Japanese consists of two scripts (referred to as kana) called Hiragana and Katakana, which are two versions of the same set of sounds in the language. Hiragana and Katakana consist of a little less than 50 "letters", which are actually simplified Chinese characters adopted to form a phonetic script. Chinese characters, called Kanji in Japanese, are also heavily used in the Japanese writing.
Most of the words in the Japanese written language are written in Kanji (nouns, verbs, adjectives). There exists over 40,000 Kanji where about 2,000 represent over 95% of characters actually used in written text. There are no spaces in Japanese so Kanji is necessary in distinguishing between separate words within a sentence and between homophones, which occurs quite often given the limited number of distinct sounds in Japanese.
Rōmaji is a system of Romanized spelling used to transliterate Japanese and may be used in any context where Japanese text is targeted at non-Japanese speakers who cannot read kanji or kana, such as for names on street signs and passports, and in dictionaries and textbooks for foreign learners of the language.
This is a very brief intro to the Japanese writing system.
YOU ARE READING
JAPANESE FOR BEGINNERS
RandomThis is a Japanese language guide for my fellow Otakus or non-Otakus who want to learn and improve their Japanese skills. Here are 10 simple yet effective ways to learn and improve the language. STEP 1: Learn the Japanese Alphabet STEP 2: Learn to C...
