Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
Category:Japanese words with nonphonetic spellings. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
Category:Japanese words with nonphonetic spellings, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
Category:Japanese words with nonphonetic spellings in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
Category:Japanese words with nonphonetic spellings you have here. The definition of the word
Category:Japanese words with nonphonetic spellings will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
Category:Japanese words with nonphonetic spellings, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
- In modern Japanese orthography (現代仮名遣い), Japanese hiragana and katakana are used very phonetically, with exceptions that are few but notable:
- The three basic particles は, へ, and を are pronounced wa, e, and o respectively, which would be normally written わ, え, and お.
- Elsewhere, は is ha, and へ is he.
- The spellings of は, へ, and を are from earlier stages of the language.
- いう (iu, “to say”) is prescriptively ゆう (yuu).
- In on'yomi and most native words, おう is pronounced as a long vowel ō, identical to おお.
- In on'yomi, えい, is pronounced as a long vowel ē, identical to ええ.
- Kanji are of course non-phonetic and non-notable.
Notes
- ^ Compare this guide from 1903 for the pre-reform 歴史的仮名遣い.
- ^ Spelling the salutation こんにちは as こんにちわ is considered a mistake but is probably evidence that the particle has fossilized and no longer recognized here in the minds of speakers.
- ^ As in the nouns 歯 (ha, “tooth”) and 辺 (he, “vicinity”).
- ^ Were it not for this preservation, を would not be used in modern Japanese at all, the sound having merged with o long ago; in modern loanwords wo is written as うぉ.
- ^ Pronunciation as precisely iu is a modern phenomenon, a spelling pronunciation.
- ^ When う is the end of a verb, it is pronounced as ou, as in 思う (omou).
- ^ As しよう (shiyō, volitional of する (suru)) or ありがとう (arigatō).
- ^ In loanwords, it is generally pronounced as ei, as in メイド (meido).