Hiragana and Katakana Advanced
Part I: Diacritic Syllables
Remember before when I mentioned something called "diacritics"? Well, those are the special, tiny superscript symbols you see over some hiragana and katakana that look like a sideways quotation mark ( " ), called the voicing or nigori marker, or a degree mark ( º ), called the plosive marker. These marks change how that particular syllable sounds. The following table shows how the nigori and plosive markers change the hiragana alphabet (it works the same for the katakana alphabet as well, which will not be provided):
が (ga) ぎ (gi) ぐ (gu) げ (ge) ご (go)
ざ (za) じ (ji) ず (zu) ぜ (ze) ぞ (zo)
だ (da) で (de) ど (do)
ば (ba) び (bi) ぶ (bu) べ (be) ぼ (bo)
ぱ (pa) ぴ (pi) ぷ (pu) ぺ (pe) ぽ (po)
(Note: There are also nigori-marked versions of ち and つ, that are pronounced the same as じ and ず, respectively. However, the nigori-marked ち is rarely used in modern Japanese, except for perhaps use in adding furigana to someone's name for pronunciation purposes. The nigori-marked つ, however, is a fairly common occurrence. [Thanks, Ichigo!])
Part II: Palatalized Sounds
The only really complex part of Japanese syllables are the palatalized sounds that are created as a result of combining certain syllables together. The following is a table of palatalized Japanese syllables (both normal and diacritic) in hiragana (as before, this also works in katakana*):
きゃ (kya) きゅ (kyu) きょ (kyo)
ぎゃ (gya) きゅ (gyu) ぎょ (gyo)
しゃ (sha) しゅ (shu) しょ (sho)
じゃ (ja) じゅ (ju) じょ (jo)
ちゃ (cha) ちゅ (chu) ちょ (cho)
にゃ (nya) にゅ (nyu) にょ (nyo)
ひゃ (hya) ひゅ (hyu) ひょ (hyo)
びゃ (bya) びゅ (byu) びょ (byo)
ぴゃ (pya) ぴゅ (pyu) ぴょ (pyo)
みゃ (mya) みゅ (myu) みょ (myo)
りゃ (rya) りゅ (ryu) りょ (ryo)
*Special Case Scenario: Katakana-Only Palatalized Sounds
There are special palatalized sounds that are only available to be written in katakana. These are as follows:
ファ (fa) フィ (fi) フォ (fo)
トゥ (tu) ティ (ti)
ディ (di)
ヴァ (va) ヴォ (vo) ヴィ (ve)
ウォ (wo)
ジェ (je)
Double Consonants and Long Vowels
In the Japanese language, there are several words that require a double consonant or long vowel to be placed in the word in order to write or pronounce it. This differs in both writing systems.
In hiragana, to write a double consonant, a small つ is written right before the syllable that will be doubled.
Ex. きっぷ (kippu) — ticket
きって (kitte) — stamp
To enunciate a double consonant, you would pause for about a half-second before saying the consonant that would be doubled (i.e. Ki *short pause* ppu).
To write a long vowel in hiragana, you simply add an extra vowel syllable to indicate the long sound.
Ex. じゅう (jyuu) — ten
おかあさん (okaasan) — (someone's) mother
In katakana, you write double consonants the same way you do in the hiragana system.
Ex. キット (kitto) — kit
ジャケット (jyaketto) — jacket
However, to write a long vowel in katakana, a dash ( — ) is used after the vowel in question to elongate it.
Ex. コーヒー (koohii) — coffee
メアリー (mearii) — Mary or merry
