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    Japanese Kana

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    • dirt monkey AL
      dirt monkey AL
      last edited by
      dirt monkey AL
      spiral
      dirt monkey AL
      spiral

      Okay, this isn't meant to teach you Japanese or anything like that, but a basic knowledge of kana or go-to thread for kana doesn't seem like a bad idea.

      Also, I'm not gonna translate anything for you, so don't ask.

      Some of you know, and some of you don't, but Japanese has three sets of writing systems/characters that they use to communicate via written form. I'll only show you two of them here. But first …

      Furigana (ふりがな/フリガナ)
      If you've looked at Japanese raws, you've probably seen these, but just not known what the hell they were called. They're used a lot in younger manga magazines as a reading aid for children. Furigana are those small kana that you see to the right of the kanji. They're basically telling you how that kanji, or a foreign word (like LEVEL) is pronounced. Furigana are not actually another system of kana, they're just a reading aid - they can be either hiragana or katakana.

      Hiragana (ひらがな/ヒラガナ)
      This is the most common of these two systems that you'll see. It's used for Japanese words which have no kanji, or for Japanese words for which the reader/writer does not know the kanji. It's also used for -chan, -kun, -san, -sama endings, (though -kun, and -sama do have their own kanji which are sometimes used.)

      The Roman letters in parenthesis in the image below are very rarely used.

      [hide][/hide]
      Katakana (かたかな/カタカナ)
      This system is normally used for foreign words. That doesn't mean that it's only for foreign words however. It could be used for strange names or words like, ルフィ, ゾロ, ナミ, ウソップ, サンジ, チョッパー, ロビン, フランキー, or ブルック.

      The Roman letters in parenthesis in the image below are very rarely used.

      [hide][/hide]
      Another thing that I think should be of notice is that if a character uses a certain system, it can tell you something about them.

      For instance, if a character is a robot, there's a chance that they will speak in only katakana - no hiragana, or kanji at all.

      And if you're up to date on One Piece manga chapters, the characters have been talking about Levels. Level is written as LEVEL with furigana, but Luffy uses katakana (レベル). It's not something that can be translated exactly, but this is basically telling us that he might not know what the hell he is talking about. It's like he's saying, "that level 4 thing" instead of just "Level 4" - or he could be parroting what others are saying.

      Originally Posted by Silence

      And when this manga closes out, and Luffy's arm stretches back to deliver that last punch, I wanna feel the crunch of the dream coming true.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • TLC
        TLC
        last edited by
        TLC
        spiral
        TLC
        spiral

        What did you edit? I'm sure you're not crazy. It's actually very interesting. I wish you would explain the third writing method too 😧 Thank you for a very informative thread.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • dirt monkey AL
          dirt monkey AL
          last edited by
          dirt monkey AL
          spiral
          dirt monkey AL
          spiral

          Explain kanji?

          pfffff, you're on your own there

          Originally Posted by Silence

          And when this manga closes out, and Luffy's arm stretches back to deliver that last punch, I wanna feel the crunch of the dream coming true.

          Satsuki 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Satsuki
            Satsuki @dirt monkey AL
            @dirt monkey AL last edited by
            Satsuki
            spiral
            Satsuki
            spiral

            There IS a Japanese thread, you know. Or did you not see the "Language Threads" sticky up there?

            http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=1606

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            • dirt monkey AL
              dirt monkey AL
              last edited by
              dirt monkey AL
              spiral
              dirt monkey AL
              spiral

              Who's speaking in Japanese in here?

              @dirt:

              Okay, this isn't meant to teach you Japanese or anything like that, but a basic knowledge of kana or go-to thread for kana doesn't seem like a bad idea.

              Especially after a particularily strange dispute that only happened because Angel didn't actually know what she was supposed to be looking for when she wanted to find out what his surname was romanized.

              Originally Posted by Silence

              And when this manga closes out, and Luffy's arm stretches back to deliver that last punch, I wanna feel the crunch of the dream coming true.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0

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