How many characters are there in Kanji? How many characters are there in Japanese? How many consonants are there in the Japanese alphabet?

The Chinese alphabet has about 50 thousand characters, but most of them are hardly used. 5 thousand hieroglyphs. The Japanese dictionary Daikanwa jiten contains about 50 thousand characters, while more complete modern Chinese dictionaries contain more than 80 thousand characters. Most of these characters are not used either in modern Japan or in modern China. To understand most Japanese texts, it is enough to know about 3 thousand characters. 48 characters. When a Japanese student graduates from school, he knows about 1000 characters. Before answering this question, let's figure out what a hieroglyph is. The first Chinese characters are images of specific objects.

Japanese writing as a whole was greatly simplified after World War II. This process involved simplifying the use of kana and the shapes of more than 1,000 characters. Many older Japanese people still know the old forms of the characters, and these forms can still be found in literature, where they are used for artistic purposes for various reasons. Old forms of hieroglyphs can also be found in Japanese names. Most of them are not used in either Japan or China. In order to understand most Japanese texts, knowledge of about 3 thousand kanji is enough. The Daikanwa Jiten dictionary contains about 50 thousand characters, while more complete and modern Chinese dictionaries contain more than 80 thousand characters, many of which are unusual forms. At the moment, there is a list of “hieroglyphs for everyday use” (“joi-kanji”), which is approved by the government and contains two thousand characters.

You can note the use of hiragana in case of ignorance of kanji characters with a known phonetic sound. In addition, hiragana is used to write phonetic clues for reading characters - furigana. In addition, katakana can be used to create semantic emphasis in a certain section of text written in kanji and hiragana. I am Watashi is a Japanese word and it is written in Kanji, i.e. hieroglyph. The characters were borrowed from the Chinese language, although Japanese and Chinese are not related. Hieroglyphs have meanings and readings (how to read this hieroglyph in a particular word).

As mentioned above, hieroglyphs have meanings and sounds (readings). There are two types of readings - on (オン, 音よみ) and kun (くんよみ). He is a pronunciation that has been borrowed from the Chinese language over several centuries.

Hieroglyphs often have many kun readings. Kun are independent, but many are used in conjunction with okurigana (hiragana suffixes for characters). In attempts to create a Japanese alphabet (like the alphabet of European countries), katakana and hiragana were created - Japanese syllabary alphabet. Little reliable information has been preserved about who exactly developed these two alphabets; some historians attribute the invention of kana to Kukai. And the oldest Japanese written monuments known to us indicate that by the 8th century the process of borrowing hieroglyphs was completed. Later, the hieroglyphs served as the basis for the creation of the Japanese kana syllabary, but that's a completely different story. By the roundness of the characters, one can easily distinguish hiragana (ひらがな), the characters of which are usually used to write native Japanese words. The same word can be written in hieroglyph and hiragana.

Previously, there was no one who controlled how and what could be drawn and called a hieroglyph. That’s why there were a lot of hieroglyphs. Tens of thousands. It was necessary to create huge volumes and encyclopedias. The Japanese dictionary Daikanwa jiten contains about 50 thousand characters, while more complete modern Chinese dictionaries contain more than 80 thousand characters. Hieroglyphs went through a long journey of change before they reached Japan. Such hieroglyphs are called kokkun - “signs of national reading”). Although the Japanese have created thousands of their own characters, as you study, you will find that only a small number of them are widely used and necessary characters.

As you study hieroglyphs in context, you will better understand this complex writing system. In the beginning, there was man'yogana - selected Chinese characters that served as a syllabary. Most of the literary works of the Heian era with female authorship were written in hiragana. In parallel, katakana arose: students from monasteries simplified Manyoshu to a single significant element. It is named after the first collection of poetry in the Japanese language - まんようしゅう (Man'yōshu). The words in it were written in Chinese characters according to their sound, not their content. Old style Japanese characters were used until after World War II and are mostly the same as traditional Chinese characters.

Japanese writing combines three systems for graphic communication. To study them for the uninitiated is an art. To begin with, it is good to know the basics, or the alphabet.

The Japanese use two syllabaries created by their ancestors: hiragana and katakana, as well as kanji, which consists of Chinese characters.

Hiragana and katakana contain 47 characters. These systems are known for the fact that behind one character there is hidden not just one sound, but a whole syllable: for example, when we have 4 letters in the word “snow”, in Japanese graphics there will be 2. This system is also called syllabic writing.

How many vowels are there in the Japanese alphabet?

There are no separate vowels in Japanese. The Japanese usually use open syllables with 5 vowel sounds. Romanized, they look like this:

1. A – similar to Russian [a], which stands between two consonants.
2. I – [and], before it all consonants become soft.
3. U is the middle sound between [u] and [s]. The lips do not stretch out, as when pronouncing a similar Russian sound. The lips are slightly rounded and the tongue moves back.
4. E – always clear [e]. The consonants preceding it remain hard.
5. O – always clear[o]. In an unstressed position it does not transform into [a]. The lips become slightly rounder, but do not extend forward.

Japanese has semivowels: [y] and [w].

Diphthongs are also used in Japanese writing:

• ai [ai];
• oi [oh];
• ui [ui];
• ei [hey], today is often replaced by a long [e].

All of them are falling: the first vowel sounds clearer than the second.

Instead of forceful stress, the Japanese use toning for vowels and syllables. There are three types of toning:

• flat;
• rising;
• decreasing.

How many consonants are there in the Japanese alphabet?

There are no separate consonant letters other than ん (H) in Japanese. The remaining characters are syllables ending in a vowel. However, there are analogues of sounds:

• [dz] - the sound is interesting because it is pronounced almost the same as [z], but at the same time the ligaments are tensed. The sound [z] itself also occurs in speech, only always in the middle of a word;
• [f] - differs from Russian pronunciation in that it makes a sound more like blowing out a candle; the lips do not extend, and the lower lip rises slightly above the upper;
• and the above named [n].

When one of the consonants K, S, T, C, P, N, M, CH needs to be doubled, a special symbol is used - sokuon. Such doubling of a consonant is not accidental; thanks to this, the meaning of the word itself changes.

Japanese allows consonants to be long and short. The long ones will be:

1. The long consonants themselves. They appeared as a semantically distinctive feature of speech and writing.
2. Double consonants. When in some words there was a reduction of [u] and [i] between two voiceless consonants, the consonants that were once separated by a vowel became double, as in the word KOKKI (originally: KOKUKI) - the national flag.
3. There are also emphatic long consonants, when a person voluntarily increases the pronunciation of a sound.

The peculiarity of the letter ん (N) is that before the consonant sounds [p], [p'], [b], [b'], [m], [m'], [n], [n'] expresses labiolabial nasal sound and almost transforms into [m]. This is also reflected in the letter, when the letter M appears in place of H. Both graphic notations are considered the norm.

How to understand the variety of Japanese alphabet systems?

In Japan, printed materials often use hiragana, katakana and kanji simultaneously, which gave rise to the concept of “mixed script”. Thus, newspaper headlines, thanks to this, can occupy several lines, although they contain only one sentence. To distinguish between symbol systems, you need to remember a few rules:

1. Kanji is usually used to represent nouns, adjectives and verb stems. Its symbols are often used to represent morphemes in writing.
2. Hiragana represents one syllable, or mora, with each character. Hiragana is used to convey vowel sounds, syllable combinations, and consonants. N. Hiragana conveys particles and suffixes in writing. It is also used to provide hints for learning hieroglyphs. Hiragana is also called “women’s writing” because Japanese women, who had long been confined to home education, kept notes with its help. Today, Harigana is used for preschool reading texts.
3. Katakana, which was created by Buddhist monks, expresses the same sounds as harigana. The signs of this alphabet are used today for symbols taken from other cultures, foreign names, scientific and technical terminology.
4. Travelers will not have to understand the intricacies of Japanese alphabet. For tourists, they created a special writing style - romaji. It also has its own groups, but the most important thing is that it allows you to write Japanese texts in Latin letters. Romaji is used in tourist brochures, on landmark signs, and anywhere a visitor to the country might find themselves.
5. Traditionally, the Japanese write vertically, but already in 1959 the principle of horizontal writing was adopted at the state level.

Video on the topic

Modern Japanese writing consists of three main components: kanji - hieroglyphs of Chinese origin, and two syllabaries formed on the basis of the same hieroglyphs in Japan - hiragana and katakana. For example, the word "Aikido" in Japanese can be written in three different ways. Using Kanji characters - 合気道. Or using the hiragana syllabary ー　あいきど . Another option is possible - using the "katakana" alphabet - アイキド. In addition, the Japanese often use Arabic numerals when writing numerals. Latin letters may also appear in texts when writing well-known international abbreviations (km - kilometers, TV - television). Less common in the texts is the so-called “romaji” - transliteration of Japanese in Latin letters.

Kanji - ( Japanese: 漢字) - literally - signs of the Han Dynasty. Mainly used in writing when writing nouns, adjectives, verb stems and proper names of Japanese origin. Often one kanji has two or more readings. For example, the kanji for sword (刀) is katana, in the word "tanto" (短刀) - short sword is read "to", and in the word "sinai" (竹刀) - bamboo sword - "nai". The choice of kanji reading depends largely on the combination with other kanji. Because of this, choosing the correct reading of hieroglyphs at the initial stage of learning is not an easy task.

The written language of modern Japan uses approximately 3,000 characters. Currently, 2150 kanji is the required minimum that is taught in schools.

For example, let's write "Daseikan dojo" using kanji characters:

蛇 勢 館 道 場

Or another example - "Aikido Yoshinkan":

合 気 道養 神 館

Hiragana (Japanese: 平仮名) is a syllabary alphabet. The so-called "women's letter". The name stuck due to the fact that at the initial stage, hiragana was used mainly by women, who at that time did not have access to a good education. Hiragana expresses short vowels, their combinations with consonants, and the only consonant sound - “n” (ん). It is used in writing mostly to write words for which there is no kanji, such as particles and suffixes. In addition, it is used instead of kanji in cases where the writer or reader does not know the spelling of some hieroglyphs.

For example, consider the recording of the name of the Aikido Yoshinkan technique Shomen Irimi Nage- shomen iriminage 正面 入りみ 投げ - "front entry throw". Here's the word Shomen - 正面 - front, front - is written only using kanji, and in the word Irimi - 入りみ - entrance and Nage 投げ - throw, channels are used りみ - "rimi" and げ - "ge", respectively. Another example: 合気道養神館の道場 - Aikido Yoshinkan no dojo - kana here の (but) indicates the genitive case, that is, it emphasizes that the dojo belongs specifically to Aikido Yoshinkan - and the translation is: " dojo Aikido Yoshinkan."

Note the use of hiragana in case of ignorance of Kanji characters with a known phonetic sound. In this case, the phrase already familiar to us 蛇勢館道場 - We can write Daseikan Dojo in hiragana, it will turn out - だせいかんどじょ.

Hiragana.

Katakana (Japanese: 片仮名) - second The syllabary alphabet of the Japanese language is completely consistent with the first one phonetically, but functionally performs other tasks. First of all, it is used to write words borrowed from other languages, foreign proper names, as well as technical and scientific terms. In addition, katakana can be used to create semantic emphasis in a certain section of text written in kanji and hiragana. Katakana characters are significantly simplified and many resemble similar hiragana kana, but only one “he” character is completely identical - (へ).

Let's look at examples: Russia - Ro-Shi-A - ロシア, or Irina - I-Ri-Na - イリナ, antenna from the English word "antenna" - A-N-TE-Na - アンテナ, or Pu-Ro-Ge-Ra- Mu - プログラム - from the English "programme" - program.

Katakana.

Romaji - (Japanese: ローマ字) - literally - Latin characters (letters). First of all, these are abbreviations of foreign origin - USB (Universal Serial Bus), UN (United Nations). Japanese names are written in Roman letters on documents so that foreigners can read them. Romaji significantly simplifies work with a computer and other electronic equipment. Any keyboard can be switched to kana input mode using Romaji.

Horizontal and vertical writing in Japanese. Until 1958, the Japanese language used the traditional Chinese writing method 縦書き (たてがき - Tategaki) - literally - vertical writing, characters written from top to bottom, columns from right to left. To this day, this option is used in newspapers and fiction. In the computer industry, as well as in scientific and technical literature, the European way of writing characters is used: 横書き (よこがき - Yokogaki) - literally - side letter, characters are written from left to right, lines - from top to bottom. Officially adopted in 1959, this notation allows you to insert terms or phrases in European languages, chemical formulas and mathematical equations. You can, however, also encounter horizontal writing from right to left; this is not uncommon on all kinds of plates and signs.

An example of traditional vertical writing.

The same text in a modern horizontal version.

AYF (Aikido Yoshinkan Foundation Tokyo Japan) certificates issued by the Hombu Dojo (headquarters) Yoshinkan Aikido, as well as certified instructors Aikido Yoshinkan, as a rule, are traditionally filled in a vertical manner.

Aikido Yoshinkan Instructor Certificate.

SCHOOL HIEROGLYPHS (KANJI) 1

FIRST EIGHTY SCHOOL HIEROGLYPHS (KANJI)

No matter who, no matter how much and how they learn Japanese hieroglyphs, everyone wants to systematize knowledge, sort the hieroglyphs into shelves. System for classification - sea. We will try to rely on the system that has developed in the Japanese school - in each class, small and large Japs learn a certain number of hieroglyphs. Such a system will suit us quite well, because they certainly move from the simplest and/or most popular to the most complex and/or less popular.

The picture shows these same 80 Japanese characters. When you hover your mouse over any of them, the most characteristic on and kun readings and the meaning of the hieroglyph will appear. We look, look for a familiar “letter”, study it, and if we already know these hieroglyphs well, we simply test our knowledge.

80 kanji 1st grade| 80 (1) kanji 2nd grade | 80 (2) kanji 2nd grade

80 kanji 1st grade| 80 (1) kanji 2nd grade | 80 (2) kanji 2nd grade

MEMORIZE READINGS OF JAPANESE HIEROGLYPHS

As the experience of correspondence with readers of Japanese for the Soul and visitors to the Japanese Language Self-Teacher website shows, the most difficult thing when working with Japanese hieroglyphs is memorizing the readings of the hieroglyphs. Let's look at the example of a fairly simple character 口 (mouth). Remembering its graphics is the easiest thing: just a once round hole, which became square in the process of the evolution of calligraphic tools. The word “kuti” (kun reading of the hieroglyph 口) is quite simple and in itself easy to remember: it is original, it is unlikely to be confused with anything else, it is simply not tooth-breaking. But how to remember his on-reading KO: if the reading KO: has a considerable number of other hieroglyphs.

This problem (memorizing readings) for many hieroglyphs is solved by selecting bright or simply somewhat remarkable words, written in two or three hieroglyphs, one of which is the one whose reading we want to remember.. The most successful words for our example (the hieroglyph “mouth” ) is the word “Population”: 人口 jinko: - population (the number of “man-mouths” :) Having remembered this word (which is much easier than just remembering the word KO:) we will never be able to forget the reading of KO: the hieroglyph 口 (kuti ).

We use the list of words below, consisting of the hieroglyphs mentioned in this note, if not in order to remember all these words, then at least so that when reading these words, we can remember the reading of a hieroglyph.

人口 jinko: - population

入口 iriguchi – entrance

出口 deguchi – exit

生年月日 seinengappi – date of birth

生け花 ikebana – ikebana

学生 gakusei – student

一年生 ichinensei – freshman

生学問 namagakumon - superficial knowledge (生 nama - raw, unprocessed, gakumon - teaching, knowledge, science; mon tou - ask)

左右 sayu: - both sides, left and right.

大雨 ooame – heavy rain

小雨 kosame – light rain, drizzle

雨水 amamizu, usui – rain water

五月 gogatsu – May

五十音 goju:on - Japanese alphabet

大学 daigaku - university

学校 gakko: - school

文学 bugaku – literature

文字　moji is a written sign: letter, hieroglyph, etc.

天文学 tenmongaku – astronomy

天気 tenki – weather

雨天 uten – rainy weather

天主 tenshu - Lord, God

男の子 otoko no ko-boy

女の子　onna no ko – girl

男子　danshi - man

女子 joshi – woman

花子 hanako – Hanako (female name)

白金 hakkin – platinum

白人 hakujin – Caucasian, white

空白 ku:haku – empty empty space

自白 jihaku – confession during interrogation

本日 honjitsu - this day, what date, today\

日本 Nihon – Japan

本気　honki – seriousness

本音 honne – true motives

本人 honnin – himself (personal)

見本 mihon – example, example

見学 kengaku – excursion

花見 hanami – admiring flowers

花火 hanabi – fireworks

火山 kazan – volcano

山林 sanrin – mountains and forests, mountain forest

山出し yamadashi - hillbilly

本山 honzan – main temple

森林 shinrin – forest

竹林 chikurin - bamboo grove

女王 joo: - queen, queen; queen

ATTENTION: All words for the examples were quickly found using the Yarksey dictionary. Of course, it was not possible to find examples for all hieroglyphs. If anyone can add something of their own, please send an example by email. [email protected] The example will be reviewed, and if it is successful and meets all the criteria, it will be posted here.

Hieroglyphs in the Japanese school - list of kanji (kanji)

The first eighty characters that Japanese children study in first grade Japanese school Online Japanese for the soul (Japanese language tutorial). List of hieroglyphs that are studied in the first grade of a Japanese school. Japanese and Chinese characters for beginners. How to teach Japanese characters (kanji, kanji)? Learning Japanese and Chinese characters independently, online, simply and easily. Hieroglyphs become simple, understandable and familiar. By looking through the characters and words presented on this page, consisting of kanji of the first grade of the Japanese school, you can confidently fix these Japanese-Chinese characters in memory, both their readings ononyomi, kunyomi, and their meanings and graphics. How to study hieroglyphs V Japanese school Japanese children.

There is no alphabet because the sound of the word is not displayed. Chinese writing is ideographic and consists of a large set of hieroglyphs that have a lexical rather than an audio meaning. There are not very many sounds in the Chinese language; they add up to , and thirty characters would be enough to describe the sound structure. But the alphabet does not meet the requirements of this complex language, which is rich in words that sound the same. It would be more difficult for the Chinese to understand written text if they used an audio alphabet.

Nevertheless, a version of the alphabet in the Chinese language exists - this is the Pinyin transcription system, created to romanize the language. Speech sounds are written in Latin characters combined into syllables. This alphabet makes it easier for foreigners to learn the language and helps transcribe words for which hieroglyphs have not yet been selected. Pinyin consists of 26 letters - these are all Latin letters except V, and the so-called U-umlaut.

Korean writing

Korean writing is very similar to Chinese, as its characters are derived from ancient Chinese characters. But this is a sound letter - Koreans use an alphabet or its similarity, which is called Hangul. The letters or signs of this system are called chamo or nasori.

In total, there are 51 chamo in the Korean written language, 24 of which can be compared to ordinary letters: some of them record consonants, some - vowels. The 27 remaining chamos are double or triple letters unusual for European alphabets, which consist of several sounds and characters. These are called digraphs or trigraphs: they can be double consonants, diphthongs, or combinations of vowels and consonants.

Japanese writing

Japanese writing consists of two parts: kanji, or hieroglyphics, and kana, or alphabet. The alphabet is divided into two types: hiragana and katakana. Hieroglyphs are used to describe the basic meanings of a word; when compared with the Russian language, we can say that these signs write down the roots of words. Katakana is used to write foreign borrowings, and hiragana is used to denote words for which there is no single meaning (suffixes, particles, forms of adjectives). Japanese is also a syllabic language, and each character of both alphabets means not one sound, but a syllable.

Both katakana and hiragana have 47 characters, the same number of syllables used in the Japanese language.