Quote:
Originally Posted by blueheat127
Kani...Kanji... These all sound like Native American tribes to me... Please, I don't understand a word of it.
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OK. I'll help you out a little.
Kanji
Kanji: 犬 猫 木 私 月
Rōmaji: inu, neko, ki, watashi, tsuki
English: dog, cat, tree, I (me), month
Kana: Hiragana
Kana: すごい です かわいい
Rōmaji: sugoi, desu, kawaii
English: awesome, to be, cute
Kana: Katakana
Kana: ダウンロード ポケットモンスター フォント ファイナルファンタジー
Rōmaji: daunrōdo, poketto monsutā, fonto, fainaru fantajī
English: download, Pocket Monsters, font, Final Fantasy
Kanji are the Chinese symbols, also found in Japanese and Korean. These symbolize specific individual words.
Hiragana and katakana are the two Japanese phonetic systems, similar to the Roman alphabet that we use. They are a collection of characters that symbolize either a vowel, a consonant and vowel, or a moraic nasal (N). Once you learn the system, it's quite easy to pronounce. Katakana is usually used for words borrowed from other languages, mostly English. Hiragana is used for established verbs, adjectives, and nouns that do not have a kanji.