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HOW TO WRITE KATAKANA

1. In Japanese,here are three writing system: Hiragana,Katakanaand Kanji.

Hiraganaand Katakanaare phoneticand the samesymbol always ndicates he same

sound.

Today Katakana s used o represent oreign words called 'loanwords'(gairaigo).

2. One katakana epresents ne syllable and there arefive different types of

syllables.

a. Five basicvowels: a],[iJ,[ul,[el,[olb. Consonants r semivowels vowel: [na],[ki],[yul,etc.

c. Syllabicconsonants:nl / [mJ

d. Any consonant ther han [n] / [m] when followed by another denticalconsonant:e.g. zasshi, issaten, tc.

e. A contracted yllable: ki] + [ya]=[kya],[chi] + [yal=[chal,etc.

3. The stroke orders are usually from left to right and top to bottom.

4. There are threeways to finish a stroke.'Tome' or 'stop' means hatthe penhas o makeacompletestop and should be

lifted off the paperat the end of the stroke.

Hane or 'jump' means hat you leave a jump mark before the end of the stroke.

Lastly,with harai or 'sweeping', you finish the stroke by lifting the pen up

gradually.

5. There are46 basicsymbols n Katakana. In addition, there are Dakuon'Handakuon'and'Yoon'(Seepages 9, 60, 61, 68, 69 & 70).

The table on page73 illustrates33 additionalsyllables. Theseare usedonly

to express oreign words. The sounds hat are represented y thesesyllables

do not exist in Japanese.

6. The first five of thesearevowels, a], [i], [ul, [e], [o].

7. The second ive arethesevowelsplus the consonantr.

8. The third are the vowels plus the consonat .

Shi is used or si becausehe atter sounddoesn'texist.

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9. The fourth, the vowels plus the consonant .

Chi andtsu replace ti and tu.

10. The fifth, the vowelsplus he consonant .

11. The sixth, he vowelsplus he consonantt..

Fu for hu

12. The seventh,he vowelsplus m.

13. The eighth, he vowelsplusy.

Yi andye don't exist.

14. The ninth, he vowelsplus rThe pronounciationof 'r ' canbe regarded sthe soundbetween rl and [l] in

Japanese.

15. The vowel plusw

wi,wt,t andwe don'texist n modernJapanese.

o [E] is usedonly as a particle.

16. DakuonThere are three kinds of dakuon. Three consonantsused or them are lg,zdl.

17. Handakuons [pa,pi , pu, pe,po].

18. Yo-on

There are three kinds of yoon.

1 . K ,N ,H ,M,R+Y + A,U,O

Eg. K + Y +O=Kyo *- t "

3. J +A, (J,O

Eg. JA i -y

2. SH CH + A,(J,O

E g . C H + Y A = C H A f +

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How to write words

19. DoubleVowel [o] + [o]Whendoubteo's occur, he second o] syllable s written with an [u] in most

cases. o] + [o] * [o] + [u]

2A. Other Double Vowels

When you havea long vowel in Katakana,a straight ine is usedas follows:

3*?(ko o ra) Ary* I-"(sue o) f *T(te epu)

2I . DoubleConsonants

Everytime wo consonantsakeplace n a row, the first one is alwayswritten

with a half-sizedv [tsu].

Tappu vJ Rokku ryF

Thedoubleconsonant

n]is not to be treatedas above. The first

[nlis written

with ) .

How to write sentences

Don't confuse he particles wa,o,e]with ordinary [wa,o,e].

22. 33 additional yllables

Non-existance f thesesoundssometimes ausesrouble n writing out the

possibleclosestsounds n Katakana. For instance, the word 'film' can be

written in the following two possibleways:

I .rJI/A 7 4 JbA

Both are acceptable.

73. Wordsof Japanese rigin

Recently, someJapanese rigin words tendnobe written in Katakara because

they are much simpler than out-of-datekanji or the uncorrventional atakana

emphasizeshosewards.

lf,rords of Foreign Origin

They are mainly propernouns suchasgeographicand personalnames, he majority

of which are mported from the Eqglish l4guage. Katakanawords can be quiue

often seenn the namesof shops,hrafldsanddesigners nd recipesalrd

commencials.

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Japanese for AII

?4. The voiceless H sound n English s replaced y tf sa, shi, X su, se or

7 so. The examplesare as ollows.

X U * three ,/\*Xf* birthday

25. The Englishwords F+vowel',which are not transcribed y 7 fu, have

become Y fa, 7 ,f fi , 7;c fe, 7 t fo. However, hey cafl sometimes

represented y /\ ha, k tri, ^ he, ,* ho. Somenf theexamplesare:

7 4 lVl^ fi lm 3*H* coffee

2"6. The,words'V+vowel'are expressedUf vil,fl 4 vi, Y r.u, ry:f, ve,f f, oo.

They sometirnes ecome \ ba, H bi , J bu, "\ be, ,* bo.

rJr 4 t U }. {rt4 t

t)VJ violinVF i y vitamin

27. The words'T+vowel'such as teaand ick have becomeeither + or +.

t, l *+ f * teacher f ,t *A {f *A) team

t'f is often replaced y #.

x}Yy Edison Att>jf Hf Scandinavia

28. The other words with 'T+ vowel' becomes ;e [chu].

* ** U 'y J tulip f :r *J tube'D+vowel' as n due becomes ither :r or !*:e.

29. The following wordsare expressed ither n I- [to] or ?[tsul.

#:c y l- lV?! gentleman F IJA? A . 'jU *Christmas tree

The English sound d] is replacedby tr [do]. The following are examples:

tr7 4 J drive l*+ z-lVF U*documentary

30. 7 is employed o showa if a follows i.

VT,/piano F4 7t Diana

31.'Sh+ vowel' as n sfre/Jeyor ftarksometimesequire insteadof i:c.

i. lt, Ft*+ milkshake i + *F shark

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Je or ge employs ither?:n or -H as n:

J:r U - jelly I.?fflL angel

32. 'wwh + vowel'isexpressed 4 [u]+[iJ,x[u]+[o] or ryt[u]+[o].

However, or a propernoun, his s wrinen * + [wiJ, f :c [w*] or * f [wo].Proper louns

* -t UTAX williams t t-fr* walkerWords

S:r.*7wase +4X+*whisky

33. The Eqglishsoundshatincludes#u as n quarter or quick areshownF.

AFXT squareF+t'*"J

quartz

Guaas n Guams written y [gul+[alFT

FTA Guam trTf??Guatemala

34. When t is necessaryo lengthen he vowel sound,please mploy "* " as n the

example.

ff* car 'tfV* sutnmer

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