PART 5
Writing Charts

The following charts show the essentials of kana spelling. The squarish letters on the left are katakana, which is used to write foreign words and odd-sounding native words. The roundish letters on the right are the ones used for other words. In addition, modern Japanese use about 2000 characters of Chinese origin, called kanji. The first two charts show the simple syllables; the third shows those with the -y- element inserted. After these are notes on special combinations, such as long vowels and consonants. The Romanization in heavy black type is that used in this book. For some of the syllables, there are other ways of Romanizing them, and these are also shown, but in regular typeface.

Long vowels are usually shown by repeating the vowels when writing in hiragana:

ā	ああ	kā	かあ
ū	うう	fū	ふう
ii	いい	nii	にい
ē	ええ	tē	てえ

In katakana, a single long stroke is often used (especially for foreign words):

ā	アー	kā	カー
ū	ウー	fū	フー
ii	イー	nii	ニー
ē	エー	tē	テー

But in hiragana the long ō is usually written as if it were ou (for most, but not all, words):

ō	おう	kō	こう
sō	そう	kyō	きょう
yō	よう

Long consonants (pp, tt, tch, kk, ss, ssh) are written by inserting tsu, usually written smaller than the other letters:

kippu	きっぷ	natte	なって
botchan	ぼっちゃん	gakko	がっこう
massugu	まっすぐ	issho	いっしょ

But long -mm- and -nn- are written with ん and the appropriate symbol from the ma or na columns:

ammari	あんまり	semmon	せんもん
san-nen	さんねん	sam-myaku	さんみゃく