0.4 Hiragana III — や to ん, and the last two fossil spellings — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read all forty-six hiragana. The last eleven are the y-, r- and w-rows plus ん . Read the two remaining fossil spellings: the object particle を , pronounced o , and the direction particle へ , pronounced e . Say the Japanese ら -row without using either an English r or an English l . Read twelve real sentences from start to finish. Prerequisites : lesson 0.3 — thirty-five hiragana, and は read as wa . Eleven characters and you are done with the first system. Three of the eleven are famous difficulties, so this lesson is shorter on shapes and longer on sounds and on the two spellings that do not say what they mean. The last eleven Row Characters Read as y-row や ゆ よ ya yu yo ya yu yo — only three; yi and ye died out r-row ら り る れ ろ ra ri ru re ro ra ri ru re ro — but see below w-row わ を wa o wa o — only two survive; を is a particle and nothing else the nasal ん n — the only character that is not a full syllable Two rows are short because the language lost sounds. There was once a yi and a ye , and a wi , we and wo ; the characters for them were removed from ordinary use in 1946. Only を was kept, and only for one job: marking the direct object of a verb. You will therefore never meet を inside a word. If you see it, it is the object particle. The ら -row is neither r nor l This is the consonant English speakers are known for getting wrong, and the reason is that English has two sounds where Japanese has one — and the Japanese one is neither of them. English r is made by curling the tongue back without touching anything. English l is made by pressing the tongue tip against the ridge behind the teeth and holding it there. Japanese ら is made by flicking the tongue tip against that ridge once, very lightly, and letting it go immediately. It is a tap, written [ɾ], and the nearest thing in most English accents is the tt in an American pronunciation of butter , or the d in ladder said fast. Two practical consequences. First, if you say an English r you will sound wrong but be understood; if you hold an l you will also be understood. Neither is fatal, and neither will improve on its own — so practise the flick now, deliberately, ten times a day for a week. Second, and more importantly for listening: because Japanese has one sound here, a Japanese speaker hears your r and your l as the same thing. That is why light and right both come out as ライト ( raito ), which you will meet again in lesson 2.1. ん — a beat of its own ん is the only hiragana that is not a consonant-plus-vowel. It is a nasal on its own, it can never begin a word, and — this is the part that matters — it takes up a full beat , exactly as much time as any other character. English treats a final n as a tail on the vowel before it. Japanese does not. Compare ほん ( hon ) (book) with ほ . The first is two beats, ho-n, of equal length. An English speaker will naturally say it as one syllable with a nasal ending, and it will sound rushed to a Japanese ear. Lesson 1.1 takes this apart properly and lesson 1.4 shows that ん is pronounced four different ways depending on what follows it — but you need not worry about that yet, because all four are spelled with this one character. The other two fossils: を and へ In lesson 0.3 you met は , written ha and read wa when it is a particle. There are exactly two more of these, and you now have all three: Particle Written / read What it marks は ha / read wa the topic — "as for …" を wo / read o the direct object of a verb へ he / read e direction — "towards" Three exceptions in an entire writing system is an astonishingly small number, and they are all in the same place: the commonest particles, whose pronunciation drifted while the spelling stayed. Nothing else in hiragana or katakana will ever surprise you this way. Note the asymmetry. を is only ever a particle, so the rule is absolute. But は and へ are ordinary characters inside words — はな ( hana ), へた ( heta ) — and read ha and he there. The special reading applies only when the character is standing alone doing a particle's work. Shapes that will try to confuse you Pair How to keep them apart わ , れ , ね Same vertical-plus-loop skeleton. わ closes into a round bowl; れ kicks out to the right; ね curls into a full loop on the left. る and ろ Identical except that る ends in a small closed loop. ろ stops open. り and い り 's two strokes lean towards each other and the right one is long and curved; い 's stand apart and the right one is short. ん and h Not a Japanese pair, but worth naming: ん is one stroke that starts with a small tick, drops, and sweeps up to the right. Handwritten, it can look like a Latin h to a beginner. Twenty-four words All forty-six characters are now available, so these words can be ordinary ones. Word Meaning Notes やま ja yama mountain あのやまはたかいね。 That mountain is high. そのやまはゆきにおおわれている。 The mountain is covered with snow. やさい ja yasai vegetable ゆき ja yuki snow ゆめ ja yume dream よる ja yoru night よむ ja yomu to read りす ja risu squirrel るす ja rusu being out, not at home れきし ja rekishi history ろく ja roku six わたし ja watashi I, me わたしはやまにいました。 I was in the mountains. わかる ja wakaru to understand ほん ja hon book あなたはこのほんをかいましたか。 Did you buy that book? にほん ja nihon Japan せんせい ja sensei teacher みせ ja mise shop, store みせへいきなさい。 Go to the store. くるま ja kuruma car くも ja kumo cloud まえ ja ma e front; before うしろ ja ushiro behind となり ja tonari next door, beside とおい ja tōi far あるく ja aruku to walk おもしろい ja omoshiroi interesting, entertaining Read it back Twelve real sentences, written out in kana. The first four use the object particle を , the next four the direction particle へ , and the last four the topic particle は and its neighbours. Read every one out loud before looking at the English. Japanese English あなたにたこをかいました。 [1] I bought a kite for you. あなたのためにえをかいた。 [2] I painted a picture for you. あなたはあのきをみます。 [3] You look at that tree. あなたはこのほんをかいましたか。 [4] Did you buy that book? みせへいきなさい。 [5] Go to the store. いつかあなたのくにへいきます。 [6] I will come to your co