Saga 128 Posted March 5, 2012 DAKUTEN AND HANDAKUTEN It's not needed to try memorize the term for these. But as being on the teaching side,it's needed to mention it properly. Did you wonder ,in my first lesson, where are the rest of the symbols? Such as "Ji",or "Bo"? Well,in fact,there are no new symbols for these. We will use some rules,grammar rules and two types of markers. We call it voicing the symbol. DAKUTEN This one is easily spotted. It looks like a quotation mark. Some refer it to "Ten-Ten". Yeah,quotation markers. You put them on the right up "corner" of the certain symbol. One thing you should know,in Japanese you'll meet a lot of "buts",as in,rules and exceptions. Here it comes my "but". But this marker is specific. You use it only with some of the symbols you already,supposedly,know from Hiragana. The rows with: • K turns to G base (Sample: Ka turns to Ga) • S turns to Z base; exception "Shi" turns to "ji" (Sample: Sa turns to Za) • T turns to D base; exception "Chi" turns to "ji" and "Tsu" turns to "Zu" (Sample: Ta turns to Da) • H turns to B base (Sample: Ha turns to Ba) Important As you might have noticed,there are two pairs of symbols that might get you confused. Voicing 'Su' into 'Zu' and 'Tsu' into 'Zu'. Voicing 'Shi' into 'Ji' and 'Chi' into 'Ji'. Which version to use? Well,I can say that じ and ず are the common ones. When you bump into the kanji combinations,you'll see the exceptions with ぢ and づ. It's because of grammatical rules in kanji. But,of course,you'll get to see the rare pair when 'tsu' is followed by a voiced 'zu'. Never doubt which one to write,it's our rare version づ. The same goes for ぢ,if the symbol before is 'chi' and the voiced is 'ji'. No doubt,writing down the exception ぢ. (: HANDAKUTEN As you an see above,another marker our way. Known as 'handakuten',or 'maru'. It looks like a degree marker. It's only used with H base to voice it into P. • Ha => Pa • Hi => Pi • Fu => Pu • He => Pe • Ho => Po Practice and don't try to memorize it as if it's a thing you'd have on an exam. Take it easy and do the recalling process. Saga© Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nena21 4449 Posted March 5, 2012 I have a question about maru. I saw it makes h being voiced as p. My question is, between them I see there is 'Fu => Pu'. So, it also makes f being voiced as p? Or it was hu=>pu? And thank you for the awesome lessons, Saga! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saga 128 Posted March 5, 2012 Hello there, Actually 'fu' is an exception in 'H' row. (: So,it's 'fu', not hu. You won't meet such a symbol in Japanese. And you are welcome. (: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nena21 4449 Posted March 5, 2012 Thank you for the heads up, I'm a newbie, so I might ask some stupidities now and then Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saga 128 Posted March 5, 2012 No problem. Up to answer to any language related questions. (: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shirotsuki 9917 Posted March 5, 2012 i have a doubt!! i'm sure this is really simple... i'm just dumb!xD but.. how about the sound "jo", "je" and so on... is it the same as in "ji"? just put that symbol? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saga 128 Posted March 5, 2012 The answer to your question,you'll get on the thread I posted a few hours ago. Please Register/ Sign In, in order to see the links. . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shirotsuki 9917 Posted March 5, 2012 gosh! see? i am stupid!! thank you! and sorry for the dumb question... i tend to be faster than it is suppose to! xD next time i'll read everything first... sorry! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saga 128 Posted March 5, 2012 You are welcome,and you are not stupid. Just impatient. ;P Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jo_suzaku 16 Posted April 24, 2015 I started learning Japanese on my own and your lessons are really really helpful. This is my second week but I still feel I haven't made any progress. But as they say, practice makes one perfect. Thanks again Saga-san ^_^ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Embracing Fujoshi 15 Posted November 9, 2016 Great! I was wondering about those. Thank you very much Saga-san. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites