Japanese Character Writing For Dummies

Hiroko Chiba, PhD, is professor of Japanese at DePauw University, where she teaches all levels of Japanese language and directs the Japanese language program. Vincent Grépinet is the author of the French language editions of Japanese For Dummies and Korean For Dummies.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 2Where to Go from Here 3Chapter 1: Wrapping Your Head around Japanese Writing and Pronunciation 5Brief History of Three Writing Scripts: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana 5Taking a cue from Chinese writing — Kanji 5Creating writing scripts better suited to Japanese — hiragana and katakana 6Pronouncing Japanese Sounds 7Making Variations of Sounds 8Two diacritical marks 8Long vowels 9Small ya, yu, yo 9Small tsu 10When to Use Kanji 10Chapter 2: Exploring the Nature of Japanese Kanji 13Getting to Know the Four Types of Kanji 13Pictographs 13Simple ideographs 14Compound ideographs 14Phonetic-ideographic characters 15On’yomi versus Kun’yomi Readings 15Okurigana 15Kanji compounds 16Sound shifts in kanji compounds 16What Are Kanji Radicals? 17Positions of Radicals 17Writing Kanji 18Stroke order 18Types of strokes 19Chapter 3: 105 Characters 21Appendix: Blank Grids for Extra Practice 75