Final Basic Hiragana Post - Week 4

Okay, I've given you guys like 3 weeks to play "catch up", so now I'm going to be posting the final 2 series from the basic hiragana set.

First off, we will be doing the Y-series, and then the W-series (which includes N/M).  Both series only have 3 characters each.

NEXT WEEK WILL BE YOUR FIRST ACTUAL *TEST*, AND IT WILL COVER ALL OF THE BASIC HIRAGANA.  *THESE TESTS ARE MEANT TO HELP *YOU* TRACK YOUR PROGRESS, SO IF YOU CHEAT, YOU WILL HURT NO ONE BUT YOURSELF!

We are also going to be discussing what it means when you see half-sized characters, and introduce you to the concept of paired hiragana to make more sounds, as well as the two diacritic marks, which also make more sounds.  We won't be covering them all in-detail this week, however we will be introducing them.

Okay, so here are they are. And, because there are only six characters, we'll be treating them as essentially one series with the FLASHCARDS on quizlet, which are available HERE. (As usual, just click on 'study' or 'Learn' to go through the set... This time, they are set up to be multiple choice.  Let me know if you guys like the change or not.)

Y-series is
Ya 　や
Yu　ゆ
Yo　よ
Full size PDF for printouts available HERE:

And the W-series
Wo/O　を
Wa　　わ
N/m　　ん
Full Sized PDF for printouts available HERE

Now, we are going to talk just a bit about what it means when we see a half sized character.  There are only 4 characters which will appear half-sized.  They are as follows:

Tsu - つ　っ

When you see a half-sized っ (tsu) character, this indicates that the next sound should have a slight pause there, or be extended a bit.  So, if you see わかった (wakatta - to understand), that would break down like this

wa-ka- tta
わ - か - った
wa - ka - t ta

The 't' there in 'ta' must be doubled to 'tta', because the small 'tsu' indicates this.

Another, very popular example, would be Sesshoumaru's name.

His name is written out in hiragana like this:

せっしょうまる　（殺生丸）
Se-ssho-u-ma-ru

You will notice that his name also has a half-sized 'yo' right after the 'shi'.  When you see the half-sized 'yo', 'yu' or 'ya', they create "blended" sounds using combination hiragana.  In this case 'shi' blends with the 'yo' sound, to make 'sho'.

Because the 'sho' has a half-sized 'tsu' in front of it, the 's' must be doubled there as well, so it breaks down as:
せ* っしょ * う * ま * る
Se - s sho -  u -  ma - ru

The half-sized Y series look like this (with full size first, for comparison):

Ya - や　ゃ
Yo - よ　ょ
Yu - ゆ　ゅ

Other popular words that use half-sized characters are

Chan (familiar suffix, used for women and young children)
ちゃん
Chi+ya = Cha n

Ottosama - (Husband)
おっとさま
O - t to - sa - ma

Juu　(The number 10 )　
じゅう
Ji+yu = Ju
Ju - u

Ja nai (negation, 'is not')
じゃない
Ji+ ya = Ja
Ja nai

Bishounen (Beautiful young boy/Pretty boy)
びしょうねん
Bi - Shi+yo - u - ne-n
Bi - Sho - u - ne - n

Kyuu (The number 9 )
きゅう
Ki+yu - u
Kyu - u

Shoujo (Young woman)
しょうじょ
Shi+yo - u - Ji+yo
Sho - u - Jo

Josei (Adult women)
じょせい
Ji+yo - se - i'
Jo - se - i


I hope you are starting to get the idea, but if not, don't worry.  We'll be going over this a lot more.

Also, you may have noticed diacritic marks on some of the characters.  The two dots that changed  shi  し into  じ ji...  We will be going over those in our next lesson.  They are actually really easy to pick up, so don't worry.