皆さん、こんにちは。 Good morning everybody! Today we start from the basis of the language. This content is meant for everyone who desires to learn to read the syllabary of Hiragana, which is the first step of the Japanese writing system.
Japanese language is called Nihongo 日本語 Nihon is the name of the country, 日本 Japan and go is the language, the word, the idiom
Introduction to the Rōmaji reading system
In our first step it is useful to use the transcription with Latin characters, the alphabet in order to be able to read the characters. When we have become familiar with the syllabary and its rules, it is no longer necessary to use the alphabet, for it was invented for non-Japanese people who couldn't read japanese characters.
Rōmaji, ローマ字, literally means Roman letters and refers to the Latin script that is used to pronounce the Japanese language for all the beginners. This method of writing is also called the romanization of Japanese.
This system is particularly known as "Hepburn" and takes its name from James Curtis Hepburn, the American missionary who created the reading system and published the first dictionary using western alphabet letters.
The characteristic feature of Hepburn system is the reading of consonants according to English phonology and the reading of vowels according to Italian, Spanish phonology
The syllabary consists of:
the 5 vowels a, i, u, e, o
the semiconsonant 'n'
and characters representing syllables, elements composed of consonant + vowel
Subdividing the nature of the sounds we have:
46 pure sounds
20 impure sounds
5 half-impure sounds
36 contracted sounds
Today we deal with the most conspicuous part of the Hiragana chart, the pure sounds
.

はじめましょう! Hajimemashō! Let's start!
Vowels in Japanese
The five vowels:
あ - a
い - i
う - u
え - e
お - o

Let's have a look at examples of words and expressions using only the vowels we have just learnt:
あい - ai:
meet
いいえ - iie:
no!
いえ - ie:
home
おおい - ooi:
many, numerous
いう - iu:
say
あお - ao:
blue
The two characters あ and お might be confused, but if we look carefully they are different
KA series
か ka
き ki
く ku
け ke
こ ko
We can now read many more words using the serious ka and the previous vowels. The example words we are going to look at contain both the new series and the 5 vowels.
かく - kaku the verb
write
あきこ - Akiko (feminine name)
おこ - oko Japanese
incense
けいこ - Keiko (feminine name)
きく - kiku the verb
listen
SA series
さ sa
し shi
す su
せ se
そ so

Surely you recognise the Japanese dish also known in the West and its reading sushi.
しお - shio:
salt
けす - kesu the verb
turn off
そこ - soko adverb
there
せかい - sekai:
world
あさ - asa:
morning
かさ - kasa:
umbrella
TA series
た ta
ち chi
つ tsu
て te
と to

ちかてつ - chikatetsu:
underground
かつ - katsu the verb
win
.こと - koto the Japanese harp
たかい - takai adjective
high
たいこ - taiko the Japanese drums
いち - ichi number 1
Double consonants
Now that we have also learnt the series ta, we can add a little rule about the double consonants.
Example in the adverb ikki ni, meaning in one gulp
/ in one breath
, we notice the two kk.
The double consonant is obtained by writing a small つ tsu before the consonant to be doubled.
In the adverb ikkai, once
, we have:
NA series
な na
に ni
ぬ nu
ね ne
の no

ねこ - neko: cat
たぬき - tanuki raccoon dog
なに - nani interrogative what?
.
に - ni number 2
HA series
The consonant h is aspirated in the Japanese language, so the sound should be heard clearly.
は ha, imagine the onomatopoeia for the laugh "ah ah ah"
ひ hi
ふ hu, the pronunciation of this syllable is very close to the sound fu
へ he
ほ ho

は - ha:
tooth, teeth
はこね - Hakone town in Kanagawa Prefecture
はた - hata
flag
はかる - hakaru the verb
measure; weigh
Double vowels
We have learnt the process to double consonants, with the use of the syllable つ written small. Let's now have a look at the case of double vowels.
ああ aa is also written ā, using the hyphen also calld macron above the vowel doubles its sound
いい ii, another i is added
うう uu another u is placed next to it and can be written ū
えい / ええ ei, ee, ē the doubling of the e is obtained by combining the vowel e and the vowel i and the pronunciation is that of 2 e
おう the doubling of the o is obtained by adding the vowel u.
There are exceptions such as for the adjective ōkii big
or ōi numerous
in which the doubled vowel is expressed by adding another o:
おおきい (ōkii)
おおい (ōi)
The consonant N
The only consonant that we can recognise in the syllabary is the letter n, which is considered a semiconsonant due to its particular sound: ん n.
にほん - Nihon:
Japan
.しつもん - shitsumon:
question
Some examples showing the double vowels
おねえさん - onēsan, the elder sister
こうこう - kōkō, the high school
おかあさん - okāsan, one's or another's mother
おとうさん - otōsan, one's own or another's father
くうき - kūki: air
せんせい - sensei: teacher, master

MA series
ま ma
み mi
む mu
め me
も mo

まもなく - mamonaku adverb
shortly, soon
うみ - umi:
sea
あめ - ame:
rain
むいか - muika the 6th of the month
むし - mushi:
insect
めいし - meishi:
business card
まこと - Makoto (male name)
YA series
や ya
ゆ yu
よ yo

Kayoko - Kayoko (feminine name)
Yūmei - yūmei adjective
popular, famous
Yamamoto - Yamamoto (Japanese surname)
Yonaka - yonaka adverb
middle of the night
Yuki yuki:
snow
Mayumi Mayumi (feminine name)
Mitsuyasu Mitsuyasu (masculine name)
RA series
ら ra
り ri
る ru
れ re
ろ ro

Recognising Japanese characters
On a first approach and study of the syllabary, it may happen that the characters appear slightly different from those learned from the hiragana chart. If we consider the same font we normally use for our alphabetical characters, we realise that even in our writing system some letters are sometimes not immediately recognisable.
Context and training can help us to recognise Hiragana charachters and later Katakana characters used for foreign terms, and after this first step we can reach the wonderful world of the Kanji, 漢字 the ideograms.
Characters that might initially be perhaps confused include い the vowel i and the syllable こ ko. In a printed text the distinction is clear, but in a handwritten text it may be that the syllables are written obliquely and then they could be interchanged. Other similar characters are:
め 'me' meaning
eye
ぬ "nu" as in the word ぬの
cloth
,textile
ね "ne" is the exclamative particle placed at the end of the sentence meaning
right?
,Isn't it?
,Doesn't it?
The context in which the word is placed and the training help to identify the character correctly, so つづけましょう! Let's go on!
The last characters of the pure sound part are wa わ and を o / wo.
The character WA わ
わたし watashi the first person pronoun
io
かいわ kaiwa:
conversation
れいわ Reiwa is the Reiwa period, which began in the year 2019, so in the current year we are in the fourth year of the Reiwa period
The character WO/ O を
This last character is read "o" and is only used for the particle which express the object in the sentence.
Let's analyze an example:
As you can see, we have two o vowels: おちゃをのむ。.
The first o represents an honorific prefix. Japanese language makes a great use of honorific prefixes and suffixes placed before or afer a noun to emphasise its importance. cha is the term for tea and it's used with the honorific o, おちゃ
o-cha
The second o indicates the particle of the object を and the character is different
nomu (のむ) is the verb
to drink
Japanese reading exercise: Rōmaji
Try reading and writing the names of the animals in the picture. There are some syllables that we will look at in the next section, but I am sure you will be able to write the pronunciation in Rōmaji of almost all the animals. がんばってね!
