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First off, I haven't had a journal entry in a really long time!!!!! Second, yeah, I said I wouldn't go Japanese Lessons anymore, oh well! And third, Japanese Lessons #1-#9 are going to be copied directly from Free Japanese Lessons. Okay, on to the lesson!!!!

LESSON #1

Hiragana - ひらがな

The first step is to learn the alphabet. Or, at least, the sounds that exist in the Japanese language. There are absolutely no "tones" like in Chinese, Thai, etc. and there are only 2 exceptions within the alphabet which will be explained later. The characters listed below are called Hiragana. It is the main alphabet for Japanese. The Japanese language also consists of Chinese characters (Kanji), which we will get into later, and another alphabet, Katakana, which is mainly used for foreign words. Katakana will be covered in Lesson 2.

There are 5 vowels in the Japanese language. (a), pronounced "ahh", (i), pronounced like "e" in "eat", (u), pronounced like "oo" in "soon", (e), pronounced like "e" in "elk", and (o), pronounced "ohh". All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The only "consanent" that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese "r". It is slightly "rolled" as if it were a combination of a "d", "r", and "l".

あ=a
い=i
う=u
え=eお=o
か=ka
き=ki
く=ku
け=ke
こ=ko
が=ga
ぎ=gi
ぐ=gu
げ=ge
ご=go
さ=sa
し=shi
す=su
せ=se
そ=so
ざ=za
じ=ji
づ=zu
ぜ=ze
ぞ=zo
た=ta
ち=chi
つ=tsu
て=te
と=to
だ=da
ぢ=ji
づ=zu
で=de
ど=do
な=na
に=ni
ぬ=nu
ね=ne
の=no
は=ha
ひ=hi
ふ=fu
へ=he
ほ=ho
ば=ba
び=bi
ぶ=bu
べ=be
ぼ=bo
ぱ=pa
ぴ=pi
ぷ=pu
ぺ=pe
ぽ=po
ま=ma
み=mi
む=mu
め=me
も=mo
や=ya
ゆ=yu
よ=yo
ら=ra
り=ri
る=ru
れ=re
ろ=ro
わ=wa
を=wo
ん=n/m

Combinations

きゃ=kya
きゅ=kyu
きょ=kyo
ぎゃ=gya
ぎゅ=gyu
ぎょ=gyo
しゃ=sha
しゅ=shu
しょ=sho
じゃ=ja
じゅ=ju
じょ=jo
ちゃ=cha
ちゅ=chu
ちょ=cho
にゃ=nya
にゅ=nyu
にょ=nyo
ひゃ=hya
ひゅ=hyu
ひょ=hyo
びゃ=bya
びゅ=byu
びょ=byo
ぴゃ=pya
ぴゅ=pyu
ぴょ=pyo
みゃ=mya
みゅ=myu
みょ=myo
りゃ=rya
りゅ=ryu
りょ=ryo

Exceptions:
1. は (ha) is pronounced "wa" when it immediately follows the subject. It is usually only pronounced "ha" when it is part of a word.
2. へ (he) is pronounced "e" when it immediately follows a place or direction. Both of these are very simple to detect.

It's because in the classic Japanese language the "h" sound was pronounced like "w", "h", and "f" all put together. The sound for the "ha", "hi", "fu", "he", "ho" evolved one way and the particles, which sounded closer to "wa" and "we", went a different route. They finally ended up taking sounds slightly different then the hiragana was normally pronounced which were also sounds already found in the Japanese language so these two exceptions are often very confusing to outsiders.

Note: You probably noticed that there are 2 "zu" and 2 "ji". づ (zu) and ぢ (ji) are very rarely used. づ (zu) only occurs when there is a つ (tsu) in front of it like in つづく (tsuzuku - to continue) or when a Kanji (Chinese character) that starts with つ (tsu) is paired at the end with another character changing the つ (tsu) to a づ (zu). The same applies for ぢ (ji). Since they are used so rarely I wouldn't worry about them too much. I will let you know whenever we come upon a word in which they are used.