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Section
2 6 Writing Systems: Japanese
The Japanese language can be written in several different ways. One method (kanji) is based on characters borrowed from the Chinese writing system. Another (mmaji) uses letters from the roman alphabet; this system is used to write the Japanese in this workbook. Yet another writing system, the katakana syllabary, uses symbols that represent consonant-plus-vowel sequences (refer to Linguistics, pp. 563-567, for information on syllable-based writing systems). The chart below is a partial list of the symbols that make up the katakana syllabary of Japanese. Study the symbols and their pronunciations, and answer questions A-E.
Questions
A. Consider the following examples:
What important role does the diacritic " play?
B. Based on your answer to question A, transcribe these symbols:
C . Would it make sense for the diacritic " to be added to any of the following symbols: X, j,7,A?Why or why not?
D.The diacritic " indicates a voiced bilabial stop when associated with the symbols in line 5. Transcribe the following symbols. For example: IT /ba/.
E.The diacritic " is combined with the katakana symbols in one of the above lines to indicate /pal, /pi/, /pu/, Ipel, or Ipol.
1.Write the katakana symbols that represent the following sound combinations. (The symbol " should be written to the upper right of the basic symbols you have chosen.)
2. Why did you choose the symbols you did?
3. What does the diacritic " represent?
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