The Japanese

Calligraphy

By Maria Bernadette
B. Acosta
 The Japanese Writing System is
divided into three types, Hiragana,
Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is used
for native Japanese words, and
Katakana is used for words borrowed
from other languages. Kanji are
Chinese characters used to simplify a
word so you don’t have to spell it all
out. Hiragana is the system students
are supposed to learn first.
 あ a - as in father

HIRAGANA and KATAKANA

are syllabaries, meaning there
is a symbol for every syllable in
い i – as in eel

the Japanese language. The

Japanese call these symbols: う
u – as in rule

Kana. The first kana in

hiragana are the vowels…
え e – as in end

お o – as in ode
 か ka – as in car

HIRAGANA follows
with a different
き ki – as in keen

consonant sound
before the a, i, u, e, く ku – as in cool

or o sounds. For
example, next is
the K set…
け ke – as in keg

こ ko – as in cone
Katakana is fundamentally the
same as Hiragana
It’s used for onomatopoeias and words
borrowed from foreign languages.
Some borrowed words include:
アメリカ = amerika (America)

バナナ = banana (banana)

ナイフ = naifu (knife)

マクドナルド = makudonarudo (McDonalds)

ハンバーガー = hanbaagaa (hamburger)

Katakana also has this symbol

Which hiragana doesn’t have.

ー
This symbol indicates that the katakana
syllable before it is elongated… as in the
sound will last twice as long as usual.
 ~Examples~
mariina= marina aakeedo= arcade

mayoneezu= mayonnaise bataa= butter

pasupooto= passport piinattsu= peanuts

Note: the stressed consonant

symbol before the big tsu

一 is also the number 1 in kanji, which is coming up next. The

only way to tell whether 一 is meant as a long vowel or
number 1 is whether 一 is surrounded by katakana or kanji.
 And Finally, Kanji

As I mentioned before, Kanji are Chinese

style characters that are assimilated for
Japanese usage. Kanji makes it so you don’t
have to write every single syllable.
Mountain= yama やま
One= ichi
いち
Woman= onna
おんな
Samurai=
さむらい
There are many thousands of kanji in
Japanese. In fact, there are so many,
that even a Japanese scholar wouldn’t
know every last one of them. Just as
an English scholar wouldn’t know
every word in the English dictionary.
Omedetou! (Congratulations!)

先生からありがとう
Sensei kara arigatō