The multiple alphabets in Japanese and its other peculiarities
Why Japanese seems so complex?
Those who ever saw Japanese characters hardly will argue that Japanese is a complex language. Moreover, a complex script is not the only peculiarity of Japanese.
Japanese use 4 lettering systems, 3 of which are of their own. However, what seems complex is just beyond the imagination. But for the Japanese those are ordinary things.
First system are logographic characters, the kanji. They were imported from China to Japan from the 4th to the 5th century, because at that time the Japanese language did not have its own characters. The Chinese use these characters, and only they have them.
Two additional types of scripts in Japanese are Hiragana and Katakana. These two kana are simplified kanji characters and they are both phonetic lettering systems. Each consists of 46 characters. They were developed over the years by Buddhist monks.
As already mentioned, there was no writing system before the importing of kanji in Japanese. However, the language itself existed, and Chinese kanji characters were used as phonetic symbols (Manyogana).
Here how Hiragana is used in modern Japanese:
- inflexional endings
- particles
- auxiliary verbs
- conjugation
- some words
Katakana are used mainly for foreign terms and names as well as onomatopoeia.
Romaji, the Latin alphabet, is used to send messages to foreigners.
В повсякденній писемності японці використровують всі три системи. Чому?
We were talking about the other peculiarities of Japanese except four lettering systems and here is what it was about. The Japanese alphabet is a syllabary i.e. there are no single consonants, but for the character “n”. Additionally, Japanese sentences are written without spaces between words. There are also many homonymes, so words that sound like another. Writing only in kana can cause a lot of misunderstanding and that is why three scripts are used. You can read and understand the text faster.
Why do the japanese need so many alphabets?
It was demanded by language development. Kanji characters signal the meaning of the word to the reader.
If he knows the meaning of the individual kanji characters, he can figure out and guess what it could mean.
He is able to understand the meaning even if he doesn’t know how to prononce it.
What is being taught at school?
In the first grade hiragana is taught first, then Katakana in batches.
Kanji is also already taught in the first year, namely 80 characters.
In elementary school, which takes 6 years in Japan, a total of around 1,000 kanji characters are being taught.
In the following middle-school, which takes 3 years, another 1,130 characters are taught.
In total, the government officially decided to use 2,136 characters in schools, media as well as in administrative bodies.
The elderly can certainly have more knowledge of kanji because kanji was taught more in school once, and it was used more often in the media such as newspapers or books.
Do you have to learn all alphabets when it comes to learning Japanese? Where one should start?
It depends on how far you want to get. It will be helpful to read Hiragana and Katakana when travelling to Japan.
Preschoolers usually learn Hiragana. However, it is not required that children are able to read or write any character prior to their first day at elementary school.
The answer is simple: you should enjoy learning. Otherways you won’t cope with that.
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