Goals of Bullwinkle’s Corner1. Foster Your Inner Renaissance

Person2. Provide an Indulgent Platform3. Forge New Interests4. Foster Unique Collaborations

Gidney & Cloyd

Hokey Smoke Bullwinkle,

we’re in real trouble now!

Oh good! I hate the

artificial kind.

Katakana - A Jump-Start on the Way to Learning Japanese

Steven A. Jones

Linguistics

• Study of languages– Syntax– Semantics– Phonetics

• Not just someone who speaks many languages

• My (noncontiguous) Undergraduate Minor

My Experience with Japanese

• Term paper in my “Introduction to Syntax” course.

• Kyoto Conference ~ 1 week (bought book on Japanese).

• Research experience ~ 2 weeks at Kawasaki Medical Center.

• Studied from Hamako Ito Chapman’s books & tapes.

Foreign Travel

• Strategies for travel to foreign countries1. Idealistic: Take 2 years to learn a language

and then go to that country.

2. Realistic: 2 weeks before departure, try to learn how to say “good morning.”

3. Fatalistic: Face it. It’s hopeless.

4. Nihilistic: Travel to England

Unique Elements of Japanese

• Indirect– Wakatusi, Anata– No verb conjugations– “Perhaps you like to take train?”

• Stress is by tone, not loudness– Sometimes semantic– Several levels of tone

• Particles:– Are wa ginkoo no mae ni ooki tatemono desu.– Sake o nomu– Sake o nomu ka?

Unique Elements of Japanese

• Verb tenses– present & future generally the same– Adjectives can have a past tense (ano

ookikatta tatemono [that “used to be big” building]

• Colors (as modifiers) can be nouns or adjectives

Unique Elements of Japanese

Politeness levels• Kudasai (sake o kudasai)

– Literally “give [in polite form] sake”– Translated as “I would like some sake please.”

• Desu, imasu, irasiamasu (“to be,” sort of)• Your house (otaku), vs. my house (uchi)

– Otaku wa shiroi. ([your] mansion is white)– Uchi wa shiroi. ([my] shack is white)– Otaku wa doo desu ka? (How are things at your

beautiful home?)– Uchi ni i’i desu. (Things are fine at my crappy little

shack)

Japanese Writing

• Borrowed Kanji from China• No Kanji characters for particles• Use phonetic “alphabet” for particles and

other uses (Hiragana).• Also use Katakana

– Same sounds as Hiragana– Used for brand names and foreign words– Guess what: English is foreign to Japanese– Sort of like italic is to us

Katakana Characters a i u e o

vowel ア a イ i ウ u エ e オ ok カ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ kos サ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ sot タ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト to

n ナ na ニ ni ヌ nu ネ ne ノ no ン n

h ハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ hom マ ma ミ mi ム mu メ me モ moy ヤ ya ユ yu ヨ yor ラ ra リ ri ル ru レ re ロ row ワ wa ヲ wo

Katakana Characters a i u e o

vowel ア a イ i ウ u エ e オ ok カ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ kos サ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ sot タ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト to

n ナ na ニ ni ヌ nu ネ ne ノ no ン n

h ハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ hom マ ma ミ mi ム mu メ me モ moy ヤ ya ユ yu ヨ yor ラ ra リ ri ル ru レ re ロ row ワ wa ヲ wo

Katakana Characters a i u e o

vowel ア a イ i ウ u エ e オ ok カ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ kos サ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ sot タ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト to

n ナ na ニ ni ヌ nu ネ ne ノ no ン n

h ハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ hom マ ma ミ mi ム mu メ me モ moy ヤ ya ユ yu ヨ yor ラ ra リ ri ル ru レ re ロ row ワ wa ヲ wo

The Katakana Symbols

• 46 “consonnant-vowel” combinations

• 5 “vowels” a, i, u, e, o

• “consonants” beginning with “k”, “t”, “s”, “h”, “n”, “m”, “r”

• “ya,” “yu,” “yo,” “wa,” “wo”

• Also have an “explosive h” (°) ( パ =pa), and voiced versions (``) of k (=g), t (=d), s (=z or j), and p ( バ =ba)

The Katakana Symbols (Continued)

• Generally, if you have a consonant you need to have a vowel.

• “n” can stand alone.

• Can have long vowels (literally long, in time)– E.g. Carter Ka-a-ta ( カータ )

• The “r” in “ra” is halfway between “r” and “”.

Modified Katakana Characters a i u e o

k カ ka キ ki ク ku ケ ke コ kog ガ ga ギ gi グ gu ゲ ge ゴ go

s サ sa シ shi ス su セ se ソ soz ザ za ジ ji ズ zu ゼ ze ゾ zo

t タ ta チ chi ツ tsu テ te ト tod ダ da ヂ di ヅ du デ de ド do

h ハ ha ヒ hi フ fu ヘ he ホ hob バ ba ビ bi ブ bu ベ be ボ bop パ pa ピ pi プ pu ペ pe ポ po

Japanese vs English Sounds

• Roughly 19 letters rather than 26, so we win, right?

• But we do not really need “c,” “q” or “w.”– Selery– Uimin– Kuik

• And face it, “y” is a bit iffy as well.

• Leaves 22 vs 19

Japanese vs English Sounds

What’s Missing?

• No distinction between “r” and “”

• “h” and “f” are mixed together– Fa and hu are not natural for Japanese– Fu and ha are natural for them

• “z” and “j” are mixed together

• No “v” sound (brŭd bursty)

Japanese vs English Sounds

Where we win out is with the vowel sounds, which are (let’s face it) messed up anyway in English

• Water/otter/daughter• Dumb/kingdom• He, tee, tea, ski, mystery• Woman/Women

Odd Japanese Syllables

• In standard tables of Hiragana/Katakana:– Ta chi tsu te to (not ti or tu)– Sa shi su se so (not si)– Ha hi fu he ho (not hu)

• Possible Explanations– They knew westerners would try to speak the

language and wanted to trip us up.– There is a physiological explanation (yeah,

right).

Odd Syllables (continued)

• Clue: Hito (man) often sounds more like “shi-to” rather than “hi-to.”

• Thought: Maybe Japanese people do not think of syllables as consonant-vowel pairs.

• Experiment: Place your mouth in the “vowel” position and then try to pronounce the consonant.

Syllables as Units

• Try:– a…ka; i…ki; u…ku; e…ke; o…ko. (control)– a…ha; i…hi; u…hu; e…he; o…ho

• Hi is not exactly “shi”, but it’s not exactly “hi” either.• Hu definitely sounds more like “fu.”

– a…sa; i…si; u…su; e…se; o…so.– a…ta; i…ti; u…tu; e…te; o…to.

Katakana Examples

• ガソリン Ga so ri n• ロタリ クラブ Ro ta ri ku ra bu• コンクリト Ko n ku ri to• ライス Ra i su (or gohan)• ツパゲッチ Tsu pa getsu chi• カワサキ Ka wa sa ki• ニーサン Ni–sa n• コンピ ユユ co n piyu ta

Hiragana Characters a i u e o

vowel ア あ イ い ウ う エ え オ おk カ か キ き ク く ケ け コ こs サ さ シ し ス す セ せ ソ そt タ た チ ち ツ つ テ て ト と

n ナ な ニ に ヌ ぬ ネ ね ノ の ン んh ハ は ヒ ひ フ ふ ヘ へ ホ ほm マ ま ミ み ム む メ め モ もy ヤ や ユ ゆ ヨ よr ラ ら リ り ル る レ れ ロ ろw ワ わ ヲ を

Why Learn Hiragana?

• In Kyoto can read:– Street Names– Subway station names– Particles and other odd words you might pick up– Karaoke ( カラオケ )

• Can at least sound out a Japanese word, even if you do not know what it means

• May help you if you go to a karaoke bar• Trust me, it will really impress your Japanese

host

Verb Tense

• Japanese does not generally distinguish between present and future tense. – Sake o nomu

(I, you, somebody) (drinks, is drinking, will drink) sake.

– Sake o nomu ka?

(Are you drinking, will you drink) sake?

“Passive” Tense

• Japanese does have a special verb tense, called the “passive” tense.

• This tense loosely translates to “such-and-such happened, and it annoyed me.”

• A better name for this tense might be the “passive aggressive tense.”

Passive Tense

Say you are in a restaurant and the waiter spills mizu soup on your jacket

• American Response:You idiot! You spilled mizu soup all over my

jacket!• Japanese Response:

Ah. The jacket has become dampend by some mizu soup.

Consider that to a Japanese speaker, the Japanese wording is equally as strong.

Questions?