Japanese Lecture For Foreign Visitors
The Japanese language consists of the Japanese alphabet and Chinese characters.
Let's start with the Japanese alphabet since it is a key not only to read and write but
also to pronounce. The Japanese alphabet has more than forty letters as follows.
<平仮名、ひらがな>
あ(a) い(i) う(u) え(e) お(o)
か(ka) き(ki) く(ku) け(ke) こ(ko)
さ(sa) し(si) す(su) せ((se) そ(so)
た(ta) ち(chi) つ(tsu) て(te) と(to)
な(na) に(ni) ぬ(nu) ね(ne) の(no)
は(ha) ひ(hi) ふ(fu) へ(he) ほ(ho)
ま(ma) み(mi) む(mu) め(me) も(mo)
ら(ra) り(ri) る(ru) れ(re) ろ(ro)
や(ya) ゆ(yu) よ(yo)
わ(wa) を(wo) ん(n)
I put English letters in paretheses which might correspond to the Japanese pro-
nunciations of "平仮名、ひらがな".