Japanese writing

1. Japanese writing By: Dennise & Jacqueline

2. Introduction Ancient Japanese was only a spoken language. The Japanese didn’t have their own writing system. Written documents were in Chinese. Japanese learned Chinese from Korean scholars. Japanese adapted Chinese characters to write their own language.

3. Kanji • Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana, hindu, arabic numerals and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet. The Japanese term kanji for the Chinese characters and is written using  the same characters as the Chinese word hanzi. • In modern Japanese kanji are used to write parts of the languages such as nouns adjectives stems and verb stems while hiragana are used to write inflected verb and adjective endings as phonetic complements. by:jackie

4. kana • Kana are syllabic Japanese scripts, a part of the Japanese writing system contrasted with the Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji . • Kana means “borrowed letters” in Japanese • There are three kana scripts: modern cursive hiragana, modern angular katakana, and the old syllabic use of kanji known as man’yōgana that was ancestral to both. • Japanese invented kana by: jackie

5. hiragana • Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system. • Hiragana is the first language taught to Japanese children. • It has existed since approximately 800 AD to the present day. • The Hiragana syllabary consists of 48 characters • Hiragana is used to write native words By:dennise

6. Katakana • Katakana is a Japanese syllabary one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana. • Katakana is used for writing the names of persons and geographical places (not able to be written in Kanji). • The complete katakana script consists of 48 characters(excluding functional and diacritic marks) • It has existed since approximately 800 AD to the present day. • Katakana are characterized by short, straight strokes and angular corners, and are the simplest of the Japanese scripts by: dennise

7. Where did the japanese language originate? • The first theory: people have lived in Japan for so long it just grew over time. • The second theory: hoarse riders made it to Japan bringing their language with them. • The third theory: The Japanese language came from wet rice farmers immigrating from Korea by: dennise

8. QUESTIONS 1)What was the first language taught to Japanese children? 2)What is Katakana used for? 3)In modern Japanese what is kanji used for? 4)What is the third theory of the origin of the Japanese language? 5)What are the three kana scripts?

9. answers 1)Hiragana was the first language taught to Japanese children. 2)Katakana is used for writing the names of persons and geographical places. 3) In modern Japanese kanji are used to write parts of the languages such as nouns adjectives stems and verb stems. 4)The third theory: The Japanese language came from wet rice farmers immigrating from Korea. 5)Three kana scripts are: modern cursive hiragana, modern angular katakana, and the old syllabic use of kanji.

10. Activity!!! • In this activity we will be writing a few words in Japanese • For this activity you will need something to write with and a piece of paper 日-day 日本-Japan 火-fire 手-hand 小-small 犬-dog by:dennise