Tuesday, February 2, 2010

二月二日(nigatsu futsuka): February 2

It is often said that Japanese language is very difficult. I feel so too. Main reasons are writing systems and honorific words. There are three different writing styles. One is kanji (漢字), pictographic characters imported from China, the other is hiragana (ひらがな), another is katakana (カタカナ). Each kanji character has meaning. Hiragana and katakana are phonetic signs. There are 46 hiragana and 46 katakana. To read a newspaper you have to know about 2000 kanji characters.
The difficult things of kanji are sound. One kanji often has some different pronunciations.
For example, let's check the dates.
January 1 is written as 一月一日 and pronunced as ichi gatsu tsuitachi. 月(gatsu) means month, and 日(nichi) means day. Same character 一is read different way, ichi and tsui.
February 2 is written as 二月二日 and pronunced as ni gatsu futsu ka. Same character 二 is read different way as ni and futsu.
March 3 is written as 三月三日 and pronunced as san gatsu mi kka. 三 is read as san and mi.
April 4 is written as 四月四日 and pronunced as shi gatsu yo kka. 四 is read as shi and yo.
May 5 is written as 五月五日 and pronunced as go gatsu itsu ka. 五 is read as go and itsu.
June 6 is written as 六月六日 and pronunced as roku gatsu mui ka. 六 is read as roku and mui.
July 7 is written as 七月七日 and pronunced as shichi gatsu nano ka. 七 is read as shichi and nano.
August 8 is written as 八月八日 and pronunced as hachi gatsu yo ka. 八 is read as hachi and yo.
September 9 is written as 九月九日 and pronunced as ku gatsu kokono ka. 九 is read as ku and kokono.
October 10 is written as 十月十日 and pronunced as jyu gatsu to ka. 十 is read as jyu and to.

Don't you think it is interesting?

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