What the heck is the difference.....

[BigZam]

.....between romanji, katakana, hirigana, and kanji and whatever else?

[Debitt]

romaji is japanese words written out using the english alphabet

hirigana is a japanese syllabary used to express Japanese words

katakana is a japanese syllabary used to express foreign words

kanji are characters borrowed from or modified from Chinese characters, and used to express all or part of a Japanese word.

[_Sin_]

romaji is japanese words written out using the english alphabet

hirigana is a japanese syllabary used to express Japanese words

katakana is a japanese syllabary used to express foreign words

kanji are characters borrowed from or modified from Chinese characters, and used to express all or part of a Japanese word.

This says all!
Too bad I didn't see this thread a bit earlier

[BigZam]

romaji is japanese words written out using the english alphabet

hirigana is a japanese syllabary used to express Japanese words

katakana is a japanese syllabary used to express foreign words

kanji are characters borrowed from or modified from Chinese characters, and used to express all or part of a Japanese word.

Thanks but.......how on Earth do you know all of this?!?

[_Sin_]

Thanks but.......how on Earth do you know all of this?!?

Getting to know that is inevitable if you are visiting Anime boards regurlarly.

[Rue Shibusky]

I always thought of hiragana to be more of a cursive form compared to katakana...

[Ingemar]

.....between romanji, katakana, hirigana, and kanji and whatever else?

*puts Dave Barry cap on*

Romanji is an ancient Japanese prefecture founded by Japanese Catholic Monks who converted to Christianity when they were decieved into it by Jesuits who offered them coupons that promised "Eradication of Bad Karma and 50 Yen off a purchase of an X-tra large rice bowl."

Katakana is a form of syllabry. Two hundred years ago, a famous samurai named Steve Hasegawa Yamamoto Yamaguchi the Samurai beheaded an enemy in combat. The blood splatter formed what Steve thought looked like a neato alphabet. He called it 'katakana' because it is the form of writing developed by slicing someone's head off with a KATA-na.

Hirgana and kanji's story is intertwined. A year after Steve H.Y. Yamaguchi the Samurai invented katakana, his brother, Gonzo, was busy doodling on a piece of paper. He tried to copy his brother's success with forming a new alphabet. One day, the evil Tofu brigade attacked the dwelling of Steve's warlord. Steve, in a panic, warned his brother. "Hurry Gonzo! Hurry Gonzo! Can't ye? Can't ye?" Gonzo's ears were plugged that day, (due to an ear infection) so what he heard sounded like "Hirigana! Hirigana! Kanji? Kanji?" So he named his entire writing system of over three zillion letters "Hirigana Kanji." As it turned out, the Tofu brigade killed Steve's warlord, and Steve and his brother committ ritual suicide (although some historians believe that Gonzo slipped and fell on someone's dagger, because his ear infection affected his equilibrium.) The Tofu brigade found Gonzo's work and split it up into the straight, orderly-looking letters (Hirigana) and the ones that make absolutely no sense (Kanji).

[Debitt]

Thanks but.......how on Earth do you know all of this?!?

Atashi wa nihonjin desu. ^.~ I'm Japanese and I take classes.

[Chichiri]

Thanks but.......how on Earth do you know all of this?!?

simple stuff. i think most people know that.

I always thought of hiragana to be more of a cursive form compared to katakana...

it is. but it's not cursive katakana.

and ingemar... you can't be serious. whos dave barry?

[Rue Shibusky]

Yeah, although harigana ka kinda looks like katakana ka, only fancier

[ShiroiHikari]

katakana can also be used to put special emphasis on certain Japanese words or names. and yes, hiragana is more curvy compared to katakana, but most of the characters don't look ANYTHING alike.

[Rue Shibusky]

Very true

[Azier the Swordsman]

For years, Japan had absolutely no writing system whatsoever. When Buddhist monks from China introduced their writing system to the Japanese, they were fascinated by the pictographs and eagerly rushed to adopt them into their own language. Where there was a Japanese word, they took the Chinese character of corresponding meaning and attatched it. Problem: Chinese Grammar and Japanese Grammer are completely different from each other. Chinese is missing the grammatical endings that are used in Japanese. (-ly -ed -ish -ing ect.)

There was also no way to write other words such as is, and, would be, could be, ect.

Therefore, they took some elements out of certain Kanji characters, abbreiviated them, and created KANA, comprised of characters each representing a specific syllable with which to attatch the grammatical endings and write all the in between.

Think of it this way: They could use a single character to represent the word for WRITE but they couldn't use Kanji to represent WRITING or WRITER. This is where kana comes in: For the word WRITING, the WRIT would be in Kanji and the ING would be in kana. Same for WRITER: WRIT is in Kanji, and ER is in kana.

Also, when more than one Kanji character is used together, they form compound words, typically having something to do with their meaning. A famous person, a MEIJIN, is written with the Kanji for NAME and PERSON. The word for Japan, NIHON, is written with the characters for SUN and ORIGIN. The word for navy, is written with the Kanji for OCEAN and MILITARY.

Kanji has multiple readings which change depending on which characters are used along with it. This makes it almost impossible to successfully study all the Kanji needed well until you are near fluent in the language of Japanese. (about 2,000 Kanji characters are needed before you are considered 'literate')

Kana has two systems, Hiragana and Katakana.
Hiragana is used as mentioned above, for grammatical endings and as filler. However, ONLY words of Japanese origin can be written with Hiragana. This is where katakana comes in. Katakana is used to write all words of foreign origin adopted into the Japanese language. (There are many from our language that are used in Japanese every day.)

ANYTHING can be written in kana, so beginners to the language do not need Kanji right away. In Japanese schools, Japanese children are taught first Hiragana, then Katakana, and finally the study Kanji througout the years.

Romaji is simply our alphabet when used to write Japanese words using our written system.

Japanese should NEVER be learned using Romaji. It will cripple and disable you and you will never be a great speaker like you could be. Anyone desiring to learn Japanese should immediately learn Hiragana and Katakana as quickly as possible, then study using those systems only.

Kanji should be fully studied only after getting a good grasp on the language.

For more information on learning Japanese, check out a wonderful site known as http://www.yesjapan.com

You can not find a better site on the internet for learning to speak, read, write Japanese.

[Mangafanatic]

Thanks but.......how on Earth do you know all of this?!?

It's amazing the stuff you learn that you never TRIED to learn. I knew the answer to this question, but it's just stuff I picked up along the way. In some translator's note in that anime or on this person's fan site. You will learn in time.

[BigZam]

thanks guys

simple stuff. i think most people know that.



it is. but it's not cursive katakana.

and ingemar... you can't be serious. whos dave barry?

wha-wha-wha!?!?!?!? You don't know who Dave Barry is!?!?!??!!?!? What, do you live in a cave?

[Arnobius]

Katakana was actually derived from kanji. It was based on the roots of 46 kanji selected for having the sounds to be symbolized by the kana. Actually, until the end of WWII, Katakana was considered a "men's script" and was used in a way similar to what Hiragana is now. Men in technical fields like engineering might skip studying higher level kanji to improve their technical knowledge.

As to when kanji should be studied, it generally is integrated in, as more important ones and simpler ones are taught to younger children and more get learned as they go along (the Ministry of Education has a list of which kanji children should be taught each year). By the time the Japanese student finishes Middle School, he or she is expected to know 1006 kanji, and 1945 kanji by the time they graduate high school (this is considered literacy).

WHen studying Japanese as a foreign language, generally kanji are brought in a little at a time. You won't get far just learning kana and starting kanji after several years. This is usually up to the teacher's discretion.