0.3 Hiragana II — な to も, and the character that lies about itself — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read fifteen more hiragana, the n-, h- and m-rows, bringing you to thirty-five of the forty-six. Know that は is read wa when it is the topic particle, and ha everywhere else — the first thing in Japanese that is written one way and read another. Hear that the h-row is not quite English h : ふ is made with the lips, not the teeth. Read thirty real words and six real sentences using only these thirty-five characters. Prerequisites : lesson 0.2 — the first twenty hiragana and the five-vowel grid. Three more rows, filled in on the grid you already have. Nothing new about the system; the interest in this lesson is elsewhere, in a single character that lies about its own pronunciation, and in a consonant that English does not own. Three more rows Row Characters Read as n-row な に ぬ ね の na ni nu ne no h-row は ひ ふ へ ほ ha hi fu he ho m-row ま み む め も ma mi mu me mo The n-row and the m-row hold no surprises for an English speaker: the consonants are the same and the vowels are the five you already know. One cell in the h-row is marked, and it is worth a paragraph. ふ is not f and not h English f is made by putting the top teeth on the bottom lip. Japanese ふ is made by bringing the two lips close together and blowing between them — the sound you make blowing out a candle. Phoneticians write it [ɸ]. The teeth are not involved at all. The result sits between English f and English h , which is why romaji cannot decide: you will see fu and hu for the same character, and both are half right. It also explains a fact you will meet in the loanword volume: ふ is the character Japanese reaches for when it borrows an English f , so fork becomes フォーク ( fōku ). If you say the English f instead, you will be understood, but you will sound foreign in a way that is easy to fix now and hard to fix in a year. The other four in the row are a plain English h , with one warning: ひ is pronounced further forward in the mouth than English he , closer to the sound in the middle of huge . The one character that lies: は as a particle Everywhere inside a word, は is ha : はな is hana , "flower". But Japanese has a small word — a particle — that marks the topic of a sentence, and that particle is written with the character は and pronounced wa . This is not an irregularity in the alphabet. It is a fossil. A thousand years ago the particle was pronounced ha ; the sound drifted to wa and the spelling never caught up, exactly as English kept the gh in night long after it stopped pronouncing it. The spelling reform of 1946 tidied up a great deal of Japanese orthography and deliberately left this alone, because the particle is so common that respelling it would have made every book printed before that date look wrong. There are only three such fossils in the entire writing system, and this is the first. You meet the other two in lesson 0.4. Learn this now: Where it is How it is read inside a word — はな , はし ( hashi ), ほし ( hoshi ) ha — hana , hashi , hoshi standing alone as the topic particle — あのいぬ は おおきい ( ano inu wa ōkii ) wa — ano inu wa ookii How do you tell which is which? The particle is never part of the word before it, and it always follows a complete noun. In practice you will know it within a week, because the topic particle is the single commonest word in written Japanese. Lesson 4.2 is entirely about what it does; here we only need the sound. Shapes that will try to confuse you Pair How to keep them apart ね , れ and わ All three are a vertical stroke plus a loop. ね ends in a full loop curling left; れ (lesson 0.4) ends in a kick to the right; わ (0.4) ends in a closed round bowl. ぬ and め Identical except that ぬ has a small loop at the end of the last stroke. め has none. は and ほ ほ has two cross-strokes on the right-hand element; は has one. ま and も ま is two horizontals crossed by one vertical that loops at the bottom; も is one long hooked vertical crossed by two horizontals — the strokes are in the opposite order. Stroke order works exactly as in lesson 0.2 — top to bottom, left to right, horizontals before the vertical that crosses them, and any closing stroke last. は is three strokes: the short vertical on the left, the cross-stroke, then the long looping stroke on the right. ま is three: upper horizontal, lower horizontal, then the looping vertical. ほ is four — は with a second cross-stroke, added in its reading position, that is, before the final loop. Thirty words All spelled with the thirty-five characters you now know. Word Meaning Notes なつ ja natsu summer なまえ ja namae name なに ja nani what にく ja niku meat ぬの ja nu no cloth ねこ ja neko cat のむ ja nomu to drink あのむしたちはさしますか。 Do those insects sting? はな ja hana flower; nose あのおはなみて。 Look at those flowers. はし ja hashi chopsticks; bridge; edge はこ ja hako box ひと ja hito person あのひとはいついきましたか。 When did he go? ひま ja hima free time; not busy ふね ja fune boat, ship ふた ja futa lid へた ja heta bad at something, unskilled ほし ja hoshi star ほね ja hone bone まち ja machi town まめ ja mame bean みみ ja mimi ear みち ja michi road, street, way むし ja mushi insect め ja me eye もの ja mono thing あめ ja ame rain いぬ ja inu dog あのいぬはおおきい。 That dog is big. うみ ja umi sea かみ ja kami paper; hair さかな ja sakana fish つくえ ja tsukue desk Notice はし . It means chopsticks, or a bridge, or the edge of something, and the three are different words that happen to sound the same. In speech they are told apart by pitch, which lesson 1.3 takes up; in writing they are told apart by kanji, which is one of the strongest arguments for keeping kanji at all. Japanese has a great many of these, and you have just met your first. Read it back Six real sentences, written out in kana. Every one of them contains the topic particle は read as wa , or a comma where a topic would be. Read each aloud before looking right. Japanese English あのいぬはおおきい。 [1] That dog is big. おさけはのみますか。 [2] Do you drink alcohol? あのひとはいついきましたか。 [3] When did he go? あのむしたちはさしますか。 [4] Do those insects sting? あのおはなみて。 [5] Look at those flowers. おなかいたい。 [6]