DESCRIPTION OF JAPANESE SYLLABLE ALPHABETS Stephen P.

Morse , San Francisco Transliterating English to Japanese Introduction Japanese contains two syllable alphabets, katakana and hiragana. They both represent the same syllables, but the characters in each are different. Below is a chart of the characters in each alphabets. katakana 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 hiragana 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Transliterating Japanese to English My Other Webpages

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79

 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95

The characters in the above charts have been given numbers so we can refer to them. For each number, the syllable corresponding to the katakana character will have the same sound as the syllable corresponding to the hiragana character. Character number 0 is not used. In computer-ese, these letters are given numeric designations of the form &#xxxxx; where xxxxx is between 12448 and 12543 for katakana and between 12352 and 12447 for hiragana. So the katakana character having the number 16 can be written in an html program as グ () and the hiragana character as ぐ () for hiragana. Groups Each character corresponds to a syllable consisting of a consonant followed by a vowel. The characters are organized into groups, with each group corresponding to a different starting consonant. Within each group the trailing vowels are "a" (as in cat), "i" (as in ski), "u" (as in rule), "e" (as in bed), and "o" (as in slow). That would seem to follow an orderly pattern, but unfortunately there are exceptions, as seen below. Vowel-only Group 02 04 06 08 10 80 81 82 11 13 15 17 19 12 A I U E O I E O Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko G Group (voiced K) Ga How does this differ from 04? How does this differ from 08? How does this differ from 10? K Group

14 16 18 20 21 23 25 27 29

Gi Gu Ge Go S Group Sa Shi Su Se So Si doesn't exist Z Group (voiced S) see also Sh group

22 24 26 28 30

Za Ji Zu Ze Zo Zi doesn't exist T Group same sound as 34 -- see also J group

31 33 35 36 38 40

Ta Chi Tsu Tsu Te To see also Ch group How does this differ from 36?

38+03 + + Ti

40+05 + + Tu D Group (voiced T) 32 34 37 39 41 Da Ji Du De Do same sound as 24

39+03 + + Di 41+05 + + Du 42 43 44 45 46 83 47 50 53 56 59 Na Ni Nu Ne No N H Group Ha Hi Fu He Ho Hu 48 51 Ba Bi doesn't exist B Group (voiced H) see also F group How is this different from 37? N Group

54 57 60 49 52 55 58 61 62 63 64 65 66 68 70 72 73 74 75 76 77 78

Bu Be Bo P Group (circled H) Pa Pi Pu Pe Po M Group Ma Mi Mu Me Mo Y Group Ya Yi Yu Ye Yo R Group Ra Ri Ru Re Ro W Group Wa How does this differ from 79? doesn't exist doesn't exist

79

Wa Wu doesn't exist, use U (06)

06+03 + + Wi 06+07 + + We 06+09 + + Wo V Group 84+01 + + Va 84+03 + + Vi 84 Vu 84+07 + + Ve 84+09 + + Vo F Group 53+01 + + Fa 53+03 + + Fi 53 Fu see also H group 53+07 + + Fe 53+09 + + Fo Ch Group 33+67 + + Cha 33 Chi 33+69 + + Chu 33+07 + + Che 33+71 + + Cho 24+67 + + Ja 24 Ji 24+69 + + Ju 24+07 + + Je 24+71 + + Jo see modified O-vowel group see modified O-vowel group J Group see modified I-vowel group see also Z group see modified U-vowel group see modified I-vowel group see also T group see modified U-vowel group

Sh Group 23+67 + + Sha 23 Shi 23+69 + + Shu 23+07 + + She 23+71 + + Sho 13+67 + + Kya 14+67 + + Gya 23+67 + + Sha 24+67 + + Ja 33+67 + + Cha 34+67 + + Ja 43+67 + + Nya 50+67 + + Hya 51+67 + + Bya 52+67 + + Pya 63+67 + + Mya 74+67 + + Rya 13+69 + + Kyu 14+69 + + Gyu 23+69 + + Shu 24+69 + + Ju 33+69 + + Chu 34+69 + + Ju 43+69 + + Nyu 50+69 + + Hyu 51+69 + + Byu see modified O-vowel group Modified I-vowel Group modified Ki (K-group) modified Gi (G-group) modified Shi (S-group) -- see also Sh group modified Ji (Z-group) -- see also J group modified Chi (T-group) -- see also Ch group modified Ji (D-group) modified Ni (N-group) modified Hi (H-group) modified Bi (B-group) modified Pi (P-group) modified Mi (M-group) modified Ri (R-group) Modified U-vowel Group modified Ku (K-group) modified Gu (G-group) modified Su (S-group) -- see also Sh group modified Zu (Z-group) -- see also J group modified Tsu (T-group) -- see also Ch group modified Du (D-group) modified Nu (N-group) modified Fu (H-group) modified Bu (B-group) see modified-I vowel group see also S group see modified U-vowel group

52+69 + + Pyu 63+69 + + Myu 74+69 + + Ryu 13+71 + + Kyo 14+71 + + Gyo 23+71 + + Sho 24+71 + + Jo 33+71 + + Cho 34+71 + + Jo 43+71 + + Nyo 50+71 + + Hyo 51+71 + + Byo 52+71 + + Pyo 63+71 + + Myo 74+71 + + Ryo 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95

modified Pu (P-group) modified Mu (M-group) modified Ru (R-group) Modified O-vowel Group modified Ko (K-group) modified Go (G-group) modified So (S-group) -- see also Sh group modified Zo (Z-group) -- see also J group modified To (T-group) -- see also Ch group modified Do (D-group) modified No (N-group) modified Ho (H-group) modified Bo (B-group) modified Po (P-group) modified Mo (M-group) modified Ro (R-group) What are these?

Miscellaneous Space long voiced interation Space preceding vowel is long repeat last syllable voiced unvoiced interation repeat last syllable unvoiced