The Best of the Best/_.img/02155/japan/bas

Text File | 1988-02-16 | 6KB | 118 lines

                   INTRODUCTION TO KATAKANA
                   ------------------------

        There are three kinds of writing used in Japan today;
        Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Kanji originated in China
        and is a kind of pictogram writing that westerners find
        very difficult to learn. Each character must be memorized
        and they number in the thousands. Hiragana is composed of
        letters, not unlike our own alphabet. It evolved from
        Kanji, and is the dominant system in use in Modern Japan.
        Katakana is a third system of characters that has become
        extremely popular. Originally it was reserved for words
        that were taken from foreign languages, but has come to be
        used for emphasis, even with Japanese words.  Because most
        of the words that are written in Katakana are based on
        English, and the other European languages, Katakana is the
        most important to learn if you are planning to visit or
        stay in Japan.

        Learning the letters is only half of the battle. It takes
        practice to be able to figure what the message in the
        Katakana word is. For example, the word <sports> is
        spelled su-po-tsu. It is extremely helpful when traveling
        in Japan to understand how to make an English word into
        one that a Japanese will understand. Once you get the hang
        of it, it is real easy, even fun.


                        Pronounciation
                        --------------
        Pronounciation in Japanese is straight-forward.
        The letter a, like in the Japanese syllable ka, rhymes
        with the old Iranian leader's title of the shah. The letter
        i is pronounced as a long vowel. An example is the ki,
        pronounced like the english word key. The Japanese
        syllable ke rhymes with the english words bed and fed. If
        you see the syllable du you should pronounce it like the
        word due, which rhymes with clue. The syllable ko, rhymes
        with show. Use these examples whenever you are in doubt
        about the  pronounciation. Unlike English, Japanese
        doesn't have many exceptions, at least in pronounciation.

        The Japanese often end words in vowels ie. address becomes
        a-de-re-su. This will become second nature when you start
        to use the word section of this program.

        In Katakana there are five basic vowels; a, i, u, e, and
        o. All of the letters that you will learn are composed of
        these letters and and a consonant. There are 8 basic
        consonant-vowel combinations that you will learn.

        First, we have the k's. They are ka, ki, ku, ke, and ko.
        Say each of these out loud once or twice to get a feel for
        them. Next we have the s's: sa, shi <an exception>, su,
        se, and so. Next comes the t's: ta, chi <an exception>,
        tsu <another exception>, te, and to. Then come the n's:
        na, ni, nu, ne, and no. Followed by the h's: ha, hi, fu
        <an exception>, he, and ho. Next the well behaved m's: ma, mi
        mu, me, and mo. Then come the y's: ya, yu, and yo <only
        three of them>. They are followed by the r's: ra, ri, ru
        re, and ro. There is also a wa and the single consonant n.
        Don't worry if you can't remember these, thats why we
        wrote this program; to help you to remember them.

        At any time during the program <but not now> you can view
        the total list of characters, and they're combinations by
        pressing help.

        So far, so good....Now comes the interesting part. If any
        of the letters are followed by the character " they become
        what is called a gutoral. That means that the letter % or
        ka, if followed by " becomes the letter ga. % is ka and %"
        is ga. Don't worry, you will get plenty of practice on this
        point. Letters that start with h, when followed by the "
        now start with b's. T's followed by " become d's. S's,
        when followed by " become z's.

        In a similair way, the letters that start with and h, when
        followed by a ! , become p's. For example & is ha , but &!
        is pa.

        Next, the three letters, ( , ) , and * give the letters in
        front of them a special meaning. When one of these letters
        follows a another letter, the pronounciatin of the
        syllable changes in this way; we just keep the begining
        consonant of the first letter, and use the second letter's
        sound. For example % or ka when followed by ( becomes kya.
        When ka is followed by * like in %* the group is
        pronounced kyo. %) is spoken kyu. Again, the practice
        sessions will teach you everything that you will need to
        know.

        The character # means that you should hold the syllable
        longer.

        Finally, one of the most common characters that you will
        see is the $, or tsu. When tsu is in the middle of a word,
        it means that the letter that follows it is a double
        letter is like the d in the word mid-dle or the t in the
        word let-ter. The tsu tells us that the letter following
        it belongs to both the  letter before the tsu, and the
        letter after the tsu. You will see it constantly, so be
        aware of it.

        Try some of the practice sessions now. Use the letter
        practice first, and when you feel that you know most of
        the letters, try the test. Remember, to switch from
        practice to test mode, place the star in the main menu to
        the proper entry, and hit the space bar. Next try the
        practice mode for the combinations of letters, and when
        you are good, try the test mode for them. In practice mode
        hit the space bar once to see the answer, and again
        to make it disappear. Finally, try the word practice.

        Good Luck