Kanji, Onyomi, Kunyomi, Okurigana, Furigana, Hiragana, and Katakana (to a lesser extent, Romaji)

Introdocution

This post is as much for my sake as it is for anyone learning Japanese. The writing and reading of Japanese is complicated by the fact that there are 3 writing systems (4 it you count Romaji, which I don't) used in conjunction with each other. One of those writing systems, Kanji (漢字) has several different ways to be read. So unlike English and most (if not all) European languages, not only do you have to learn pronunciations and dialect when reading, Japanese has the added complication of learning several ways to read the same language, and, the necessity to learn them all in order to actually begin reading in the language.

Hiragana (平仮名), Katakana (片仮名), and Romaji

Hiragana and Katakana are the Japanese Syllabary. It similar to an alphabet, except each character (文字・もじ)  represents a syllable usually either a vowel or a consonant and a vowel. For example the syllables for a, e, u, i, o, and ka are あ、え、う、い、お、か in Hiragana and ア、エ、ウ、イ、オ、カ in Katakana. There is one syllable that is a consonant by itself and that is ん・ン for 'n'. For the most part every Hiragana has a matching Katakana, but there are more Katakana than Hiragana combinations.

So, why does Japanese have 2 syllabaries?

Katakana

As I mentioned above, there are more Katakana combinations than Hiragana. Katakana is primarily used for loaner and foreign words, scientific words, and for emphasis (in stead of using italics). The additional Katakana combinations help approximate the sound of foreign words in Japanese. Japanese handles loaner words differently than most languages I have encountered. Many loaner words in English retain their original pronunciation or honest attempts at them. Japanese, however, imports them in their native pronunciation and often alters or shortens them. As an example, スーパー is the Japanese word for Super Market. It imported just Super and transformed it to a native pronunciation. It sounds something like soo-pah. Another example is my name マーク which is pronounced similar to mah-ku.

Hiragana

Hiragana is used to write Japanese words and particles, and is used as Furagana (振仮名) & Okurigana (送仮名).  Basically, any Japanese word for which there is no Kanji for, or for which the Hiragana usage of the word is more common than the Kanji, will be written in Hiragana. In addition, all the particles in Japanese are written in Hiragana (for some reason わ is written は).

Furigana (振仮名)

Furigana is the Hiragana written above Kanji (when Kanji is written left to right) or to the right of Kanji (when Kanji is written top to bottom) to aid in the pronunciation of the Kanji. This is used in children's literature for words children may know but have not yet learned the Kanji. It is also used with difficult Kanji (meaning not part of the standard 2000+ Kanji) or old archaic Kanji and Kanji usages to aid in pronunciation. While Furigana is helpful, you will likely see it rarely. So don't go thinking you can get away with not memorizing the readings of Kanji because you falsely assume Furigana will be everywhere. Due to technical limitations I can't really give a written example here but below is a picture depicting it.

Furigana

Okurigana (送仮名)

Okurigana is the Hiragana that follows a Kanji as part of the word. The Okurigana let you know information such as what form and conjugation of a verb is being used, which words with a similar Kanji is being used, and other things I haven't learned completely yet. I will cover readings of Kanji in the next section, but generally, a Kanji followed by Okurigana will mean the Kunyomi reading is used. One example of Okurigana is 大きい which means big. The part in red is the Okurigana which indicates it is the word big where in 大した the Okurigana indicates it is the word for considerable or great. Same Kanji, two different words and 2 different readings. Confused yet?

Romaji ( ローマ字)

I don't consider Romaji as part of Japanese. Romaji is the westernization of Japanese words. I have been using it through out this blog (Hiragana, Katakana, and even Romaji are all Romaji forms of the actually Japanese words). It exists only to make a word readable in western languages and is not normally used in Japanese. There are some exceptions. Some loaner words which have not been imported to Katakana and for which there are no direct translations into Japanese do appear in Romaji. One example I ran into while studying billiards related terms is "scuffer." Hell, most spell check programs don't even recognize scuffer as a word. But, I have seen it in Romaji on large number of Japanese billiards related websites. There are multiple ways of importing Japanese words to English but none of them are official and some are used in some instances and others in others. So there is really no point learning this or even considering it part of Japanese. Notice the "Roma" in Romaji is written in Katakana? Yea, Roma, as in Roman. Makes my case for it not being truly Japanese.

Kanji (漢字) and its Onyomi (音読み) and Kunyomi (訓読み)

As if the Kana's weren't confusing enough, but at least easy to learn, ultimately, most Japanese writing and Reading will require knowledge of Kanji. Kanji are character imported from Chinese. The Chinese would visit Japan and teach them their writing system. But they didn't just do this once. Each Dynasty came and taught the Kanji to the Japanese and brought with it their new pronunciation. The Japanese in their great wisdom and abhorrence of future learners of the language decided to keep the Chinese readings, all of them, and add to it their native Japanese words. This means that a single Kanji will have multiple ways to be pronounced (readings) and multiple meanings.

When I started learning Kanji this was so damn confusing. I would see words like 大きい, 大した, and 大家族 and just assume that 大 was one word and pronounced the same way and meant big. Having listened to a large amount of Japanese I started to notice things that were large or big had several different ways to say they were big. I just assumed that, as in English, they were all synonyms. Turns out they were all the same word, kind of. They all use the same Kanji. So what the hell is all this mess?

What the hell is a Kanji

First, you have to realize that a Kanji is separate from its reading (how it is pronounced, I'm going to use "reading" here on without this clarification). A single Kanji represents an idea or concept of sorts. 大 is a Kanji imported from Chinese. You can still see it in regular use in Chinese and has about the same connotation (I know this informally after watching something in Chinese and gleaming from context that they were using 大 to relate to an increase in size). It can have several different readings depending on it's context. Sometimes there is a rule to know which reading is which, and sometimes you just have to memorize it.

By itself, a  Kanji is not a word. It can be used by itself as a word, but by itself it is not a word (don't worry, I'm explaining this now). This is the second part of Kanji you must know. Kanji is separate from its vocabulary. The meaning or translation of a Kanji is derived from its context, not its mere presence. You may see a Kanji by itself in a sentence and in that context the Kanji is a word. You may see a Kanji with other Kanji and that will make it part of a compound word where its concept may retain its meaning, but the translation as a single Kanji word will not be present. You may also see the Kanji with its Okurigana in which case the Kanji with the Okurigana combined is the word, but not the Kanji by itself.

Combine those two concepts with the knowledge that Kanji is imported Chinese characters and you now know what they are. It is all very contextual as to what the Kanji does.

Onyomi

The Onyomi (音読み) of a Kanji is its Chinese reading. This is the 1-5 different ways a Kanji has been taught to the Japanese by the Chinese as the pronunciation of the Kanji. I often see this referred to as the "On" reading, On-reading, or Chinese reading on various Japanese<->English resources. In modern usage, most Kanji will only use 1 or 2 of its Onyomi and in many cases (at least I'm finding) one is used more than the other. Continuing with the 大 Kanji, it has 2 Onyomi たい and だい. As you can see, they differ only slightly. Another example is 力 which has two more different Onyomi りき and りよく.

That's great that we know these Kanji things have a Chinese reading associated with them, but what do we use it for in JAPANESE??? This was not clearly laid out in any place I could find. It was pretty frustrating. It was as if other sites just expect you to know what the hell and Onyomi was and how to use it. TextFugu offered the best explanation for this, but it is not available in their free content.

The Onyomi for a Kanji need to be memorized because there are no clues given to you by the surrounding Kanji or Okurigana. The Onyomi is used in cases of compound Kanji words. 大家族 means big family and 大 uses the だい Onyomi (だいかぞく). I learned this word from Clannad's theme song, if you are wondering. Why does it use だい instead of たい? I don't know if there is a rule. 大変 which uses the たい Onyomi (たいへん both characters use their Onyomi here) and means big problem or very strange (it has a contextual translation) and you hear everywhere in Anime. So, I don't  know but, I do know that if you remember the readings you can kinda guess which one to use if you are brushed up on your vocab.

So, mainly it will be used when the Kanji is with other Kanji.. except numbers. What? There are other exceptions, but the biggest one is numbers. I have noticed that Japanese numbers retain their Onyomi  when by themselves and sometimes use their Kunyomi when mixed with other Kanji. Really, though, the number Kanji never really change meaning, so you if you mess up reading them aloud, I think you will be understood but maybe showing your lack of familiarity with the language. These are everywhere though, so they are impossible to ignore. After I have my counters all nailed down, I will have more info on numbers and their readings.

Kunyomi

The Kunyomi is the Japanese reading of a Kanji. I often see it referred to as the "Kun" reading, Kun-reading, Japanese Reading, or standard reading (this is damned confusing, sites who use "standard reading" should be shot). In the intro to this section I said that the Japanese decided to mash their own word pronunciations on the Chinese characters. Luckily, for the most part, they provided a guide for when this is used. Usually when  Kanji is by itself it will likely use its Kunyomi reading. When a Kanji is followed by Okurigana it will also likely use its Kunyomi.

Continuing with my 大 examples, 大きい meaning big uses the おお Kunyomi (おおきい). Occasionally you will see 大 by itself and it is read the same as 大きい. This is informal, but I have seen it done.

A Kanji may have multiple Kunyomi as well. The Kunyomi for 上 (above) is うえ, あが, あげ, and のぼ. By itself, 上 uses the うえ Kunyomi. The 上がる (あがる using あが Kunyomi, meaning to actively lift or raise something) and 上げる (あげる using the あげ Kunyomi and meaning for something to rise on its own) give a hint as to which Kunyomi they use with their Okurigana. 上る (to rise, as in to rise in power), on the other hand uses the のぼ Kunyomi and doesn't give any hints. You just have to memorize that one (I mess that one up all the time in my flash cards because it is an odd exception, I just try to use some mnemonic about Oda Nobo-naga rising to power on his own without the help of all that extra Hiragana).

Now there are some exceptions to Kanji with Okurigana. 大した uses the Onyomi reading たい instead of the Kunyomi reading (たいした). I have read these exceptions are rare and you just have to memorize them. This one is not so hard because it is fairly common and the Onyomi for 大 is also everywhere. I'm nervous about finding others that do this, though.

Conclusion

You can see why Japanese ranks in the top 10 hardest languages for English speakers to learn. While the spoken language is fairly consistent and logical, its written counterpart is a mess ripe with rules and exceptions and multiple writing systems combined. Be prepared to spend days worth of your life pouring over different Kanji and vocab words memorizing what system to use where and how. Luckily, once you can start reading basic Japanese, you can start to pick up the rhythms and nuances. Easier. But it is a large hurdle before you can even do that. With just over 2,000 Kanji in modern usage to use in an extensive modern vocabulary with a mixture of Katakana loan words heavily sprinkled in, you have your work cut out for you. Just as I do.