23 October 2017
Japanese: every Day A basic in Japanese Language Alphabet
Japanese language it is considered one of the most difficult idiom in the world for the following reasons: 1) Structure of the sentence 2) Mixed Syllabic and ideogram system 3) A lot of words with the same sounds 4) Some ideogram (kanji) with two different pronunciation 5) Vowel/consonant harmony
Hiragana e Katakana Hiragana “A”, Katakana “A”
あア
Hiragana “E”, Katakana “E”
えエ 1
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Hiragana “i”, Katakana “i”
いイ
おオ
Hiragana “O”, Katakana “O”
Hiragana “U”, Katana, “U”
う, 宇
As exercise, you can try to integrate these on your normal writing system, just to memorise them
Kanji 漢字 We have some 漢字 derived from images and we call them pictograms we start with them
⽇ (Hi, Nichi) - Sun or day
⽇曜⽇ - > Sunday , Nichiyobi ⽉曜⽇ -> Getsuyobi Monday ⽕曜⽇ -> Tuesday Kaiyobi 漢漢字, ⽇日, ⽉月
⽔曜⽇ -> Wednesday, Suiyobi, ⽊曜⽇ -> Thursday, Mokuyobi, 2
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⾦曜⽇ -> Friday , Kinyobi ⼟曜⽇ -> Saturday, Doyobi, We can extend this meaning to star and planet:
星 (Hoshi) that means star 惑星 (wakusei) that means planet As you can see there is the kanji for sun or day plus a second component that is
⽣ Nama that means living, in Chinese
means to generate, to be born, health. While planet has the same kanji plus another that is composed by ⼼ that is read Kokomo and means heart, mind and 或 Haru that means “Some” like in some day, together it is 惑 that means beguile or to be confused, because it is not certain the heart . 惑 has 3 pronunciation: waku, koku or madou/madofu Moon or Month it is written as
⽉tsuchi to getsu,that is
adapted to the first 6 months of the years as below
⼀⽉yichigatsu - January ⼆⽉ nigatsu - February March, sangatsu. 三⽉ April, 四⽉, shigatsu , 卯⽉ utsuki (bit archaic) May, 五⽉, gogatsu or 皐⽉ satsuki June, 六⽉ or ⽔無⽉ minagetsuki 卯⽉ it is poetic or archaic and probably derives from the word Rabbit 卯 (u) as the forth animal in buddhist zodiac.
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Please note that in Chinese the same ideogram has similar meanings: mortise (slot cut into wood to receive a tenon) / 4th earthly branch: 5-7 a.m., 2nd solar month (6th March-4th April), year of the Rabbit / ancient Chinese compass point: 90° (east) / variant of 鉚｜铆 / to exert one's strength
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