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チ
ち, in hiragana, or チ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both are phonemically , reflected in the Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanization ti, although, for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is , which is reflected in the Hepburn romanization chi. The kanji for one thousand (千, ''sen''), appears similar to チ, and at one time they were related, but today チ is used as phonetic, while the kanji carries an entirely unrelated meaning. Many onomatopoeic words beginning with ち pertain to things that are small or quick.Hiroko Fukuda, ''Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia: For All Levels'', trans. Tom Gally. New York: Kodansha International (2003): 19 - 20, Introduction, Words Beginning with ち Chi, Indicating Smallness or Quickness. The dakuten forms ぢ, ヂ, are uncommon. They are primarily used for indicating a voiced consonant in the middle of a compound word (see rendaku), and they don't usually begin a word. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived from components or fragments of more complex kanji. Katakana and hiragana are both kana systems. With one or two minor exceptions, each syllable (strictly mora (linguistics), mora) in the Japanese language is represented by one character or ''kana'' in each system. Each kana represents either a vowel such as "''a''" (katakana wikt:ア, ア); a consonant followed by a vowel such as "''ka''" (katakana wikt:カ, カ); or "''n''" (katakana wikt:ン, ン), a nasal stop, nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds like English ''m'', ''n'' or ''ng'' () or like the nasal vowels of Portuguese language, Portuguese or Galician language, Galician. In contrast to the hiragana syllabary, which is used for Japanese words not covered by kanji an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ainu Language
Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate with no academic consensus of origin. It is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger''. Until the 20th century, the Ainu languages – Hokkaido Ainu and the now-extinct Kuril Ainu and Sakhalin Ainu – were spoken throughout Hokkaido, the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and by small numbers of people in the Kuril Islands. Due to the colonization policy employed by the Japanese government, the number of Hokkaido Ainu speakers decreased through the 20th century, and it is now moribund. A very low number of elderly people still speak the language fluently, though attempts are being made to revive it. Speakers The term "Ainu" comes from the endonym of the Ainu people, ' (), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Phonology
Japanese phonology is the system of sounds used in the pronunciation of the Japanese language. Unless otherwise noted, this article describes the standard variety of Japanese based on the Tokyo dialect. There is no overall consensus on the number of contrastive sounds (phonemes), but common approaches recognize at least 12 distinct consonants (as many as 21 in some analyses) and 5 distinct vowels, . Phonetic length is contrastive for both vowels and consonants, and the total length of Japanese words can be measured in a unit of timing called the mora (from Latin "delay"). Only limited types of consonant clusters are permitted. There is a pitch accent system where the position or absence of a pitch drop may determine the meaning of a word: (), (), (). Japanese phonology has been affected by the presence of several layers of vocabulary in the language: in addition to native Japanese vocabulary, Japanese has a large amount of Chinese-based vocabulary (used especially to fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kunrei-shiki Romanization
, also known as the Monbusho system (named after the endonym for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) or MEXT system, is the Cabinet of Japan, Cabinet-ordered romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. Its name is rendered ''Kunreisiki rômazi'' in the system itself. It is taught in the Monbushō-approved elementary school curriculum. The International Organization for Standardization, ISO has standardized Kunrei-shiki under ISO 3602. ''Kunrei-shiki'' is based on the older Nihon-shiki romanization, ''Nihon-shiki'' romanization, which was modified for modern standard Japanese. For example, the word かなづかい, romanized ''kanadukai'' in ''Nihon-shiki'', is pronounced ''kanazukai'' in modern standard Japanese and is romanized as such in ''Kunrei-shiki''. The system competes with the older Hepburn romanization system, which was promoted by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, SCAP during the Allied ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hepburn Romanization
is the main system of Romanization of Japanese, romanization for the Japanese language. The system was originally published in 1867 by American Christian missionary and physician James Curtis Hepburn as the standard in the first edition of his Japanese–English dictionary. The system is distinct from other romanization methods in its use of English orthography to phonetically transcribe sounds: for example, the syllable () is written as ' and () is written as ', reflecting their spellings in English (compare to ' and ' in the more systematic Nihon-shiki romanization, Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanization, Kunrei-shiki systems). In 1886, Hepburn published the third edition of his dictionary, codifying a revised version of the system that is known today as "traditional Hepburn". A version with additional revisions, known as "modified Hepburn", was published in 1908. Although Kunrei-shiki romanization is the style favored by the Japanese government, Hepburn remains the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yōon
The is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound, i.e., palatalized, or (more rarely in the modern language) with an added sound, i.e. labialized. ''Yōon'' are represented in hiragana using a kana ending in ''i'', such as き (''ki'') or に (''ni''), plus a smaller version of one of the three ''y'' kana, ''ya'', ''yu'' or ''yo''. For example, 今日 (''kyō'', "today") is written きょう [], using a small version of the よ kana. Contrast this with 器用 (''kiyō'', "skillful"), which is written きよう [], with a full-sized よ kana. In historical kana orthography, ''yōon'' were not distinguished with the smaller kana, and had to be determined by context. In earlier stages of Japanese, and in certain dialects, ''yōon'' can also be formed with the kana ''wa'', ''wi'', ''we'', and ''wo''; for example, くゎ/クヮ ''kwa'', くゐ/クヰ ''kwi'', くゑ/クヱ ''kwe'', くを/クヲ ''kwo''. Although obsolete in modern Japa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nihon-shiki Romanization
, romanized as in the system itself, is a romanization system for transliterating the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. Among the major romanization systems for Japanese, it is the most regular one and has an almost one-to-one relation to the kana writing system. History It was invented by physicist Aikitsu Tanakadate (田中館 愛橘) in 1885, with the intention to replace the Hepburn system of romanization. Tanakadate's intention was to replace the traditional kanji and kana system of writing Japanese completely by a romanized system, which he felt would make it easier for Japan to compete with Western countries. Since the system was intended for Japanese people to use to write their own language, it is much more regular than Hepburn romanization, and unlike Hepburn's system, it makes no effort to make itself easier to pronounce for English-speakers. Nihon-shiki was followed by Kunrei-shiki, which was adopted in 1937, after a political debate over whether ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romanization Of Japanese
The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as . Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Chinese (kanji) and syllabic scripts (kana) that also ultimately derive from Chinese characters. There are several different romanization systems. The three main ones are Hepburn romanization, Kunrei-shiki romanization (ISO 3602) and Nihon-shiki romanization (ISO 3602 Strict). Variants of the Hepburn system are the most widely used. Romanized Japanese 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. It is also used to transliterate Japanese terms in text written in English (or other languages that use the Latin script) on topics related to Japan, such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
