For example, き → きい, く → くう, け → けい, こ → こう, さ → さあ, and so on.
Housekeeping note: Morae
Coming from the Latin word meaning ‘delay,’ a mora divides a word into equal parts, according to how long it takes to pronounce. This means that a a long syllable consists of two and a short syllable consists of one mora when written down.
Every word in Japanese is written with the same number of kana characters as there are morae in the word in question, yet it doesn’t necessary have the same number of syllables. For example, the words Tōkyō (to-o-kyo-o, とうきょう, ), Ōsaka (o-o-sa-ka, おおさか), and Nagasaki (na-ga-sa-ki, ながさき) all have four morae and are written with four kana characters, yet they have two, three, and four syllables respectively. It is crucial to understand this difference, the importance of morae versus syllables, in order to perfect one’s pronunciation, as well as understand many of the Japanese written arts (e.g., haiku).
It is important to understand that an extended vowel is exactly two morae long. Failure to hold the sound long enough may result into awkward misunderstandings as there are many similar words that differ only by the length of the vowels. For example, compare おじさん (ojisan, uncle) and おじいさん (ojīsan, grandfather).
In some Japanese words long vowels are immediately followed by more vowels, e.g. ほうおう (hōō, phoenix or pope).
To practice the pronunciation of extended vowels, try reading each of the following words, then listen to the recording.
せんせい (teacher)
がくせい (student)
きょう (today)
とうきょう (Tōkyō)
さようなら (farewell)
おはよう (good morning)
おかあさん (mother)
いい (good)
どようび (Saturday)
Digraphs
Yōon are digraphs, represented in hiragana using a kana ending in i, such as き, plus a small version of one of the three y kana: ゃ, ゅ, or ょ. For example kyō, today, is written きょう, using a small version of よ. Contrast this with kiyō, skillful, which is written きよう, with a full-sized よ. Compare small and full size y kana:
In the past, yōon were not distinguished with the smaller kana, and had to be guessed by context.
Note that digraphs beginning with ぢ are read exactly like those starting with じ.
Dropped vowels
Despite the fact that Japanese is a language with a phonemic writing system where each character represents a single sound, some vowels can occasionally be dropped, especially so in some of the Japanese dialects.
While it is perfectly correct to pronounce distinctly all of the vowels, you should try to listen to native speakers and imitate their pronunciation. In standard Japanese, the vowels that are most commonly dropped are u in す and i in し. As a rule of thumb, it is safe to drop the u in す appearing at the end of the word. In all other cases, try to conform to native speakers.
Some examples of dropped vowels:
です (to be)
どうして (why)
Irregularities
Unlike most European languages, Japanese has no irregular pronunciation. That is to say when you see a word written in Japanese, you can be sure that providing you know how each of the hiragana sounds that make up the word are sounded, you will be able to say the word with a relatively high degree of accuracy. Of course, each word has a certain nuance and intonation that can only truly be picked up by immersing yourself in the language. It is possible to buy dictionaries that show the intonation and pitch of Japanese words with lines and arrows, however these are no replacement for true exposure to the language.
Cultural note: The many dialects
While Japan is a much smaller country, surprisingly enough, its language has nearly as many distinct dialects as China. If you take a train across Japan and get out every hour or two there’s a big chance that every time you’ll be responded differently. The most widely known non-standard dialect of Japanese is Kansai-ben (spoken, for example, in Ōsaka) and you’ll have a chance to learn it in one of the later lessons. The lingua franca was initially based on the Tōkyō dialect, however, the language of Japan’s capital has since gone in its own direction.
How to learn hiaragana
Now that you are familiar with what hiragana is, how it is used, and how it is written, you’ll probably want to start memorising the characters! This is really important as NihongoUp features no rōmaji, and you’ll need to get used to reading the dialogues and example sentences in hiragana.
How long will it take?
Many boast that they have learned hiragana in a weekend. Whilst this may be true, it takes anywhere between a fortnight and a few months for people to be totally comfortable reading and writing all of the characters. However, it is perfectly sensible to have a hiragana chart by your side as you’re reading the lessons, checking up on characters that you are not sure of every so often. It all helps with the learning process, and it means that you can dive straight into the next lesson without worrying that you won’t be able to read anything!
How can I learn the characters?
The first thing to do is to get used to the sounds that the characters represent. Go back through the lesson and spend time listening to the interactive chart and repeating back the sounds. If you need extra assistance, head to the NihongoUp YouTube channel, where you’ll find videos covering each line of the hiragana table. For on the go, you’ll find an audio download in the ‘related content’ section at the end of this chapter.
You’ll then want to start thinking about being able to read the characters. The very best way to do this is practice. Try reading all of the words featured in the lesson, and use the lookup dictionary to find words, and practice reading their meaning in Japanese. Every little bit of exposure helps, so using one of our mobile applications may provide the extra boost you need.
If you’re serious about learning the characters quickly rather than gradually and organically, the best thing to do is to use one of our reviewing apps. The first port of call should be the NihongoUp Japanese desktop game. Here you will see characters appearing in balloons on your screen, and you must type their rōmaji equivalent before they fall to the ground. You can play it on any PC, Mac or Linux computer, or online, right in your browser.
If the game is not for you, try our online hiragana quiz. Its clever algorithms will select characters that you are having difficulty with and test you on them, Don’t forget to play with the settings, so that you test with and without audio and if you’re brave, with and without displaying the characters!
Hiragana quiz
To surround yourself with hiragana, Hikari’s Japanese cheat sheets & posters bundle is perfect for ultimate immersion. You’ll be able to absorb all of the characters with your high quality A2 poster and refer to your mini version as and when you need it whilst going through the lessons. The laminated stroke order sheet is perfect for drilling yourself on the perfect stroke order.
It’s easy!
The main thing to remember is that practice makes perfect, and you shouldn’t be disheartened if hiragana doesn’t ‘click’ straight away. Many millions of people are able to read and write hiragana and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to. Experiment with the methods on this page and maybe find your own. Many like mnemonics (such as the character き [ki] looks a little like a ‘key’ to a door) to remember the characters. As long as you always have a hiragana chart near to you and review daily, you’ll be a master of hiragana in no time!
My Fair Lady
Take a look at this wonderful performance by Mao Daichi in the promo for the stage version of My Fair Lady in the Chunichi Theatre in 2002:
Before you move on
- If you happen to be in Japan, watch the Japanese version of the My Fair Lady musical. If not, watch the English movie.
- From now on, listen to Japanese radio and TV as frequently as possible. Even if you don’t understand a word, it will help you to assimilate correct Japanese pronunciation and intonation. Some research even suggest that it may be beneficial to listen when you are asleep.
- Learn how to read hiragana.
