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Japanese Letters :
Japanese did not
have letters until chinese introduced their letters in second or third
century. After then the japanese started using chinese letters. Of course
ancient japanese used these letters for learning chinese progressed
culture. As you know, chinese letters are basically ideograms that were
originally pictograph and every single letter has its own
meaning.
For example, the letter for turtle
is 亀. This letter is
simplified one as compared to original one but still the shape of turtle
is obvious. I do not know how many chinese letters are there, probably
more than hundred thousands. Roughly saying, average japanese can read
letters of 5,000 or more but can write down 2,000 or less. At elementary
school and junior high school, 1,800 of letters are
taught.
Chinese letters are used of course in
China and in Japan and also in Korea. Chinese use chinese letters only.
In Japan, as we are doing nowadays too, the chinese invented letters
were arranged otherwise to form a group of letters expressing sounds.
Therefore, japanese have ideograms and phonograms. The phonogram letters
were contrived in eighth century. Before that time, ancient people used
a group of chinese letters as phonograms very hard to
read.
The way of making phonograms was to
deform the chinese letters that has similar sound with japanese basic
sounds. Here is a example of making "a" sound
letter".
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The top most
letter is print style and the bottom letter is the letter for "a" sound.
Another three letters show the trend.
The
letter  is a synthesis of
two parts.  means a house and
 means woman. The original
pictograph for woman is 
kneeling obediently. When woman is in the house, she is at ease and
safe. Therefore the meaning of is "ease" and
"safe".
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Forty
eight letters were thus made. two letters are now rarely used because of
similarity of sounds. Ancient people discerned these sounds but people
of nowadays are hardly able to discern these sounds. This group of
phonograms is called
hiragana.
The table below shows
the hiraganas with their pronunciation and original
letter.
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
hira-
gana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
hira-
gana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
hira-
gana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
hira-
gana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
hira-
gana |
| "a" |
 |
"sa" |
 |
"na" |
 |
"ma" |
 |
"ra" |
 |
| "i" |
"shi" |
"ni" |
"mi" |
"ri" |
| "u" |
"su" |
"nu" |
"mu" |
"ru" |
| "e" |
"se" |
"ne" |
"me" |
"re" |
| "o" |
"so" |
"no" |
"mo" |
"ro" |
| "ka" |
"ta" |
"ha" |
"ya" |
"wa" |
| "ki" |
"chi" |
"hi" |
- |
"wi" |
| "ku" |
"tsu" |
"fu" |
"yu" |
"n" |
| "ke" |
"te" |
"he" |
- |
"we" |
| "ko" |
"to" |
"ho" |
"yo" |
"o" |
&nb
sp; There are 48 letters. But the pronunciation "Wi" and "we" are
lost nowadays. Therefore  and
 are used only in classic style
of literature. In older time, 
had the pronunciation of "wo" but it is now pronounced as "O". So there
are two letters for "o". is
given a special role in grammar and discriminated in written sentences.
One other irregularity,  is
given special role in the grammer. Sometimes it should be pronounced as
"wa" in cases where it indicate that the previous word is the subject
word.
There is another group of phonograms.
It is called katakana. In contrast to
hiraganas which were made simplifying by deforming the
whole of original letters, katakanas were made simplifying
by rather taking a part of original letters.
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
kata-
kana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
kata-
kana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
kata-
kana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
kata-
kana |
pro-
nun-
cia-
tion |
origin
and
kata-
kana |
| "a" |
 |
"sa" |
 |
"na" |
 |
"ma" |
 |
"ra" |
 |
| "i" |
"shi" |
"ni" |
"mi" |
"ri" |
| "u" |
"su" |
"nu" |
"mu" |
"ru" |
| "e" |
"se" |
"ne" |
"me" |
"re" |
| "o" |
"so" |
"no" |
"mo" |
"ro" |
| "ka" |
"ta" |
"ha" |
"ya" |
"wa" |
| "ki" |
"chi" |
"hi" |
- |
"wi" |
| "ku" |
"tsu" |
"fu" |
"yu" |
"n" |
| "ke" |
"te" |
"he" |
- |
"we" |
| "ko" |
"to" |
"ho" |
"yo" |
"o" |
These two groups of phonograms are made almost in the same period.
The hiragana has soft and smooth line and mostly used by
women in older time. The katakana has rather sharp and
hard line and mostly used for academic people to learn chinese sciences
in older time. Usually today, hiraganas are used for
expressing japanese orientated words, katakanas are used
for expressing europe oriented words and chinese letters for chinese
orientated words. Anything can be expressed using either one of
hiragana or katakana. But sentences are
better understood by mixing these three groups of
letters.
You may noticed there are not
letters having consonants "b", "d", "g", "j", "p" and "z". "ba" sound is
expressed adding  to forming  ="ba". Like as this, adding to  ,
 ,  , then  ="de",  ="ga",  ="zu" are formed. How about "p" sound? "p" sound is made
by adding  to "h" sound
letters like  ="pi". Korean invented more
rational phonograms called "hangul" or called "onmun" in older time.
These letters are consisted of 14 consonant letters and 10 vowel letters
and any sound are created by the combination of these 24 letters. The
combined letters are somewhat similar to chinese letters. Seemingly
Koreans are now trying to use only "hangul". Official literatures are
written only by "hangul". At public places chinese letters which were
helpful for japanese travelers, are now hardly seen. However, it seems
chinese letters are favoured to express personal
name.
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