JAPANESE KANA TABLES

GENERAL INFORMATION

The characters ("kana") contained in these tables are those which are basically used in Japanese language. Others characters more complicated exist too ("Kanji")... But they are just the representation of a specific word and are composed of a suite of basical characters in Hiragana. These characters are pronounced as they are read but there is two little exceptions : "B" can also be pronounced "V" and "R" can be pronounced "L", it is depending of the word. The Katakana characters are usually used in Japanese games for English words or names or city names, so you can easily translate them to understand a few things about the scenario or the way to go. The Hiragana characters are used for typical japanese words (not a simple translation of an English word) so they won't be useful until you have a Japanese dictionary.
By Example : means "SQUARE". Eplanation : The first "kana" means "SU", The second one means "KU", The third "U", The fourth "E" and the fifth "A". "SUKUUEA"?! No ! When you read a kana (Katakana) which finishes by "U" you can contract the pronunciation to "S'" (for "SU"). "KU" is still pronounced "KU" but the next "U" followed by this little "E" must be pronounced "oueah~". It gives at this time something like "SQUEAH~", "A" is here pronounced like "~er" (Especially when "A" is followed by this : "~"). Finally we obtain "SQUARE" !
If you want more precisions about the pronunciation, E-Mail me !


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