Do japanese people give terms to symbols? Like I call an a "aye" even though I pronounce it ah… - Feed Post by Whinzer9
Do japanese people give terms to symbols? Like I call an a "aye" even though I pronounce it ah (There's other sounds but yeah. The idea is still the same for every english letter.) I watched a "japanese alphabet" song on hiragana to find out but the "names" for the hiragana were all the exact same as their sound. (I picked hiragana because I didn't want to get confused with ondoku and kundoku reading since I don't fully understand that yet.) Are they saying a noun for its name or for its sound? I know its a small thing since they're basically the same thing and I'm being really picky but I want to know. Does this あ have a name in the english sense of name? あ is a that is for sure, it doesn't even have variations in its sound really, but is a its name?
I call the english a "aye" but it is also a sound english a makes, which is two different things. I've been learning japanese grammar a little and I know how it's usual to leave the subject out when what you are talking about is obvious so I can see how japanese might not even have "names" for letters. The sound is ~the sound, so since its already blatantly obvious would there be no name? Or is there a name anyways. Idk how else to explain, I guess I just want confirmation. I think I'm starting to go in circles, probably mixing names with nouns, and by name I mean "letter".
Oh and is there a word for "letter" that encompasses all japanese writing symbols? Saying hiragana, katakana and kanji to me is sort of the equivalent of saying vowels and consonants. I've heard people say kanji in reference to all three but that just doesn't sound right to me since it is its own distinct writing....thing. lol. Please don't say calligraphy. >.<
I call the english a "aye" but it is also a sound english a makes, which is two different things. I've been learning japanese grammar a little and I know how it's usual to leave the subject out when what you are talking about is obvious so I can see how japanese might not even have "names" for letters. The sound is ~the sound, so since its already blatantly obvious would there be no name? Or is there a name anyways. Idk how else to explain, I guess I just want confirmation. I think I'm starting to go in circles, probably mixing names with nouns, and by name I mean "letter".
Oh and is there a word for "letter" that encompasses all japanese writing symbols? Saying hiragana, katakana and kanji to me is sort of the equivalent of saying vowels and consonants. I've heard people say kanji in reference to all three but that just doesn't sound right to me since it is its own distinct writing....thing. lol. Please don't say calligraphy. >.<
posted by Whinzer9
Comments 7
Oh I'm also assuming that it's probable that they gave "names" to the hiragana because it was a video about an "alphabet". Eh heeee sorry I might simply be over thinking. >.<- "You wrote your あ incorrectly." If a japanese person would tell me that, how would they say あ? Just a? Or hiragana a?
あ is only pronounced as "ah" and if you "aye" it will become "あい"
katakana is usually used for english words or for emphasis so they would probably use the hiragana "a"
((i hope i helped??;;))
yeah, unlike the english language, all of the japanese alphabet are pronounced how they're written, e.g a = ah. o = oh, oo = a prolonged "oh". I haven't discovered any work around to that either. It's one of the only simplicities the language has hahaha.
They are phonemically their name. Hiragana is cursive writing while katakana is print writing. Hiragana is used in everyday writing while katakana is commonly used now for foreign words. Though when doing kanji, which is a simplified Chinese character for Japanese words, the katakana is used for the onyomi while the kunyomi uses hiragana. The conjunction of hiragana and katakana is kana. Hope this helps!!- You guys are awesome! Thanks! ^_^
- だいじょうぶ
