---
layout: post
title: "(Un)confusing guide to hiragana"
date: 2018-04-04 02:30:23
categories: linguistic
---

I'm making another attempt at formally learning japanese and this time
progressing better than before. It's quite likely that i'm even going to
complete memorization of hiragana and while i'm at it i decided to make a kind
of guide to it. It is mostly for myself, but could be also useful for those who
learn japanese in a similar manner (i.e. know some spoken before kana).

<cut/>

The 46 characters sure look scary to memorize all at once (ha-ha, if *that* is
scary, how do you expect to even touch kanji?) and then you also need to learn a
few additional diacritics and digraphs. Naturally, a memo system いる. So lets
construct one that suits myself. I'll omit the pronunciation and spelling
details that you can find in any learning material or wikipedia and focus on
memorization of characters.

Note that this is a reading guide, not writing one. It will not explain you how
to remember how you should scribble, only how to decipher what you see. And even
then, you'd probably be better off with installing input method and training
yourself to remember what you see.

The N
-----

ん[n] is one of the easiest to remember because it's so unique. It also can be
thought as drunkenly scribbled "n" (though it sure looks more like "h", but
luckily there's no standalone "h" letter in kana). Note, however, that it may be
pronounced closer to "m" depending on context. 乾杯。

The question
------------

Next easy pair is し[shi] and つ[tsu]. Can be memorized via 質 kanji (appears in
質問 [**shitsu**mon], which means question). You don't have to memorize it via
kanji per se if (like me) you don't know them. Just have **しつ**もん
[**shitsu**mon] sequence in mind. One way to remember the correct order is that
しつ [shitsu] is bounding empty space, unlike the reverse ordering.

Ku!
---

く [ku] is another easy one. Later on we'll pair it with another letter, but for
now i suggest you can memorize it by virtue of it looking like K without
vertical line. I know, that doesn't give any clue at how to distinguish it from
other k-syllables. Well, you can think of something, right?

For example, 括る [くくる] apparently means "to enclose". If you happen to know
that, it might be helpful.

Hand in hand
------------

Two more characters that shouldn't necessarily be grouped, but might as well be.
て[te] is so easy to remember since it is so similar to "t"/"T" (it is
especially easy with russian or spanish Ts, whose names are literally pronounced
as [te], unlike english [ti]).

But i've combined it with another t-syllable: と[to]. Why? Because they are two
"easy" t-syllables (except for aforementioned つ [tsu] which is ts-syllable) and
also because they can be memorized with 手と手 (てとて) [te to te] memo. It means
hand-and-hand (literally) or something like "hand in hand" (more literary).

(I just looked up 手と手繋いで [てとてつないで] and indeed it's a legit phrase
occurring in the wild)

Finally, no
-----------

It's kinda of strange to delay the character that i (as well as many others) had
learned the first for so long: の [no]. Really, it's used so often and in places
where it can be easily distinguished that you should probably memorize it first.

But since the point of this article is to help remembering all of the
characters, we'll have to also deal with の's more wicked relatives.

First, め[me]. Even though it doesn't sound very similar, it's written quite
similarly. And then, the wicked form of め[me] is ぬ[nu]!

Finally, the standalone "o" and "a" are also similar: お[o], あ[a]. Aren't they
just like の and め with some weird lines stuck to them on top?

So, how to memorize all of this frightful garden?

It really depends on what do you already know. 雨 [あめ = ame] is rain for
example. 布 [ぬの = nuno] is cloth. So you might try to remember お雨布
[おあめぬの] if it would give you any clue as to what is where.

Or you can remember あおのぬめぬめ [ao no nume-nume], which is roughly "blue's
sliminess" if you substitute あお with 青 [blue] and take ぬめぬめ as noun.

Oh well, that took quite a lot of space to talk about these and i can't even
give an ascertain advice.

Up!
---

Since i just mentioned two of standalone vowels, i might as well mention another
two: う[u] and え[e]. They are similar in that both have some character and a
horizontal line on top of it. Furthermore, 上 (up) is pronounced as うえ [ue]!
Easy, right?

It's magic
----------

Magic is written as 魔法 or まほう [mahou]. If you omit that final [u] which is
for lengthening of previous syllable, you get two similarly-looking characters
~~and no way to distinguish between them~~. Well, one way is just to remember
that simpler character comes the first.

Yo, flowers!
------------

よう、花！ Romaji: [you, hana]. Kana: よう、はな. Now, we get that annoying う
again! But if you ignore it, you get three terrifyingly similar characters:
よ[yo], は[ha], な[na]. Again, the ordering is key to remembering: first
character is the purest, next has vertical line added to it, and the last has a
whole t-like crest added!

The more creepy one
-------------------

Oh well, if we continue like this, we'll get こにた [ko-ni-ta] which has more
creepy readings. I suggest you remember it as is and not look in the dictionary.

In conclusion, here's a comparative table:

```
こ[ko]に[ni]た[ta]
よ[yo]は[ha]な[na]
ま[ma]ほ[ho]？[??]
```

Well, the last character is missing. But i don't see the pattern to say how it
should have been pronounced anyway. Do you?

Love
----

Of course, japanese love has many names. But here we're only interested in the
more lexicographically confusing 恋. Written in hiragana, it is.. こい [koi]!
There are two ways to distinguish between the two.

1. い looks more like i (incidentally, it also looks somewhat like russian и)
2. If you remember the previous section, there were characters with vertical
   stuff added to こ. If you think about it, there's enough vertical stuff in い
   already, so you might be sure no one would be crazy enough to add more.

But if you're prepared to be more confused, how about "good child"? It would be
いい子 [いいこ = iiko]! I've no idea how you're supposed to distinguish between
them now..

Small Sachiko
-------------

Here goes more confusion. How about ちさいさちこ?! [chi-sa-i sa-chi-ko]

Since you're supposed to be already familiar with こ and い, this section will
deal with さ[sa] and ち[chi]. If the latter looks like 5 to you, i've got to
disappoint you that there is another character like that, so you have to
remember that it's crossed..

Anyhow, **ちさ**い[chisai] = small and since the important characters are bent
inwards, the space between them is *small*. And the space between characters in
さち[sachi] is big. Easy to remember, huh⸮

Fumu-fumu
---------

ふむふむ, i think this only gets more confusing. Well, i suppose kana covered in
this section is hard to confuse with anything else (until you start memorizing
katakana and kanji, that is). ふ[fu] is also unique for having "f" in it (in
place of "h", but with (han)dakuten it behaves regularly: ぷ and ぶ are just
[pu] and [bu]). む[mu], on the other hand, is nothing[無].

Go ahead
--------

先[さき = saki] is another case of word containing two similar hiragana
characters. Luckily for us, they are also in the right order (simple ahead, more
complex later).

That bastard
------------

うっ！やつ！ [U~! Yatsu!]

A bit confusing, isn't it? Well, う[u] should be already familiar, as well as
つ[tsu]. The "little tsu" (っ, also known as sokuon) is used here to refer to a
glottal stop, though usually it's used to double the next consonant. As for
や[ya], it looks like twice struck つ, doesn't it? このひどいやつら！

A break for one person
----------------------

一人の人 looks easy, right? How about ひとりのひと[hitori no hito]? You can notice
two new kana characters here. ひ[hi] is kinda unique and, though i haven't come
up with any memo for it, it was easy enough. り[ri], on the other hand, looks
just like "rj" written together without the dot. And since you know that "rj"
makes no sense in japanese, it's obviously a "ri".

As you know, the path of thousand 里[り] starts with 一つ[ひとつ] step.

Lock-n-lol
----------

ロック・ン・ロル [rokku-n-roru] is of course katakana, but written in hiragana
ろる[roru] is much more fun, even though it doesn't seem to mean anything.

There you have them, ろ[ro] and ever-so-slightly different る[ru]. Luckily they
are are both r-syllables and it's easy to remember that る[ru] has "u" in it,
since there's a curl just like in ぬ[nu].

We're cat
---------

But if you thought that curls are limited just to "-u" syllables, i'll have to
disappoint you. **われ**は**ね**こ[**ware** wa **ne**ko] contains three similar
characters:

- わ[wa] is the last survived w-syllable (the を[wo] syllable lost its w in
  pronunciation and the we&wi are totally lost from regular modern japanese)
- れ[re] doesn't really has anything interesting to offer, i think
- ね[ne] has that confusing curl, but is still pronounced ne.

I'm just confusing you with this, aren't i?

Irregular particles
-------------------

As if the rest isn't confusing enough, ひらがな still has more to offer.

- を[(w)o], formally "wo", but pronounced as "o"; usually only met as particle
- へ[he] is read as [e] as particle
- は[ha] is read as [wa] as particle

You
---

ゆ[yu] is also one of the weird-enough looking characters that you probably
won't confuse it with others. If that helps, it also looks somewhat like
cyrillic "ю", which is pronounced pretty much the same.

If
--

If you still have any doubt about も[mo] (e.g. you might confuse it with
ま[ma]), just remember the word もし[moshi], "if". And if one もし is not enough,
you can have two: もしもし, can you hear me?..

So that
-------

そ[so] is distinct enough, but to better remember it, you can remember how it
looks in its usual context: それ[sore], その[sono], そんな[sonna].

Same goes for す[su], who is often seen together with る[ru] in する[suru].

The rest
--------

Honestly, i don't know how to remember the rest. Perhaps, there is no way.
You'll just have to infer their pronunciation from context. Sorry.

- け[ke]
- せ[se]
- か[ka]
- ら[ra]
- み[mi]

Conclusion
----------

Now that i've mostly learned 平仮名, i'll be less likely to be able to help *you*
learning it. As widely known, 「one, who can't do something, can't teach it; and
one, who can do, won't be bothered. So the only ones who teach are those who are
still in the process of learning」. I hope you won't take that wisdom too
seriously.
