Kana III: Orthography　仮名遣い

Kana III: Orthography

Every language has its own orthography¹. Japanese orthography is mostly straightforward; however, there are several peculiarities worth noting:

• Spelling Long Vowels in Hiragana
• Spelling Long Vowels in Katakana
• Use of the Sokuon (small っ・ッ)
• Yotsugana
• The Particles Wa, E, & (W)o

Long Vowels in Hiragana　　
平仮名での長母音の表記

Long vowels are spelled in hiragana as follows:

Pronunciation	Spelling	Found in…
[ā]	ああ	Native Words
[ī]	いい	Native Words
[ū]	うう	Native & Sino-Japanese Words
[ē]	ええ	Native Words
[ē] or [e.i]	えい	Sino-Japanese Words2
[ō]	おお	Native Words3
[ō]	おう	Native & Sino-Japanese Words4

Word origin can affect the pronunciation, formality, grammatical constraints, along with many other aspects of a word’s use. For that reason, special attention will always be given to these factors as we progress.

Words w/ Long Vowels in Hiragana　　
「ひらがな」で書かれた長母音の入った単語の例

[a] vs [ā]	Word Origin	Definition
ああ	Native	Ah
おかあさん	Native	(Someone’s) mother
おばさん	Native	Aunt/middle-aged woman
おばあさん	Native	Grandmother/old woman

[i] vs [ ī]	Word Origin	Definition
い	Sino-Japanese	Stomach
いい	Native	Good
おじさん	Native	Uncle/middle-aged man
おじいさん	Native	Grandfather/old man

[u] vs [ū]	Word Origin	Definition
くき	Native	Stalk/stem
くうき	Sino-Japanese	Air
すうがく	Sino-Japanese	Math
ふうふ	Sino-Japanese	Married couple

[e] vs [ē] vs [E.i]	Pronunciation(s)	Word Origin	Definition
おねえさん	[onēsaN]	Native	Older sister/young lady
へ	[he]	Native	Fart
へえ	[hē]	Native	Really?
へい	[he.i]	Native	Wall/fence
へい	[hē] or [he.i]	Sino-Japanese	Soldier
めし	[meshi]	Native	Meal
めいし	[mēshi] or [me.ishi]	Sino-Japanese	Noun/business card
えいが	[ēga] or [e.iga]	Sino-Japanese	Movie
え	[e]	Sino-Japanese	Picture/painting
ええ	[ē]	Native	Yes

[o] vs[ō] vs [o.u]	Pronunciation	Word Origin	Definition
お	[o]	Native	Tail
おう	[ō]	Sino-Japanese	King
おう	[o.u]	Native	To chase
おおう	[ō.u]	Native	To cover
こり	[kori]	Native	Muscle stiffness
こおり	[kōri]	Native	Ice
こうり	[ko.uri]5	Native	Retail
こうり	[kōri]6	Sino-Japanese	High interest
おい	[oi]	Native	Nephew
おおい	[ōi]	Native	Many
おうい	[ōi]	Sino-Japanese	Throne
とい	[toi]	Native	Question/trough
とおい	[tōi]	Native	Far
がっこう	[gakkō]	Sino-Japanese	School
おとうさん	[otōsaN]	Native	(Someone’s) father

Long Vowels in Katakana　　　
カタカナで書かれた長母音

In katakana, long vowels are written differently based on word origin. In loanwords, the mark ー⁷ is used to represent any long vowel. When native words or Sino-Japanese words are written in katakana, the same spelling conventions as shown for hiragana are used.

Loanwords written in Katakana
カタカナで書かれた外来語

All loanwords are typically written in katakana. For the purpose of focusing on long vowel notation, all the loanwords below contain at least one long vowel. 

テーブル table	レコード record	スーツケース suitcase
アイスクリーム ice cream	コンピューター computer	エレベーター elevator
メール e-mail	セール sale	カレンダー calendar
フィナーレ finale	チーズ cheese	メートル meter
アイスティー ice tea	コーヒー coffee	コート coat
コピー copy	シャワー shower	スカート skirt
スプーン spoon	フォーク fork	ストーブ heater
スポーツ sports	セーター sweater	タクシー taxi
テープ tape	デパート department store	ニュース news
パーティー party	バター butter	プール pool

In rare circumstances, loanwords can be written in hiragana. This is often seen in works written for children. In this event, ー is also used in hiragana to indicate long vowels. 

Native/Sino-Japanese Words Written in Katakana
カタカナで書かれた大和言葉・漢語

Situations in which katakana is used to write non-loanwords include the following:

1. To italicize a word for emphatic effect.
2. Company names.
3. Plant and animal names.
4. Slang use of a word.
5. Indicating the pronunciation of a word, particularly Sino-Japanese words.

Example	Word Origin	Definition
メガネ	Native	glasses
バラ	Native	rose
スズキ	Native	Suzuki
トヨタ	Native	Toyota
コウカイ	Sino-Japanese	regret
イス	Sino-Japanese	chair
テキトー	Sino-Japanese	sloppy
ビミョー	Sino-Japanese	doubtful

Long Consonants in Kana　　
長子音の仮名表記

Next, we will learn how to spell long consonants in both katakana and hiragana.

Long Unvoiced Consonants
無声子音の長音化

Long unvoiced consonants are formed by placing a small “tsu”—っ in hiragana, ッ in katakana—before a consonant-initial kana.

Examples in Hiragana	Examples in Katakana
ちょっと a little	ホッケー hockey
しっぱい failure	インターネット Internet
いっしょ together	ロボット robot
せっけん soap	サッカー soccer

Long Voiced Consonants
有声子音の長音化

As a general rule in the Japanese lexicon, only unvoiced consonants are doubled. However, both /n/ and /m/ become long when preceded by /ɴ/—ん (hiragana) and ン (katakana)— which assimilates to [n] and [m] in their respective cases.

Loanwords, however, sometimes feature long voiced consonants, at least in spelling. In practice, these long “voiced” consonant are usually rendered unvoiced when spoken. For instance, ベッド (bed) is typically pronounced as [betto] rather than as [beddo]. 

バッグ bag	レッドソックス The Red Socks	テトラポッド tetrapod
ホットドッグ hotdog	バグダッド Baghdad	すっごい 8 cool

Glottal Stops
声門閉鎖音

A glottal stop is produced by abruptly stropping airflow in the throat. In both English and Japanese, word-initial vowels are often preceded by a glottal stop. In Japanese, glottal stops can also occur at the end of expressions, typically when a speaker pauses abruptly. These word-final glottal stops are represented by っ (hiragana) or ツ (katakana), as in いたっ！(ouch!).

Yotsugana　
四つ仮名

In Japanese, there are two sets of consonants with overlapping pronunciations: /j/ and /dj/ (see Lesson 2 and Lesson 405).

Putting pronunciation aside, these consonants are written with kana nicknamed “yotsugana”: づ・ヅ and ぢ・ヂ. These characters are primarily used in two cases: when they follow つ・ツ or ち・チ respectively, or when they serve as the first mora of the second element in a compound word.  

Sound	Hiragana	Rarity	Katakana	Rarity
/ji/	じ	Common	ジ	Common
/zu/	ず	Common	ズ	Common
/dzu/	づ	Uncommon	ヅ	Rare
/dji/	ぢ	Uncommon	ヂ	Rare
/ja/	じゃ	Common	ジャ	Common
/ju/	じゅ	Common	ジュ	Common
/jo/	じょ	Common	ジョ	Common
/dja/	ぢゃ	Uncommon	ヂャ	Rare
/dju/	ぢゅ	Rare	ヂュ	Rare
/djo/	ぢょ	Rare	ヂョ	Rare

Below, you will find a handful of words which utilize yotsugana.

はなぢ nosebleed	しじ instruction	ジャガー jaguar
ちぢみ shrinkage	すず bell	みかづき crescent moon
つづき continuation	ひとりじめ monopoly	まぢか proximity
いれぢえ suggestion/hint	いっぽんぢょうし monotonous	てぢか within reach
つづる to spell	さんげんぢゃや Sangenjaya (place name)	きさらづ Kisarazu (city name)

The Particles Wa は, E へ, & (W)O を

Particles are typically written in hiragana, though they may occasionally be written in katakana for various reasons⁹. Regardless of which syllabary is used, there are three particles with seemingly irregular spellings:

• The particle wa is written as は in hiragana and ハ in katakana.
• The particle e is written as へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana.
• The particle (w)o¹⁰ is written as を in hiragana and ヲ in katakana.

Way back when, the h-sounds of Japanese used to be pronounced with /p/ instead of /h/. Over time, /p/ transitioned to /h/, but word-medial instances of /p/ transitioned to [w]. At the turn of World War II, Japanese orthography was reformed to reflect pronunciation, so words which used to be spelled with /h/–sound kana but were instead pronounced with a [w] became written with /w/–sound kana. As we have also learned, though, the consonant /w/ is only currently present in native vocabulary with the vowel /a/, as it has since become silent when paired with the other vowels. Below, you will see words which reflect both these sound changes and how they became reflected in modern kana orthography.

Historical Kana Orthography	Modern Kana Orthography	Meaning
かは	かわ	river
かへる	かえる	to go home
もちゐる	もちいる	to utilize
こゑ	こえ	voice

Barring a few exceptions, almost all historical instances of medial h-kana underwent /h/ → [w] (→ ∅). As to why the historical spellings were maintained for the particles は , へ, and を, their grammatical importance and consequent high rate of use made it impractical and detrimental to the average readers¹¹ at the time to change these spellings.

The perfect examples to showcase these particles without having to delve into grammar just yet include the following:

• Kon’nichi-wa こんにちは (Good afternoon)
• Komban-wa こんばんは (Good evening)
• Nihon e yōkoso にほんへようこそ (Welcome to Japan)
• Yoi o-toshi-(w)o よいおとしを (Have a Happy New Year)

Have no fear! We will return to these particles in due time! 

1. A system of rules which govern how a language is written. ↩︎
2. When えい crosses a morpheme boundary, it is pronounced as [e.i]. ↩︎
3. All instances of おお derive from the loss of medial-/w/, which had been present in Japanese orthography until modern reforms. ↩︎
4. When おう crosses a morpheme boundary, it is pronounced as [o.u]. おう also represents [ō] in some native vocabulary—e.g. adverbs, family terms, two-morae verbs, etc. ↩︎
5. [ko.uri] (retail) is a compound word whose morpheme boundary occurs between /ko/ and /uri/. Thus, /ou/ > [ō] does not occur. ↩︎
6. Pitch distinctions are not represented in Japanese orthography. However, differences in pitch between identically spelled and/or pronounced words can be used to tell them apart—e.g. the pitch of /kōri/ (ice) is LHH, whereas the pitch of /kōri/ (high interest) is HLL.  ↩︎
7. Known as the chōompu 超音符 or bōbiki 棒引き, ー can also be used in hiragana for emphatic effect. ↩︎
8. すっごい is a rare instance of a long “voiced” consonant in a native expression. This is an emphatic pronunciation of すごい (cool/amazing). ↩︎
9. Aside from stylization choice, katakana may be used to reflect older style writing in which katakana was the predominant kana script. ↩︎
10. As to why “w” remains in (), while the majority of speakers do pronounce the mora as [o], the pronunciation [wo] still holds in certain regions and social contexts, and there is still wide recognition of its historical pronunciation. ↩︎
11. Even to this day, dictionaries continue to include historical kana spellings, since they still remain relevant in works written prior to reform (circa 1946), and to readers who were educated in the decades before and after. ↩︎