Pronounce It In Japanese	KANA Table Only	Number It And Date It In Japanese	Tent Parts Labels In Japanese

将軍 Pronounce It In Japanese by Dean Wayland Prologue Firstly before reading this article, can you see the pair of Japanese characters that mean "SHOU-GUN" below the crossed swords logo above, or the macron or horizontal bar above the "O" of SHOGUN? If yes then read on, if not click this link on how to get your computer to read and write Japanese characters. Next, again before continueing, take a sneak peak at the table below, just to get a very rough idea of what I will be talking about as we go. Once done, pop back here and we can carry on. Remember, if you need to ask questions, email me, or phone me, via the details under the "Contact Us" link above. Introduction If you are already taking part or planning to get involved in the School's SHŌGUN activities, and like myself you intend taking on a Japanese role, which means you are supposedly literate, it would be rather nice if we could all speak and write the language. However, I think this is somewhat unlikely to happen. But this fact should not deter us from having fun and at least trying to master the pronunciation of the few Japanese words and phrases that we will use regularly. Such as names of people, places and objects, and those phrases that make all the difference, like "Good Day", that is "KONNICHI WA", or "look out (danger)!" that is "ABUNAI!" Next, you may have noticed that above and elsewhere on this web site, I have printed all Japanese words in block capital letters. I've done this to hopefully clearly differentiate them from English words, so as to further promote clarity and prevent confusion, especially when they come out the same or is that SAME (ray or shark skin leather). This seemed reasonable since Japanese has niether upper or lower case characters unlike English. Also don't worry about the macron acsent, that's the little bar over vowels like the O in SHŌGUN, it just means that that vowel is stretched. This will be explained more, later in the section on Long Vowels below. Okay, now on with the business of learning to pronounce Japanese, firstly don't panic, this is fortunately not really that difficult a task as you might first suppose. Japanese is a "sylabic" language, which means that the clue to saying a Japanese word correctly, lies in the fact that it can be chopped up in to its individual component sylables and then simply articulated in accordance with this guide. It also helps that the Japanese can represent their entire language in a limited fixed set of phonetic syllables known as KANA, which can in turn be written in western script, that is romanised, making learning to speak it much easier. All such romanisations are called by the Japanese themselves RŌMAJI or ROUMAJI or ローマ字 meaning roman characters. I have used what is the most commonly seen method of romanisation of Japanese for English speakers which is called the Hepburn system. This representation has the advantage of following English phonology giving you the best chance of getting the pronounciation of Japanese words about right. I have also included both the obsolete and the additional up to date characters. In Japan itself the official RŌMAJI system is very slightly different from Hepburn, being a little easier for the native Japanese speakers to romanise their language, the reason for this will become obvious to you when you go through the table. RŌMAJI is today extensively used in conjunction with their four other systems of writing, KANJI, HIRAGANA, KATAKANA and Arabic numerals. Again I say don't panic! Unless you are planning to learn to read or write , there is no need to tackle these writing systems. However their presence in this article is intended to help both the writer and non-writer alike as you will be able to see the patterns or shapes of sounds as the Japanese do. This does help a lot in seeing the relationship between certain sylables, for example KI and GI, who's conection is clearly seen when written in HIRAGANA as き and ぎ, all will be explained as we go. However, if on the other hand you do wish to learn to read and write, the number of essential characters required to achieve a very basic and thus useful level of communication is not that great. This limitation is quite authentic as during the age of battles, much to the disgust of their betters, many lower ranking warriors were not tremendously literate. There are two simple phonetic syllabries collectively called KANA. HIRAGANA and KATAKANA consist of less than fifty characters each, both representing the same set of sounds, but used for different purposes. HIRAGANA (ひらがな) meaning "smoothed script" is the cursive style of writing used for spelling out the sounds of Japanese words and other grammatical functions. Historically it was used almost exclusively by women, being also known as "woman's script" or ONAGANA (おながな). KATAKANA (カタカナ) meaning "limited/reduced script", on the other hand is the much more angular form which was used for indicating emphasis, for public notices, some official documents and advertisements. Today it is also used for writing loan words, that is those of a foreign origin. Bear in mind that about 25 per cent of modern Japanese is derived from English. Then there is KANJI (漢字), which means Chinese characters, which is one of the most complex forms of writing in use anywhere and is consequentially the type we will make the least use of. That is unless of course you wish to appear truly literate. KANJI consists of about fifty thousand or so ideographic symbols, which as the name implies came from China, around the 5th century. Of these, 2,000 form what is called the JOUYOU, the modern official set of characters approved for general usage. To be able to read a tabloid newspaper you need about 800 ~ 900 characters, while the average literate Japanese person will know about 3,000, and someone with a degree will be familiar with around five! But then again, you may surprise yourself, if you learn them at a rate of just one per day! The Syllables The syllables set out in the table below do not vary significantly in their pronunciation, unlike English, they are all pronounced curtly and clearly, with equal stress and ideally in a monotone. At the top are the five vowels in standard Japanese order, that is: A, I, U, E and O, with their "long" versions beneath, which I'll explain later. So firstly look at the pronounciation guide, and then try and say the following English words in the way described to give you an idea of the Japanese vowel sounds, however note that when saying the U vowel "oo", do not move your lips forward; "Ah (A), we (I), soon (U), get (E), old (O)". Okay, I hope that was easy. Next, near the bottom of the table is the only independent Japanese consonant, that is the N/M; the difference between these two will again be explained later. In between these and the vowels, are the rest of the syllables which always begin with one or two consonants, and finish with a single vowel. Therefore where a vowel follows another and is not a "long vowel", again explanation later, then that which follows is a separate sylable in its own right, likewise where an N/M preceeds another consonant, it too is independent. Knowing this makes the reading of ROUMAJI very easy, as all you have to do is break up the individual words into their set syllables and independent vowels/consonants, and then pronounce them according to this guide; believe me it really is simpler than it sounds. So for example let's try the word KATANA which most of you will know as one of the more famous types of Japanese sword. It breaks down as follows; KA-TA-NA, and you do not say "kerTARNna", but "kah-tah-nah", easy wasn't it! I hope... The Long Vowels The long vowels can be regarded as stretched ones, and are pronounced as a single continuous double length vowel sound and not as two separate ones, even when they form an extension to another syllable, for example if a plain A said "ah" was to be stretched you would hear "aahh", or in the case of the sylable KA you would hear "kaahh" rather than just "kah". In ROUMAJI there are two conventions used to indicate that a vowel is to be lingered upon. The most common is an acsent in the form of a small bar known as a macron printed horizontally above the affected vowel. However on some web sites and in some books you will see the alternative use of the "circumflex" acsent instead. In actual Japanese script a second vowel is written after the first. Note that even in RŌMAJI certain words are always written with their second vowel and never the macron or circumflex acsents, for example the word HEIAN　へいあん, wherein the I is the marker telling you to stretch the E. HEIAN is used to refer to a period of Japanese history (794-1185). Okay to show you how all this works, below are the five vowels and by way of an example the KA, KI, KU, KE and KO sylables from the top of the table at the end of this article. A あ or KA か is followed by another A あ to get AA ああ　or KAA かあ or marked as either Ā or  I　い or KI　き is followed by another I い　to get II いい　or KII きい or marked as either Ī or KÎ U う　or a KU　く is followed by another U　う　to get UU うう　or KUU くう or marked as either Ū or KÛ E え a plain E え　or the one in KE　け is normally followed by an I い and not an E え. So you get EI えい　or KEI けい　instead. Only very rarely in certain traditional words will you see another E　え following it as in EE　ええ or KEE けえor rarely if ever marked as either Ē or KÊ, remember the word "HEIAN". O お a single O お　or that forming part of the example sylable KO　こ is like the E え　above, in that it normally has a different vowel as its extention, this time it is followed by a U　う to get OU おう　or KOU こう respectively. Again as with the E　え, it is only very rarely followed by another O　お　as in OO おお meaning "great". Normally it is marked as either Ō or Ô. Okay, now try HIEIYAMA meaning Mount Hiei, being another of those words in which the extention is fully written out. This is because this mountain is the guardian KAMI (spirit) to the north east of the ancient imperial capital of KYŌTO, upon which many Buddhist temples were built to shield the city from attacks by ONI or demons, as such assaults are traditionally believed to come from the north east. HIEIYAMA breaks down thus HI-E-I-YA-MA. The independent vowel syllable E which would normally be pronounced "eh" is extended by the I causing it to be said as "eehh", so we get "he-eehh-yah-mah". Notice that "KYŌTO" when written in either full without the acsent, or in HIRAGANA script would have an extra "U" after the first O of KYO, or a special long dash if ever done in KATAKANA, to indicate a long vowel as follows: KYOUTO,　きょうと　and キョート . Of course if you knew your KANJI you would write it thus 京都. The Independent Consonant N/M ん Firstly, normally N is pronounced rather nasally when it occurs at the end of a word, otherwise it sounds just like the English "n" wherever it appears. On the other hand the independent "N" and "M" are in written Japanese the same character, that is ん in HIRAGANA and ン in KATAKANA. N is merely pronounced as "em" to "soften" it, if it is followed by a syllable beginning with either a B, P, or M in the same word. For example the ROUMAJI word NAMBAN, which when written down in Japanese script as なんばん, breaks down into NA-N-BA-N, meaning southern barbarian, the derogatory name used by Japanese of the period for the Europeans. The Japanese themselves, would just write N rather than M when romanising the word, but English speakers find it a useful pronounciation clue. In ROUMAJI sometimes a dash or an apostraphy is placed between an independent N and a vowel or letter "Y" within the same word. This is because in written Japanese it is made very clear that the N is independent, which is not so in ROUMAJI written without this feature. For example the independent N ん that comes both before and after the vowel E え in the word KIN-EN, きんえん　(KI-N-E-N), which means no smoking, compared to KINEN, きねん　(KI-NE-N), meaning anniversary. Or the word KAN'I かんい (KA-N-I) meaning summary or KANI かに (KA-NI) meaning crab. Finally this feature is used to distinguish the independent N　ん and a a YA　や　YU ゆ or　YO よ　sylable from the contracted sylables NYA　にゃ　NYU にゅ　and NYO にお. For example as used in the words KIN'YUU　きんゆう (KI-N-YUU) meaning "monetary circulation" and KINYUU きにゅう (KI-NYUU) meaning to "enter" (on a form). When the independent N follows a syllable consisting of a consonant and the vowel -E, it is pronounced "-ane". For example KENJUTSU or けんじゅつ meaning "sword techniques",　and breaks down into KE-N-JU-TSU, is not "keN-Jut-Su", but "cane-Jew-t'zoo", say it curtly and you will hear the difference. Note also the pair of consonants "T" and "S" and that the sylable division is in front of the T not the S. This S is put there for the same reason as the soft M for the N, in that it helps English speakers say the sylable correctly. Japanese writers would romanise it as TU. Combined or Contracted Syllables As you move down the table, you will notice that all but five lines have three extra syllables to the right hand side. These are derivatives of the corresponding "-I" character of that line combined with YA や, YU ゆ　or YO　よ respectively. Note that in these combined syllables the "i" sound is virtually silent, and when written in ROUMAJI its omitted. Therefore KIYO きよ and KYO　きょ do not sound at all the same, the latter being contracted to occupy the space of a single syllable. Note that when written in KANA the second sylable has shrunk in size to indicate this. Double Consonants Four of the consonants can be doubled up thus; kk, pp, ss and tt. They are said much like the "k" in the English word "booKKeeping", in that both are pronounced with a tiny pause in between them. In ROUMAJI when the CHI ち　syllable or its derivatives, CHA　ちゃ, CHU ちゅ　and CHO　ちょ, see the T line is to have its leading consonant doubled, you will find it proceeded by a single T and not a C. For example in the word KATCHU meaning armour. In KANA this is represented by the use of a minature version of the character TSU つ　or　っ placed in front of the one to be doubled up as follows かっちゅ. Note that the last character is also small because its a contracted sylable. Note also that the SHA, SHU and SHU sylables when doubled loose the middle letter just like TSU above, so you get SSHA, SSHU and SSHU and not "SHSHA" or the like. Compound Words Compound words are where two words are regularly put together, as in KO　こ and HAKAMA　はかま, meaning small/short and trousers, forming KOBAKAMA こばかま, the name for the kind of shorter pair of trousers used for work or war during our period. it is normal for the leading consonant of the second word to be slightly "softened" so as to make it easier to say, if it is a sylable that can be softened that is. Thus the は　HA goes to a　ば　 BA. Likewise a K- sylable will go to the corresponding one on the G- line, while the S- will go to the Z- line, and T- goes to D-. Note that the syllable FU can in some circumstances go to PU rather than BU. This relationship is very clear in KANA, as the primary character has a small mark inserted at its top right, to change it to the new one as above. The table helps you by showing this by placing the subordinate lines below their primary ones, the basic character is the same for each. The mark for all but the P line, looks like a little quotation mark as in the ば BA above. A tiny circle is added to the characters of the H line to make it in to a P- one, for example ひ　HI goes to　ぴ PI . So heres an example: the word for the neck guard of a helmet is SHIKORO　しころ, and the prefix words for a "small" and "rounded" style are "KO"　こ and "MANJŪ"　まんじゅう . So if you look at the table below you will see that when the whole lot is put together the SHI　し character drops down to become JI　じ, and so we get KOMANJŪ JIKORO こまんじゅう じころ. The "AI" Effect No, I don't mean artificial intelegence, rather, when an A or an-A is followed by an I, it is pronounced like "eye". So for example if you say the word "DAIMYO", meaning a great land owner or a great name, which breaks down into the following syllables DA-I-MYO and would individually be pronounced as "dah-ee-m'yoh". Is instead said as "die-m'yoh", as the "-ah" and "ee" sounds are slammed together to form a single sylable. Likewise "SAI" is pronounced like "sigh" and "HAI" as "high", and finally the most well known example of this is the word SAMURAI, try it yourself. When Vowels Go Bad In the verb endings -SHITA and -SHITE, the -I is virtually silent. Then the first part of this syllable, that's the "-SH is glued to the end of the preceding syllable. So for example the kind of body armour called a YUKINOSHITA DŌ, is pronounced as "you-key-nosh-tah-doohh" rather than "you-key-no-she-tah-doohh". The same effect is seen in some words and names wherein the syllable SHI is at the end of that wordt, as in the name HIDEYOSHI. Instead of "he-day-yoh-she", you actually get "he-day-yosh". Similarly, with the -U of the syllable SU in the same position, such as the name IEYASU, the same thing happens, so you get "ee-eh-yass" rather than "ee-eh-yah-soo". This also happens to some other words such as the extremely common verb DESU, meaning is/being/to exist, which becomes "dace" or "dess" rather than "day-soo", unless you are being extremely polite or grovelling. This also happens to the verb ending -MASU, which ends up as "-mass". Other Points G is pronounced hard as in "garden", when at the beginning of a word, otherwise it sounds somewhat nasal. Note that many Japanese people today only use the hard "g". Note the FU sound on the H line, though normally pronounced as "foo" as in FUJIYAMA, "Mount Fuji", it can sometimes sound more like WHO, as it seems that the true sound lies somewhere between the two. You might see the ROUMAJI characters HU in some Japanese romanisations, see the table below. A similar situation applies to the R line, in that the Japanese use a sound somewhere between the French rolled "r" and the English "l", which explains the common transposition. I have heard a native speaker articulate the R line of the syllabary with a distinctive "ell" pronunciation as well as the "r" version, which is a function of regional dialect. Unlike "HEW", the R line is never written down using the English "l" except in the very worst of translations. With regard to the FU and R- line syllables don't waste your time trying to get the right sound, just use the specified pronounciations, you will be better understood by all, I am simply providing the information for clarity and completeness. Do not be confused by the fact that the table has two entries for JI, ZU, Ti and DI. The difference is in the written language, wherein certain words are traditionally set down with a specific version of the JI or ZU character, an issue that you need not worry yourself about. While the TI and DI are either Japanese romanisations of CHI (T- line) and JI (D- line) or the very modern Hepburn KATAKANA characters for the "tea" and "dea" sounds, see the bottom of the table and the next section. Old And Ultra-Modern Syllables And Characters The syllable WO is these days only used in writing for the grammatical particle "O", but may occur in some ancient words. As you study Japanese history you will come across odd romanisations such as KWAN meaning a particular part of an armour, arising from older translation practises. Today the W would be omitted, that gives us KAN. I have added these to the W line in brackets. With regard to old syllables, there are also the obsolete characters, YE, WI and WE used in ancient words like YEZO, the old name for HOKKAIDO, the northern most island of Japan. Note that there is no YI or WU, even in old Japanese. Many western words have found their way in to Japanese over the last four centuries, so much so, that the need has arisen for additional characters for non-traditional sounds. I have appended these to the foot of the table. The F- series is derived by combining the FU character with a minature vowel, and likewise the V- series comes from the character BI, as the Japanese tend to say V as B. The TI and DI characters are made from CHI and JI characters of the T-/D- series respectively combined with a minature I vowel. Finally Well I hope you find this work useful, if you have any comments please let me know, meanwhile, have fun... The KANA Table Below is the KANA table, with each individual syllable laid out in traditional A, I, U, E, O structure across the page, plus the three compound character sets under YA, YU and YO to the right hand side. The English consonants are listed down the left hand side of the table. Within each entry you will find the HIRAGANA character at the top, followed by the KATAKANA version underneath it. The vowel entries also have their long version along side them. Next is the common Hepburn ROUMAJI (roman letters) representation, which is easier for English speakers as it gives clues to pronounciation. In those cases where the current simpler official Japanese government's ROİMAJI system called the KUNREI SHIKI version differs from Hepburn, I have included it in brackets. At the very bottom of each entry is a guide to the sylables pronounciation. At the bottom are the very modern F, V, TI and DI characters. Click the KANA Table ONLY link below, to go to the stand alone copy of the following table:

KANA Table ONLY

A I U E O YA YU YO あ ああ ア　アー A/AA or Ā ah/aahh い　いい イ　イー I/II or Ī ee/eeee う　うう ウ　ウー U/UU or Ū oo/oooo え　えい　(ええ) エ　エー E/EI(EE) or Ē eh/eehh お　おう　(おお) オ　オー O/OU(OO) or Ō oh/oohh K か カ KA (KWA*) kah き キ KI key く く KU koo け ケ KE kay こ コ KO (KWO*) koh きゃ キャ KYA k'yah きゅ キュ KYU k'yoo きょ キョ KYO k'yoh G が ガ GA gah ぎ ギ GI gee ぐ ぐ GU goo げ ゲ GE gay ご ゴ GO goh ぎゃ ギャ GYA g'yah ぎゅ ギュ GYU g'yoo ぎょ ギョ GYO g'yoh S さ サ SA sah し シ SHI (SI) she す ス SU sue せ セ SE say そ ソ SO soh しゃ シャ SHA (SYA) shah しゅ シュ SHU (SYU) shoo しょ ショ SHO (SYO) shoh Z ざ ザ ZA zah じ ジ JI (ZI) jee ず ズ ZU zoo ぜ ゼ ZE zay ぞ ゾ ZO zoh じゃ ジャ JA (ZYA) jah じゅ ジュ JU (ZYU) jew じょ ジョ JO (ZYO) joh T た タ TA tah ち チ CHI (TI) chee つ ツ TSU (TU) t'zoo て テ TE tay と ト TO toh ちゃ チャ CHA (TYA) chah ちゅ チュ CHU (TYU) chew ちょ チョ CHO (TYO) choh D だ ダ DA dah ぢ ヂ JI (DI/ZDI) jee づ ヅ ZU (DU/ZDU) zoo で デ DE day ど ド DO doh N な ナ NA nah に ニ NI knee ぬ ヌ NU noo ね ネ NE nay の ノ NO noh にゃ ニャ NYA n'yah にゅ ニュ NYU new にょ ニョ NYO n'yoh H は ハ HA hah ひ ヒ HI he ふ フ FU (HU) foo へ ヘ HE hay ほ ホ HO hoh ひゃ ヒャ HYA h'yah ひゅ ヒュ HYU h'yoo ひょ ヒョ HYO h'yoh B ば バ BA bah び ビ BI bee ぶ ブ BU boo べ ベ BE bay ぼ ボ BO boh びゃ ビャ BYA b'yah びゅ ビュ BYU b'yoo びょ ビョ BYO b'yoh P ぱ パ PA pah ぴ ピ PI pea ぷ プ PU poo ぺ ペ PE pay ぽ ポ PO poh ぴゃ ピャ PYA p'yah ぴゅ ピュ PYU p'yoo ぴょ ピョ PYO p'yoh M ま マ MA mah み ミ MI me む ム MU moo め メ ME may も モ MO moh みゃ ミャ MYA m'yah みゅ ミュ MYU m'yoo みょ ミョ MYO m'yoh Y や ヤ YA yah ゆ ユ YU you YE yay よ ヨ YO yoh R ら ラ RA rah り リ RI ree る ル RU roo れ レ RE ray ろ ロ RO roh りゃ リャ RYA r'yah りゅ リュ RYU r'yoo りょ リョ RYO r'yoh W わ ワ WA wah ゐ WI we ゑ WE way を ヲ WO woh N ん ン N/M en/em F ふぁ ファ FA fah ふぃ フィ FI fee フ ふぇ フェ FE fay ふぉ フォ FO foh V ヴぁ ヴァ VA vah ヴぃ ヴィ VI vee ヴ ヴ VU voo ヴぇ ヴェ VE vay ヴぉ ヴォ VO voh TI チ TI tea DI DI dee

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