So, will I get anywhere by learning the Hiragana signs?
I seem to find them a lot in Japanese video game scripts.
I can write simple words like "Ma-sa-mu-ne" by putting the Hiragana letters together.
Is this the way to go when writing sentences as well?
Japanese syntax differs from English and other Indo-European languages. In the most simple form Japanese sentences are as follow:Originally Posted by Peter_20
topic-commentary
The topic is marked off by what we call a particle (think of them like prepositions, but after the word so more like "post-positions"). Then the commentary follows with the finite verb at the end.
Example (not using hiragana because I am too lazy to make my keyboard type it).
watashi wa daigakusee desu.
"Watashi" is "I". "wa" marks "watashi" as the topic (i.e. I am talking about myself). "daigakusee" means "college student" (if I remember correctly and "desu" is a copula verb which equates two things (in other words it translates to "is").
So what I said was:
I am a college/university student.
As for kanji vs hiragana, you could write it in hiragana instead of using the kanji but it would seem as a less sophisticated way of writing. The difference in homonyms are usually realized through context in writing or pitch in oral. Japanese uses pitch, not tone to put emphasis on the syllables.
Well yes, its their alphabet. Its like trying to learn English without learning the latin alphabet.
Sentences will use hiragana, katakana and kanji all toghether, the sentence 私のなまえはジムです uses kanji for "watashi", hiragana for "no namae wa", katakana for my name "Jimu", and hiragana again for "desu" which finalises the statement.
If your looking to be able to understand japanese games you should remember they are written for native or at least someone who can understand Japanese in a passing day living in Japan. I can read hiragana and katakana and a few kanji and I do lessons at university but I'd not be able to play a video game in Japanese.
I'm a big fan of the Mars Bar Diet; You don't eat the Mars bar, you stick it up your arse and let a rottweiler chase you home.
If you enable Japanese typing on your computer, you can type in hiragana and convert it into kanji by just pressing the space bar.
Another question here...
How do you spell the sounds "chu" and "ju"?
They don't exist in the alphabet tables.
Same reason I play FF7 in German and FF8 in French: Practice.Why don't you just play English versions? I know I do.
Those involve "glide" rules. You take the root sound ("chi" and "ji" in this case) and then add a small "y" character next to it to produce the sound. So "chu" is chi+small yu, and the same with ju. If you wanted cho, it'd be chi+small yo. This works for basically all consonant+i characters.
I have FFV in Swedish.
Karnak slottet exploderar om tio minuter!
How did you get that?!I have FFV in Swedish.
Karnak slottet exploderar om tio minuter!
Is it some fan translation?
For visual reference, since I am too lazy to set-up my Japanese keyboard input, go here.Those involve "glide" rules. You take the root sound ("chi" and "ji" in this case) and then add a small "y" character next to it to produce the sound. So "chu" is chi+small yu, and the same with ju. If you wanted cho, it'd be chi+small yo. This works for basically all consonant+i characters.
Scroll down to the glide section to see what they look like when written.
Another question:
I saw a Japanese scene from Final Fantasy 10 right now, and they seemed to add some weird inverted C sign everywhere, but it was never separately pronounced.
For example, when Tidus says "makasetokete", in the beginning, I can see the signs for ma-ka-se-to-ke-?-te, and the question mark is where I spot that inverted C thing.
It looks like the sign for "u" without a mark above it.
What is this?
っ is the same as つ (tsu), but it's smaller. It's placed before a symbol to make a double consonant with it. See:
せっしょうまるさまはかわいい！
Sesshoumaru-sama wa kawaii!
Thanks, Marshall banana.
However, I've got another question as well.
Take a look at this Japanese version of the Final Fantasy 10 opening.
What do the Kanji signs between 00:01 - 00:05 mean?
You know, the two very first signs, and then the full sign that obviously is pronounced "hora" or something.
*moves to Study Hall*
That would be 'saigo' (最後), which means 'last', 'end', or 'conclusion', or something along those lines.
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