Japanese Hiragana “K” and “G” Syllables

The Japanese writing system is split into three parts.  Two of these are syllabaries, and the last is a collection of symbols.  Japanese doesn’t have an ‘alphabet’ so to speak, as it does a ‘syllabary’, or symbols associated with monosyllabic phonemes.  There are two sets of symbols associated with these sounds, one called Hiragana which is used for native words, and one called Katakana which is used for borrowed words or emphasis. The third part is the Kanji, or symbols borrowed from the Chinese writing system, that make up all sort of words.

Together, Hiragana and Katakana make up the ‘kana’.  I decided if I was going to learn how to (at least) read Japanese I’d start with the kana.  That’s what inspired me to buy these cards from amazon (to the left).  I’ve had them for years, that’s why the cover on my set doesn’t match the cover on the cards offered on amazon.  They’re from the same publisher, so I would be highly surprised if they weren’t the same in spirit.  To purchase these cards directly from amazon just click the image to the left.  The nice thing about these flash cards is that you can use them with others and solo to practice learning your kana.  I learn the best when I’m being quizzed, something about putting the knowledge in a sense of experience, so Maus quizzes (or quizzed) me over and over and over until I learned all the kana.

These are the first videos I’ve made in this manner, and we made these in a public place (Starbucks, shocker) so the sound is wonky.  But, here is the video explaining the cards, and the “K” and “G” sounds of Japanese.  Please pardon my pronunciation, I’m completely self-taught and so I probably do it a bit wrong.

Below is the video of the “K” consonant syllables with a little vocabulary, and then followed by the modified voiced “G” consonant syllables with a little vocabulary:

So those are the cards I’m going to be using throughout this tutorial series on the Japanese writing system.  I thought I’d actually put some of the content on the cards in the blog, so to more easily see what’s on the cards I’ve listed below what I went over in the video.  I introduce each syllable, pure and modified, and then the corresponding vocabulary (that’s in the video, the kana cards themselves have MUCH more vocabulary):

か – ka: “kah”

かばん – “kaban” : handbag

かお – “kao” : face

かう – “kau” : to buy, to keep, to raise (animals)

き – ki: “kee”

きっぷ – “kippu” : ticket

きく – “kiku” : to listen, to ask; chrysanthemum

き – “ki” : tree, feeling, spirit

く – ku: “koo”

くに – “kuni” : country

くも – “kumo” : spider, cloud

け – ke: “keh”

けさ – “kesa” : this morning

け – “ke” : hair, fur, wool

こ – ko: “koh”

ここ – “koko” : here

こども – “kokomo” : child, kid

Those are the “pure” unmodified/unvoiced syllables for this series.  The following you’ll notice are attached to “tenten” which indicate that the syllable should be voiced.  So, ka becomes ga, like the difference between “coat” and “goat.”  There’s also a vocabulary word to go with each (and more in the set):

が – ga: “gah”

がまん – “gaman” : patience, perseverance, endurance

ぎ – gi: “gee”

ぎんこう – “ginkou” : bank

ぐ – gu: “goo”

ぎんこう – “ginkou” : bank

げ – ge: “geh”

げんき – “genki” : happiness, energy

ご – go: “goh”

ご – “go” : japanese checkers, go; five

I’ve developed a little quizlet featuring JUST the “k” and “g” sounds for your practice below:

That’s it for now, have fun studying Japanese!

This post is part of a larger list of Japanese Kana tutorials.

If you appreciate my tutorials please help support me through my Patreon.

photo credit: tokyoform Tokyo 4146 via photopin (license)

Asher Wolfstein

I'm a wunk (half-wolf half-skunk) anthromorph from the future that's stuck here in the past. Throughout my travels, I've learned that being true to yourself is one of the most important things you can do. On my blog I write about my life, interests, projects, observations, struggles, and whatever catches my fancy, otherwise I write reference/educational material on How To Program Anything and open-source software at Press Accept Software. Sometimes I make computer games. My projects are generally concerned with websites, computer science, linguistics, video game design/programming, and (animal/furry) costuming (fursuits). I study Japanese (日本語), read technical books, manga, self-help, cookbooks, and just about anything else, cook, make, and play games for fun. You can sometimes find me virtually on Second Life as kadar.talbot where I head up Falcraft Square, the premiere Cybercadia sim housing, among other things, Original Pursuits LLC's virtual office.

私は未来から来たワンク(半狼、半スカンク)の擬人化体で、ここに過去から立ち往生しています。 旅を通して、私は自分自身に忠実であることが最も重要なことの一つであることを学びました。 私のブログでは、自分の人生、興味、プロジェクト、観察、苦労など、気になったことを何でも書きます。それ以外の場合は、参考/教育資料やオープンソース ソフトウェアを書きます。 時々コンピューターゲームを作ります。 私のプロジェクトは通常、ウェブサイト、コンピューター サイエンス、言語学、ビデオ ゲームのデザイン/プログラミング、および (動物/毛皮の) 衣装に関係しています。 日本語を勉強したり、専門書、マンガ、自己啓発本、料理本などを読んだり、料理したり、作ったり、ゲームをしたりして楽しんでいます。 Second Life 上では、kadar.talbot として仮想的に私を見つけることができます。そこでは、ファルクラフト スクエア、プレミア サイバーカディア シム ハウジング、とりわけ Original Pursuits LLC の仮想オフィスを率いています。

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