Notes on Lesser Known Types of Kana in Japanese Writing

Introduction

• Learning Japanese writing is complex due to thousands of characters with unique pronunciations and meanings.
• Initial focus for learners is usually on the syllabaries Hiragana and Katakana, known as Kana.
• There are lesser-known types of Kana that many learners and even native speakers may not know about.

Recommended Resources

• Shia's Channel: Series "Kana They Don't Teach You in School" - useful information about obscure aspects of Japanese.
• Ntoa: Video "You Don't Know Hiragana Yet" - interesting but primarily in Japanese with auto-generated English subtitles.

Types of Lesser Known Kana

1. Obsolete Kana

• Definition: Characters that were standardized at one point but were eventually phased out.
• Examples of Obsolete Kana:

  • Wi (ゐ): Used more than We (ゑ); appears in certain Okinawan words.

    • Example: "Wagu" (わぐ) meaning "female", "Wean" (ゑん) meaning "now".
    • Used in digraphs to represent sounds lacking specific characters (e.g., Chō for 'cho').
    • Example: Whisky brand Naika uses "ウィスキー" creatively.

  • We (ゑ): Rarely used, formerly in kanji writing (e.g., the kanji for Yen).

2. Hent (Variant Characters)

• Definition: Variants of modern standard Kana that existed in the past.
  • Historical context similar to how letters in English can be written in different styles.
  • Examples of variant sounds include Ye and Woo, which can be represented using digraphs.
  • Unicode representation: Only Hiragana Ye (ゑ) has a Unicode symbol.

3. Gyakugama (Multi-Syllabic Kana)

• Definition: Characters that represent combinations of sounds or specific words, akin to symbols like '&' or '@' in English.
  • Used commonly until language reforms in 1900 eliminated them.
  • Examples include Kot Yori and Tomo.

4. Diacritics in Kana

• Definition: Strokes added to Kana to modify sounds.
• Types:
  • Dakuten (濁点): Two dots indicating voiced consonants (e.g., k becomes g).
  • Handen (半濁点): Circle used mainly with h or f consonants.
  • These diacritics are primarily used with voiceless consonants in standard Japanese, although some dialect variations exist.

5. Special Dialectal Uses

• Certain sounds represented with diacritics may only appear in specific dialects (e.g., Tokyo dialect).
• Example: "Watashi" can be pronounced differently in dialects.

6. Use of Diacritics on Vowel Sounds

• Diacritics can create rough sounds for vowels (a, e, o).
• Common in manga, rarely in other contexts.

7. Kōnon (Classical Chinese Pronunciation)

• Historical system for writing the Japanese pronunciation of classical Chinese characters.
• Kōnon characters are distinct from modern Kana.

Conclusion

• The lecture discussed complex and obscure aspects of Japanese Kana that are rarely used or taught.
• The speaker encouraged viewers to subscribe for more content and support.
• Acknowledged the challenges of balancing content creation with personal life.