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| The Classroom / Kurasu Page 3 |
| The seconary and tertiary alphabets are a little tricky. They are formed by adding marks to the basic Hiragana, such as two short strokes in the upper right-hand corner of the character (called "ten-ten") to form the secondary alphabet, or a small circle (similar to the math symbol for "degree") in the upper right-hand corner of the character to form the tertiary alphabet. (DISPLAY SOON TO COME). The Secondary Alphabet: Ka = Ga Sa = Za Ta = Da Ha = Ba For clarity's sake, I only showed you the rows which get changed. All the others (A, Na, Ma, Ya, Ra, Wa, N) will all stay the same, and you cannot add ten-ten or "degree"s to them. There are even fewer changes in the tertiary alphabet: The Tertiary Alphabet: Sa = Ja Ta = Ja* Ha = Pa *- This set of "Ja, Ji, Ju, Je, Jo" is only used grammatically and will be explained much later. Whenever you see the above letters, assume the "Sa" drawings of them, not the "Ta" drawings. |
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| In addition to the secondary and tertiary alphabets, there are also three-digit letters, referred to as "Yoon" (pronounced "Yo-o-n", not "Yu-u-n").These letters are formed from the same basic Hiragana letters, but with a subscript "Ya, Yu, Yo" in the bottom right-hand corner of the character. (NOTE: this is similar to the way we subscripted "tsu" to repeat a consonant, but this time it replaces vowel sounds.) Because there are only three "ya" letters, there are only three rows of Yoon. Here are all the Yoon: |
| rya mya pya bya hya nya cha ja sha kya gya |
| ryu myu pyu byu hyu nyu chu ju shu kyu gyu |
| ryo myo pyo byo hyo nyo cho jo sho kyo gyo |
| Again, the letters "Ja, Ju, Jo" are used grammatically and will be explained much later. The reason these letters get abbreviated thusly is actually very simple when you break it down. Take the letter "Ryu" for example. Imagine how it would look drawn in Hiragana: Ryu = Ri - Yu It get's tricky pronouncing both the "ee" sound in "Ri" and the "oo" sound in "Yu" when you're speaking. Therefore, the "ee" sound (and letter "i") was taken out of the "Ri" in Romaji, but REMEMBER!! YOU MUST DRAW THE FULL LETTER "Ri" IN HIRAGANA!! |
| You're doing a good job, and we're almost done!! All that's left to do here in the classroom is learn grammar, now that you understand pronunciation and the alphabets. Let's make whole sentences!! This is perhaps the most exciting part ^_^; Good luck! |
| Decide to learn grammar later and LEAVE THE CLASSROOM or BUST OUT YOUR BOOK. |
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