Level 0-1 Flashcards
How many characters in modern japanese syllabaries are there?
46
Syllabaries are another name of the two japanese alphabets, katakana and hiragana, why?
Because they are consisting of syllables not singular sounds
Which syllabary is used for loan words?
Katakana
What does katakana look like?
It looks slightly angular
Which syllabary is used for grammatical particles and conjugations?
Hiragana
What does hiragana look like
It looks curvilinear
James Curtis Hepburn who is he?
He is from the late 19th century and transliterated Japanese to English. He compiled Japanese- English dictionaries.
What is the Hepburn system?
It is the system to translate japanese to English as well as possible. It uses the alphabet romaji.
What is a macron ō õ for?
It signifies that the sound must go longer, usually double the normal length.
Where does the basis of japanese writing system come from?
China
Where does kanji originate?
China
What is kanji for?
It is a complex Chinese system used to represent ideas and things.
To completely read a Japanese newspaper about how many kanji will you need to learn?
2000
Which script do the Japanese struggle to learn and spend many years at school to learn.
Kanji because of its complexity
What’s the limit to how many different scripts that can be used in one sentence?
None, you can use them all in one sentence.
What is the traditional way to write japanese?
Vertically, up and down. You read the lines right to left. Starting at the top right hand corner of the page. Plus you read the book in reverse order of pages to English.
What do the Japanese often use for business names?
Rõmaji
What are syllabaries also referred as?
Kana
What is katakana derived from?
It is derived from foreign words.
What is a euphonic change?
Sound change
Kanji are written symbols from…
Old Chinese ideographs (pictograms)
Each syllable in Japanese is pronounced with the same stress and duration. Is this true?
Yes
Japanese do not have ‘l’ or ‘r’ but in between (slightly closer to r) what do we Romanize it to?
R
What are the only single sound syllabics in kana?
A I U E O N
What does the capital A represent in a kana?
Katakana
What does lower case a represent in kana?
Hiragana
how many tones does Japanese have?
2
