Japanese alphabets - Part 二.二

ひらがな Exceptions to the pattern

Picking up where I left off last night, there are a few exceptions in ひらがな pronunciation that don't *exactly* fit the magical pattern.

They are:

し (shi): Second かな in the S-line. Pronounced like 'she'

ち (chi): Second かな in the T-line. Pronounced like the 'chee' in 'cheese'

つ (tsu): Third かな in the T-line. Pronounced 'tsoo' (TextFugu mentions there will be more on this pronunciation going forward because it is virtually unlike anything in 英語)

ふ (fu/hu): Third かな in the H-line. Can apparently be pronounced fu or hu, most of the time will be fu (TextFugu mentions that when just reading off the ひらがな chart, it's best to pronounce as 'hu' and there will be notation going forward as to which way something should be pronounced)

The entire Y-line starting with や (ya): The exception exists here because　二　かな are missing - there is no yi or ye

The entire R-line starting with ら (ra): Not really an exception but column that is most problematic in terms of pronunciation. (This will be covered in more detail later according to TextFugu)

The entire W-line starting with わ (wa): Like the Y-line, there are missing かな in this column. There are only 二, わ (wa) and を (wo). を is *ONLY* used as a particle. Also, the 'w' sound is not pronounced so when using を and sounds almost like just simply お.

ん (n): Only single-consonant かな in ひらがな. Sounds like nnnnn, like the 'n' in 'man.' Easy to pronounce but an exception since it doesn't really fit the magical pattern

Those are the exceptions. I definitely learned a few new things or possibly a refresher on things I hadn't remembered. Either way beneficial.

Until next time...

またね!