Pronunciation of Japanese words in Russian. Introduction to hieroglyphs
Hello!
In this tutorial, we will cover a topic that will be useful for beginners. Namely, we will get acquainted with hieroglyphs.
Introduction
In Japanese, characters are called kanji (漢字 かんじ). The hieroglyphs were borrowed from Chinese, although Japanese and Chinese are not related. Hieroglyphs have meanings and readings (how to read this hieroglyph in a particular word). The result is a complex puzzle of many values and many reads with exceptions. Each hieroglyph also has its own writing order, which also needs to be remembered, since the correct spelling of hieroglyphs is very thoughtful.
In this lesson, we will get to know the characters, how to use them, and the topic will be expanded in the following lessons.
Short story
China
Hieroglyphs were invented in China over 4000 years ago. Initially, they were used for predictions. The early forms of characters are called こうこうつぶん (kokotsubun). Hieroglyphs went through a long way of change before they reached Japan. Hieroglyphs came to Japan thanks to Chinese and Korean immigrants. This is believed to have happened around 2,000 years ago, although we don't know exactly when this process actually began.
Borrowing
The Japanese did not originally have a written language. At first, characters were used in Japan for Classical Chinese. Over time, hieroglyphs began to be used for Japanese language. At the same time, for the most part, hieroglyphs were selected by sound, rather than by meaning.
An early system of using characters as syllables is called まんようがな (man'yōgana). It is named after the first collection of poetry in Japanese - まんようしゅう (Manyoshu). Subsequently, the hieroglyphs that were used for the alphabet were simplified, and for some symbols, separate elements of the hieroglyph were taken, and thus the kana alphabet arose. The picture below from Wikipedia shows the process of forming kana characters from hieroglyphs:
Note. The katakana characters for yi, ye, wu were invented at the beginning of the industrial revolution in Japan, despite the fact that at that time they were not in the Japanese language. For now, it's best to ignore them due to the specifics of their use.
Modern history in Japan
Some hieroglyphs were already invented in Japan. Such hieroglyphs are called 国字 こくじ (kokuji - national hieroglyphs). Although the Japanese have come up with thousands of their own characters, in the process of studying you will find that only a small number of them are widely used and necessary characters.
Japanese writing in general was greatly simplified after World War II. This process included simplifying the use of kana and the forms of over 1,000 characters. Many older Japanese still know the old forms of characters, and these forms can still be found in literature, where they are used for artistic purposes for various reasons. Also, old forms of hieroglyphs can be found in Japanese names.
Currently, there are 2136 characters, which are called 常用漢字 じょうようかんじ (joyo kanji) - "commonly used characters". But most native speakers know 3,000 or more characters. There is no need to be afraid of this amount. By learning characters in context, you will better understand this complex writing system.
Readings He and Kun
As mentioned above, hieroglyphs have meanings and sounds (readings). There are two types of readings - he (オン, 音よみ) and kun (くんよみ). He is a pronunciation that has been borrowed from Chinese over the course of several centuries. Kun are native Japanese pronunciations that have been assigned to characters by semantic association with Japanese words.
Reading hieroglyphs is difficult precisely because there are often a large number of potential readings. In spite of general rules, there are many exceptions. But practice will give you the best skill in understanding how kanji reading works.
In dictionaries, reading it is given in katakana, and kun in hiragana. And now in more detail about each of the readings.
The readings he came from China. All words with the readings he are originally Chinese, except when the pronunciations are used only for phonetic reasons. All words borrowed from Chinese are read by reading he. Some characters have more than one reading he. It is usually used in words that have more than two or more characters. It is sometimes used on its own, especially when the word has no equivalent in Japanese. Different hieroglyphs may have the same sound he, but the meanings are also different. The table below shows some examples for readings on it:
Kun - in general, these are native Japanese words applicable to hieroglyphs.
For example, consider the character 北. Its meaning is north, its he is ホク. The Japanese word for "north" is きた. So, this will be the kun reading for our character.
Hieroglyphs often have many kun readings. Kun are independent, but many are used together with okurigana (suffixes in the form of hiragana for hieroglyphs). The table below shows examples of kun readings:
Sometimes he and kun are used together. Such combinations are called 重箱読 ジュウばこよ み (for reading オンくん) and 湯桶読 ゆトウよ み (for reading くんオン). The table below gives examples, with the reading of he indicated in katakana and blue, and kun indicated in hiragana and purple.
Keys
Keys are the building blocks of hieroglyphs. All hieroglyphs are grouped by keys, of which there are 214 in total.
Hieroglyphs with the same key usually have a similar meaning. 語, 訳, 訓, and 許 have the key 言 meaning "speech" and have meanings associated with that concept.
Some keys are used for phonetic reasons. In other words, there is a part of the hieroglyph that tells what reading it is supposed to be. So, words with the same phonetics have similar readings he. For example, 時, 持, and 侍 have the phonetic reading ジ, while the phonetic reading for 寺 is ジ. There are also exceptions. For example, 待 and 特 have the readings タイ and トク. Phoneticians by themselves do not always play a semantic role and do not help with kun readings.
The keys have names. However, it is not important for us to know what is the name of this or that "building block" of hieroglyphs - the key. Although it is useful to take note of the components of the studied hieroglyphs.
Exceptions in readings
In the process of learning hieroglyphs, you will come across the fact that many words have "wrong" meanings and readings. There are many such exceptions that Japanese learners face, but for beginners, it's easy enough to remember that there are words that don't match the readings of the characters they're made up of. The table below shows some examples:
Writing problems
Let's look at two more concepts that you need to be aware of.
交まぜ書かき - when the character is replaced by kana, and as a result, half of the word is written in the character and half in kana:
書 か き 換 か え - when a character is replaced by another with a similar reading:
based on materials from imabi.net
For me, remembering all the readings by heart is really a difficult task. How do you deal with it?
Hieroglyphs
System Hepburn based on phonology in English. For Anglophones, gives the best idea of how a word is pronounced in Japanese.
nihon-shiki- the oldest and least used. It is based on Japanese phonology and strictly follows the syllable order of the Japanese alphabet. With this system, you can absolutely accurately restore the original Japanese spelling transliterated.
V kunrei-shiki the difference between the writing of kana signs and their modern reading is reflected. It is a standard recognized by the Japanese government and ISO (ISO 3602).
The Hepburn system is the most widely used in Japan. It is called in Japanese Hebon-romaji or simply romaji. Romaji is used in all published in Japan, Western Europe and the United States of Japanese-foreign language dictionaries, including Japanese-English special technical dictionaries, as well as some Japanese-Russian dictionaries.
Japanese dictionaries
There are two types of Japanese dictionaries. Alphabetical dictionaries, in which words are arranged in accordance with the sound composition of the word, include words from all three layers of the Japanese vocabulary (wago, kango and gairaigo). In Japanese-Russian dictionaries, Japanese words are arranged in the order of the Russian alphabet. Everything hieroglyphic dictionaries compiled according to the key system.In hieroglyphic dictionaries, words are arranged in accordance with the graphics of the hieroglyphic sign. Japanese monolingual character dictionaries in Japanese are called Kanwa-jiten. They only explain the meanings of Kango words, which consist of Chinese roots. All such dictionaries are compiled according to the key system. The dictionary entry is constructed as follows: the capital character is given in readings on onu, which is written in katakana; the following are all its meanings in kun reading, which are written in hiragana; then this character is given in combinations in kango words in which it is in the first place.
Russian transcriptions for Japanese
The first Russian transcription for the Japanese language was created in 1900 by E. G. Spalvin. Among Russian Japonists, Spalvin's transcription was widely used.In 1907, D. M. Pozdneev introduced into tutorial"Tokuhon" is a slightly different transcription from the first system. It was focused on the Tokyo pronunciation and was supposed to bring the sound of the words written in accordance with it closer to the speech of the Japanese. The system has not been widely adopted.
Currently, Russia uses a transcription system developed by E. D. Polivanov in 1914 and scientifically substantiated by him in 1917 in a special brochure "On Russian transcription Japanese words". In his system, the scientist sought to convey as accurately as possible the pronunciation typical of the Tokyo dialect using the usual means of Russian graphics.
When reading Japanese words written in Russian transcription, it should be borne in mind that the vowels Я and У in the composition of a word are often reduced, i.e. are pronounced unstressed and more briefly than usual, as if swallowed.
With the help of the Russian language, Japanese words can be written more accurately than, for example, in English. Russian has all the letters that correspond to Japanese, including such as "ya", "yu", "ё", while in English they have to be conveyed by combinations like "ya", "yu", "yo".
Phonetics and pronunciation in Japanese
Pronunciation in Japanese is not very difficult, but has its own characteristics. First, almost all syllables in Japanese are open (consonant + vowel). There are few closed syllables, and in Japanese they can only end in n. Secondly, in Japanese there are not many sounds that are in Russian (“l”, “sh”, “s”), and vice versa, some sounds are different from what we are used to.
Let's take a closer look at the pronunciation of vowels.
The first row of the Japanese syllabary consists of five vowels: a, i, u, e, o.
あ - similar to the accented Russian "a", but the Japanese "a" is less open
い - as Russian and. The consonant in front of him is always soft.
う - in transcription it is transmitted by the Russian "y", but it looks like something in between Russian at and s. .
え - should be pronounced clearly but less openly, Japanese え is more like "e" after hard consonants.
お - distinct, like a Russian percussion "o"
Japanese has long and short vowels. Long vowels are twice as long as short vowels. Long and short vowels must always be distinguished, since some words differ only in the length of the vowels. In transcription, vowel length is indicated by a colon or a bar above the letter.
In hiragana, longitude is indicated either by repeating the corresponding vowel or by the vowel う after お (as in けんこう kenko: "health"), in katakana by a horizontal bar after the vowel. The combination えい in some cases is read as a long "e" (for example, the word せんせい (sensei) can be pronounced as sensei or sense:, and がくせい (gakusei) as gakusei or gakuse:).
"U" and " and" between deaf consonants are reduced, that is, they are almost not pronounced. For example, the words すこし "a little" or そして "then" sound almost like "squint" and "souste". Also, the reduction rule sometimes extends to the case if “I” or “U” are at the end of a word after a voiceless consonant, for example, the linking verb です is read as “des”, and the verb ending ます is read as “mas”.
Now let's talk about the pronunciation of consonants.
K in the series か, き, く, け, こ is similar to the Russian k.
In the syllables さ sa, す su, せ se, そ с, the first consonant is similar to the Russian "s". The consonant in the syllable し si looks like a cross between soft Russian s and u.
In た ta, て te, と then - how T In russian language. In ち ti is like a cross between t' and ch'. The ts in the syllable つ tsu is similar to the Russian "ts".
In syllables な na, に ni, ぬ well, ね ne, の but the consonant is similar to the Russian "n".
X in the syllables は ha, へ he, ほ ho is aspirated and easy. In the syllable ひ hee is like a soft x. In the syllable ふ fu, "f" is pronounced easily, aspirated.
M is the first sound in the syllables ま ma, み mi, む mu, め me, も mo. Identical to Russian m.
In や i, ゆ yu, よ yo is the first consonant y. These syllables are similar to the Russian letters i, yu, ё.
In the syllables ら ra, り ri, る ru, れ re, ろ ro, the consonant is less booming than our “r”, is formed in almost the same way as in Russian, but with one blow of the tongue against the palate, because of which it becomes a kind of middle between r and l. Some peoples say that in Japanese there is no "r", but there is "l".
The consonant of the syllable わ va resembles something between the Russian v and u (compare the English w).
The syllable を is pronounced like "o".
The consonant ん reads like "m" before m, b and P(かんぱい kampai - toast, しんぶん shimbun - newspaper) as a nasal sound before To and G - (けんか kenka "quarrel"), and as "n" in other cases.
Consonants in voiced rows are pronounced:
G in the series "ga" is similar to the Russian "g". When the syllables が ga, ぎgi, ぐ gu, げ ge, ご go are in the middle of a word, then the “r” is pronounced with a nasal overtone similar to the English ŋ (for example, in the word あげる ageru “raise”).
In the syllables ざ za, づ, ず zu, ぜ ze, ぞ zo, when they are written at the beginning or middle of a word after n, pronounced continuous "dz". In other cases - as Russian z. In the syllables じ, ぢ ji is pronounced softly and with a lisping overtone.
In だ yes, で de, ど do consonant = hard Russian "d".
The first sound in the series ば ba, び bi, ぶ bu, べ be, ぼ bo is similar to the Russian "b".
In the syllables ぱ pa, ぴ pi, ぷ pu, ぺ pe, ぽ the consonant is similar to the Russian "p".
There are also doubled consonants in Japanese. They are indicated by a small つ before a double consonant syllable: けっか kekka, いったい ittai, いっぽん ippon, etc.
In conclusion, I would like to say that, in general, it is much easier for Russian speakers to master Japanese pronunciation than, for example, for English speakers or native speakers of other languages.
This is due to the fact that the Russian language includes almost all the sounds that are in the Japanese language.
In order to improve your pronunciation, I advise you to listen to Japanese speech as much as possible, to practice listening. Listen carefully and listen to the intonation and pronunciation and then proceed to practice - try to repeat exactly after the speaker, and then your pronunciation after a while regular workout will noticeably improve.
P.S. For example, dialogues from the Minna no Nihongo textbook are well suited for listening.
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