Joe's
Digital Garden

Japanese Hiragana

Japanese is one of my active [[language studies]].

Tofugu has several great resources for learning Hiragana including Tofugu's Learn Hiragana Quiz, a Hiragana Chart and their "Learn Hiragana: Ultimate Guide" article which list practices, techniques and mnemonics for learning Hiragana quickly.

Learning the Hiragana gives insight into how to pronounce the [[Kanji]].

I find about 50% of their mnemonics don't click with me. So I am here outlining the mnemonics that are helping me memorize each of the Hiragan characters.

Vowels

あ / A
Look for the character "a" in the bottom
い / I
The left character looks like an eel
う / U
The drop has knocked the u sideways
え / E
The egret lays eggs
お / O
Look for o in the bottom. Don't mistake for an a, which has the hook.

"K" Sounds

か / Ka
The car is dropping off the cliff
き / Ki
It's shaped like a key
く/ Ku
It's the bill of a duck quacking
け / Ke
It looks like the outline of a keg
こ / Ko
The bottom is a koa fish looking out of the pond for fish food

"S" Sounds

さ / Sa
It's a sailboard catching the surf
し / Shi
す / Su
せ / Se
Two kids riding on the sesaw
そ / So

"T" Sounds

た / Ta
Look closely, it looks like Ta
ち / Chi
This one has a big nose and chin
つ / Tsu
When tu loses it's hat, it becomes tsu
て / Te
A capital T
と / To
Not yo, but instead to

"N" Sounds

な / Na
The naughty nun prays
The sewing needle goes up and down
A bowl of noodles
Wa (わ), they cried when the Ne(ね)ko killed the slithering reptile
れ Looks like it is a slithering snake, ね's tale is curling before it pounces. And Wa (わ) is batting away the bad cat!
No, not a noodle

"H" Sounds

は / Ha
Look closely, see the Ha?
ひ / Hi
Say Hi to the big nose
ふ / Hu or Fu
A furry hula dancer
へ / He
Mt. St. Helens
ほ / Ho
Ho ho ho says Santa and slides down the chimney

"M" Sounds

ま / Ma
More (も) Ma
み / Mi
Not Hi, but Mi
む / Mu
The cow says moo
め / Me
Me (eye)
も / Mo
More, Ma (ま)

"Y" Sounds

や / Ya
This just looks like a Ya
ゆ / Yu
A unique looking fish
よ / Yo
Yo shouts the hitchiker

"R" Sounds

ら / Ra
The rapper spins the disc
り / Ri
The reed in the wind
る / Ru
The rules of the road
れ / Re
Wa (わ), they cried when the Ne(ね)ko killed the slithering reptile
れ Looks like it is a slithering snake, ね's tale is curling before it pounces. And Wa (わ) is batting away the bad cat!
ろ / Ro
See the R standing on the O

"W" Sounds

わ / Wa
Wa (わ), they cried when the Ne(ね)ko killed the slithering reptile
れ Looks like it is a slithering snake, ね's tale is curling before it pounces. And Wa (わ) is batting away the bad cat!
を / Wo
Wodan stepped into the pool

Others

ん / N
It's a squiggly n

Dakuten

In the Dakuten, the addition of a diacritic mark converts the hiragana consonant from one sound to a different sound.

K sounds convert to G
Remember: The Kar hit the Guardrail
が ぎ ぐ げ ご
Ge, Gi, Gu, Ge, Go
S sounds convert to Z
Remember: " flips S to Z
Exception: じ stole the cap from i to become Ji
ざ じ ず ぜ ぞ
Ze, Ji, Zu, Ze, Zo
T Sounds convert to D
Remember: Ta-Da!
だ ぢ づ で ど
Da, Di, Du, De, Do
H sounds convert to B with "
Remember: HoBo
H sounds convert to P with circle
Remember: We've just added the top of the P to the H hiragana
ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ
Pa, Pi, Pu, Pe, Po

Combined Hiragana

Converts to -ya
みゃ
Mi → Mya
Converts to -yu
みゅ
Mi → Myo
Converts to -yo
みょ
Mi → Myo
Duplicates the following consonant.
いっしょ → Issho
いった → Itto

External References

  1. Tofugu's Learn Hiragana Quiz,Tofugu. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  2. Hiragana Chart, Tofugu. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  3. Kiochi, Jaered. Learn Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide, Tofugu. Retrieved 2020-10-13.

Linked References

  • japanese-kanji

    Similarly to my mnemonics list for [[Hiragana]], I am constructing a list for Kanji. I imagine this list will get very long in time.