The Japanese Writing System

The Japanese Writing System (from Genki)

• Hiragana and katakana are letters, i.e., they represent sounds.
• Hiragana is generally used for words of Japanese origin.
• Katakana is generally used for loanwords.
• Kanji are borrowed Chinese characters, and represent both sound and meaning.

Hiragana

• There are 46 syllables.
• Diacritical marks and subsequent letters can be added to change the letter's sound.
• Consonants are doubled in certain words, which alters normal pronunciation.
• The same is true for vowel sounds.
• Some vowels are dropped in certain words.
• Pitch also has an effect on Japanese words.
• Syllables are pronounced in either a high or low pitch, but remain equal in length and stress.

Katakana

• Katakana is essentially the same as hiragana, i.e., there are 46 letters, diacritical marks, etc.
• It's like print versus cursive in English, based on my first impression.
• As previously mentioned, these letters are usually used for words borrowed from other languages.

Kanji

• Kanji, as previously stated, represent both sound and meaning.
• There are two types of kanji: on-yomi and kun-yomi.
• On-yomi are Chinese reading of Kanji characters.
• I believe this means that the Kanji character would sound and mean the same thing in both China and Japan.
• Kun-yomi are kanji used to write native Japanese words.
• I believe this refers to kanji characters which either do not exist in Chinese or represent something different in Japan than in China.