The table below is just a small sampling of this phenomenon. In the example below, the reading for the name “Azuma Taro” is given in Hiragana (tiny Hiragana above the Kanji). In fact, Japanese business cards commonly include the reading of a person’s name to avoid embarrassment for the card receiver, and Japanese people are used to including their name pronunciation in Hiragana or Katakana for any form they fill out. Ambiguous Japanese name readings and spellingsĪs a result, since Kanji is used for the majority of names (certainly all family names), there is a great deal of ambiguity as to how to pronounce names - aka, the readings. See a full table of Hiragana and Katakana characters here. In general, Hiragana, more curvy in appearance, are used for Japanese words and Katakana is used for borrowed words from other languages. Two syllabary alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana, in Japanese represent the same 46 syllables, with no meaning attached to any character. 生 is pronounced “u” for the verb meaning “to be born” and combined with Hiragana (syllabary) characters “mareru.” 生 is pronounced “i” for the verb meaning “to use” (i.e., make something “alive” by using it) and combined with Hiragana (syllabary) characters “kasu.” Standalone word meaning “raw” as in “raw meat,” but when prefixed to the word for “broadcast” (中継 chuukei), 生中継 (nama chuukei) means “live broadcast.” 先生 = “teacher” (i.e., the one who was born before you) Kanji wordĬombined with Kanji 先 (meaning: before, ahead) 生 is pronounced “sei”. The character 生 has a basic meaning of “life.” It has an especially prolific set of pronunciations. Here is a (incomplete) sampling of one Kanji character’s various pronunciations. Kanji are borrowed Chinese ideographs that represent an idea, but whose pronunciation changes based on word context. Japanese uses three scripts for writing: ideographs and two syllabic alphabets (where each character represents a syllable). How come? Let’s start with a quick overview of written Japanese. Furthermore, hearing a name doesn’t mean you’ll know how to write it - even if you are a native Japanese speaker! Japanese names for people occupy an unusual niche in that seeing a written name doesn’t mean you’ll know how to pronounce it.
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