DISCLAIMER! This thread is intended as a basic guide to the Japanese language, intended for people who are vaguely familiar with the language as experienced though Japanese pop-culture. It's been simplified, and is being written by a first year Japanese language student. I thought it would be useful/interesting if we had a quick primer on the Japanese language, since I have seen things in Japanese pop-culture that might be confusing if you were unaware how the language works. There's plenty of resources on the cultural side of the language and anime (i.e honorifics), so I thought it was high time for a more basic guide to the language itself. This isn't a thread to learn Japanese though, just a basic introduction 
How does the Japanese spoken language work?
Spoken Japanese is actually quite simple! It starts with five vowels, which are coincidentally, the same vowels used in English: A, I, U, E and O. They are pronounced slightly differently from how they are in English, but let's keep moving. The remainder of the basic set of sounds comes from sticking another sound on the front of those five vowels from before. For example, stick on a "K" sound and you now have "ka, ki, ku, ke, ko". Or with an "S" sound you get "sa, shi, su, se, so"
Here's all the basic sounds used in spoken Japanese:
a, i, u, e, o
ka, ki, ku, ke, ko
sa, shi, su, se, so
ta, chi, tsu, te, to
na, ni, nu, ne, no
ha, hi, fu, he, ho
ma, mi, mu, me, mo
ya, yu, yo
ra, ri, ru, re, ro
wa, wo
n
ga, gi, gu, ge, go
za, ji, zu, ze, zo
da, ji, zu, de, do
ba, bi, bu, be, bo
pa, pi, pu, pe, po
You may have noticed a number of gaps, such as no "ye" or "wu". Apparently, they once existed, but have since fallen out of use. You may have also noticed a few oddities in there, such as "fu' in the middle of the "H" series. That's just a quirk of trying to write Japanese with English characters, where they have chosen to spell it in a way that sounds closer to how it's actually said in Japanese, just roll with it! There's also that "n" all on it's own, which is basically the only short sound they have in Japanese.
In addition to these sounds, there's also a bunch more. These ones are made by combining two of those "vowel with sound on the front" sounds together. Essentially, you slam them together, and like two cars in a head-on collision, their middles kinda fuse together.
How this most commonly occurs is the last part of the first sound is dropped off and combined with the second sound. For example, to make the "nya" sound a cat makes, you take "ni", drop the "i" sound and add "ya" to the end.
Here's a list of all these sounds:
kya, kyu, kyo, gya, gyu, gyo
nya, nyu, nyo, hya, hyu, hyo
bya, byu, byo, pya, pyu, pyo
mya, myu, myo, rya, ryu, ryo
ja, ju, je, jo, cha, chu
che, cho, sha, shu, she, sho
One thing that's important to note is in Japanese, sounds ALWAYS make the same sound. Unlike English, where a letter's sound may change depending on what letters are next to it. And as you can see by looking over this page, there's not very many sounds in Japanese, hence the trouble most Japanese have pronouncing English words: there's sounds in English that flat-out don't exist in Japanese! Another reason is that the sounds used in Japanese are much longer than English sounds and end in a vowel (except for "n"), which means words requiring a short sound that don't end in a vowel, such as the "t" and the end of "sit", can't be done.
What makes up the Japanese written language?
Japanese consists of three writing systems: Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Four if you want to count Romaji (which is Japanese words written using English characters), but since this writing system is intended for use by non-Japanese, it doesn't really count.
Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana are all used together in sentences, rather than swapping from one to another like a language. Their use depends on what you're writing. Kanji is mostly used for older words, Hiragana is used for writing Japanese-origin words that don't already have Kanji associated with them and Katakana is used for foreign loan words.
What is Kanji?
Kanji is a writing system that was essentially stolen from the Chinese, since Japan originally had no writing system at all! However since Japanese is not Chinese, modifications in their use were required to make them work.
Each Kanji, in addition to having it's own meaning like Chinese, can also represent a sound. To further complicate matters, they will often have a multiple meanings (for example "本" means both "origin" and "book") and multiple sounds.
This is why you often see in anime characters talking about the "readings" of a person's name. Since names are normally written in Kanji, it can be difficult to know how to say someone's name as the Kanji could represent any one of multiple sounds. This is also why character's names have meanings, since the Kanji used in their name have meanings. For example "Yamaguchi" is written as "山口" which is made up of the Kanji characters meaning "mountain" and "gateway/mouth", so their name would mean "Mountain Gate". Or "Mountain Mouth" if you're a smart-ass.
Another quirk of Kanji is that many words which use Kanji characters can't be written with just Kanji characters, and Hiragana characters (see below) are also required. For example, "omae" (meaning "you") is written as "お前" which is the Hiragana character "お" (spoken as "o") in front of the Kanji character "前" (meaning "in front") which in this example is using the "mae" sound of this Kanji character.
Combine these complexities with the fact that they're complex-looking and there's thousands of the suckers, and you can see why Kanji is a terrible, terrible writing system. Unfortunately, being Japan's first writing system, it sticks around, and can't be avoided.
What is Hiragana?
Unlike Kanji, Hiragana is a phonetic writing system, just like English! The characters have no meaning, but instead make a sound, which you combine with other characters to make the word you want.
There are 48 different Hiragana characters in total, close to double the number of characters in the English alphabet, but far far FAR less than then number in Kanji. Also unlike Kanji, Hiragana characters are much more simplistic in appearance.
Hiragana was Japan's first original written language, although not fully, since they're essentially a small group of greatly simplified Kanji characters. Hiragana was supposedly invented by women who were not allowed access to the sort of education required to learn Kanji.
Here's a list of all the characters in Hiragana, along with the sound they make written below them in English:
あ い う え お
a i u e o
か き く け こ
ka ki ku ke ko
さ し す せ そ
sa shi su se so
た ち つ て と
ta chi tsu te to
な に ぬ ね の
na ni nu ne no
は ひ ふ へ ほ
ha hi fu he ho
ま み む め も
ma mi mu me mo
や ゆ よ
ya yu yo
ら り る れ ろ
ra ri ru re ro
わ を
wa wo
ん
n
You may have noticed that there's not enough Hiragana characters to represent all the sounds in Japanese. This is where modified Hiragna comes in!
Did you notice before that many of the sounds at the end of the sound list from before are just other sounds but spoken more softly? For example, say "sa" out loud. Now whisper it. Kinda sounds like you're saying "za" now right? For these sounds, two small marks are added to the Hiragana character called "Dakuten".
Here's a list of these Dakuten modified Hiragana with their sound written in English below:
が ぎ ぐ げ ご
ga gi gu ge go
ざ じ ず ぜ ぞ
za ji zu ze zo
だ ぢ づ で ど
da ji zu de do
ば び ぶ べ ぼ
ba bi bu be bo
Ah, but what about the "P" sounds? How can softening a sound make a "P" sound? Well, it can't. There's where a special modification comes in called "Handakuten", it's a little circle you stick in the same place you would a Dakuten, which tells you it's a "P" sound.
Here's a list of these Handakuten modified Hiragana with their sound written in English below:
ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ
pa pi pu pe po
What about the remaining sounds? Well, do you remember how they're made by slamming two sounds together? This is represented by drawing the second Hiragana character smaller than the first.
Here's a list of these Hiragana with their sound written in English below:
きゃ きゅ きょ ぎゃ ぎゅ ぎょ
kya kyu kyo gya gyu gyo
にゃ にゅ にょ ひゃ ひゅ ひょ
nya nyu nyo hya hyu hyo
びゃ びゅ びょ ぴゃ ぴゅ ぴょ
bya byu byo pya pyu pyo
みゃ みゅ みょ りゃ りゅ りょ
mya myu myo rya ryu ryo
じゃ じゅ じぇ じょ ちゃ ちゅ
ja ju je jo cha chu
ちぇ ちょ しゃ しゅ しぇ しょ
che cho sha shu she sho
What is Katakana?
And now we move on to the final writing system used in Japanese, and by now you're probably thinking "Three completely different writing systems?" Written Japanese is super complicated!"
Ah, but that's where you're wrong! Katakana is just Hiragana but with different characters. Same sounds, same rules, same number of characters. Think of it like uppercase and lowercase in English, they're the same sounds, just written with different characters.
As with English, some of the characters look similar. For example, "ya" in Hiragana looks like "や" and in Katakana it looks like "ヤ", do you see the similarities? A way of telling Hiragana from Katakana is Hiragana characters are smoother and more rounded while Katakana characters are pointy and sharp.
Here's a list of all the Katakana characters, along with their modified versions (again, same rules as modifying Hiragana characters) and their sound written in English below:
ア イ ウ エ オ
a i u e o
カ キ ク ケ コ
ka ki ku ke ko
サ シ ス セ ソ
sa shi su se so
タ チ ツ テ ト
ta chi tsu te to
ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ
na ni nu ne no
ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ
ha hi fu he ho
マ ミ ム メ モ
ma mi mu me mo
ヤ ユ ヨ
ya yu yo
ラ リ ル レ ロ
ra ri ru re ro
ワ ヲ
wa wo
ン
n
ガ ギ グ ゲ ゴ
ga gi gu ge go
ザ ジ ズ ゼ ゾ
za ji zu ze zo
ダ ヂ ヅ デ ド
da ji zu de do
バ ビ ブ ベ ボ
ba bi bu be bo
パ ピ プ ペ ポ
pa pi pu pe po
キャ キュ キョ ギャ ギュ ギョ
kya kyu kyo gya gyu gyo
ニャ ニュ ニョ ヒャ ヒュ ヒョ
nya nyu nyo hya hyu hyo
ビャ ビュ ビョ ピャ ピュ ピョ
bya byu byo pya pyu pyo
ミャ ミュ ミョ リャ リュ リョ
mya myu myo rya ryu ryo
ジャ ジュ ジェ ジョ チャ チュ
ja ju je jo cha chu
チェ チョ シャ シュ シェ ショ
che cho sha shu she sho
And there you have it! A basic guide to Japanese! Well done if you made it all the way though it. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try my best to answer it!
How does the Japanese spoken language work?
Spoken Japanese is actually quite simple! It starts with five vowels, which are coincidentally, the same vowels used in English: A, I, U, E and O. They are pronounced slightly differently from how they are in English, but let's keep moving. The remainder of the basic set of sounds comes from sticking another sound on the front of those five vowels from before. For example, stick on a "K" sound and you now have "ka, ki, ku, ke, ko". Or with an "S" sound you get "sa, shi, su, se, so"
Here's all the basic sounds used in spoken Japanese:
a, i, u, e, o
ka, ki, ku, ke, ko
sa, shi, su, se, so
ta, chi, tsu, te, to
na, ni, nu, ne, no
ha, hi, fu, he, ho
ma, mi, mu, me, mo
ya, yu, yo
ra, ri, ru, re, ro
wa, wo
n
ga, gi, gu, ge, go
za, ji, zu, ze, zo
da, ji, zu, de, do
ba, bi, bu, be, bo
pa, pi, pu, pe, po
You may have noticed a number of gaps, such as no "ye" or "wu". Apparently, they once existed, but have since fallen out of use. You may have also noticed a few oddities in there, such as "fu' in the middle of the "H" series. That's just a quirk of trying to write Japanese with English characters, where they have chosen to spell it in a way that sounds closer to how it's actually said in Japanese, just roll with it! There's also that "n" all on it's own, which is basically the only short sound they have in Japanese.
In addition to these sounds, there's also a bunch more. These ones are made by combining two of those "vowel with sound on the front" sounds together. Essentially, you slam them together, and like two cars in a head-on collision, their middles kinda fuse together.
How this most commonly occurs is the last part of the first sound is dropped off and combined with the second sound. For example, to make the "nya" sound a cat makes, you take "ni", drop the "i" sound and add "ya" to the end.
Here's a list of all these sounds:
kya, kyu, kyo, gya, gyu, gyo
nya, nyu, nyo, hya, hyu, hyo
bya, byu, byo, pya, pyu, pyo
mya, myu, myo, rya, ryu, ryo
ja, ju, je, jo, cha, chu
che, cho, sha, shu, she, sho
One thing that's important to note is in Japanese, sounds ALWAYS make the same sound. Unlike English, where a letter's sound may change depending on what letters are next to it. And as you can see by looking over this page, there's not very many sounds in Japanese, hence the trouble most Japanese have pronouncing English words: there's sounds in English that flat-out don't exist in Japanese! Another reason is that the sounds used in Japanese are much longer than English sounds and end in a vowel (except for "n"), which means words requiring a short sound that don't end in a vowel, such as the "t" and the end of "sit", can't be done.
What makes up the Japanese written language?
Japanese consists of three writing systems: Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Four if you want to count Romaji (which is Japanese words written using English characters), but since this writing system is intended for use by non-Japanese, it doesn't really count.
Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana are all used together in sentences, rather than swapping from one to another like a language. Their use depends on what you're writing. Kanji is mostly used for older words, Hiragana is used for writing Japanese-origin words that don't already have Kanji associated with them and Katakana is used for foreign loan words.
What is Kanji?
Kanji is a writing system that was essentially stolen from the Chinese, since Japan originally had no writing system at all! However since Japanese is not Chinese, modifications in their use were required to make them work.
Each Kanji, in addition to having it's own meaning like Chinese, can also represent a sound. To further complicate matters, they will often have a multiple meanings (for example "本" means both "origin" and "book") and multiple sounds.
This is why you often see in anime characters talking about the "readings" of a person's name. Since names are normally written in Kanji, it can be difficult to know how to say someone's name as the Kanji could represent any one of multiple sounds. This is also why character's names have meanings, since the Kanji used in their name have meanings. For example "Yamaguchi" is written as "山口" which is made up of the Kanji characters meaning "mountain" and "gateway/mouth", so their name would mean "Mountain Gate". Or "Mountain Mouth" if you're a smart-ass.
Another quirk of Kanji is that many words which use Kanji characters can't be written with just Kanji characters, and Hiragana characters (see below) are also required. For example, "omae" (meaning "you") is written as "お前" which is the Hiragana character "お" (spoken as "o") in front of the Kanji character "前" (meaning "in front") which in this example is using the "mae" sound of this Kanji character.
Combine these complexities with the fact that they're complex-looking and there's thousands of the suckers, and you can see why Kanji is a terrible, terrible writing system. Unfortunately, being Japan's first writing system, it sticks around, and can't be avoided.
What is Hiragana?
Unlike Kanji, Hiragana is a phonetic writing system, just like English! The characters have no meaning, but instead make a sound, which you combine with other characters to make the word you want.
There are 48 different Hiragana characters in total, close to double the number of characters in the English alphabet, but far far FAR less than then number in Kanji. Also unlike Kanji, Hiragana characters are much more simplistic in appearance.
Hiragana was Japan's first original written language, although not fully, since they're essentially a small group of greatly simplified Kanji characters. Hiragana was supposedly invented by women who were not allowed access to the sort of education required to learn Kanji.
Here's a list of all the characters in Hiragana, along with the sound they make written below them in English:
あ い う え お
a i u e o
か き く け こ
ka ki ku ke ko
さ し す せ そ
sa shi su se so
た ち つ て と
ta chi tsu te to
な に ぬ ね の
na ni nu ne no
は ひ ふ へ ほ
ha hi fu he ho
ま み む め も
ma mi mu me mo
や ゆ よ
ya yu yo
ら り る れ ろ
ra ri ru re ro
わ を
wa wo
ん
n
You may have noticed that there's not enough Hiragana characters to represent all the sounds in Japanese. This is where modified Hiragna comes in!
Did you notice before that many of the sounds at the end of the sound list from before are just other sounds but spoken more softly? For example, say "sa" out loud. Now whisper it. Kinda sounds like you're saying "za" now right? For these sounds, two small marks are added to the Hiragana character called "Dakuten".
Here's a list of these Dakuten modified Hiragana with their sound written in English below:
が ぎ ぐ げ ご
ga gi gu ge go
ざ じ ず ぜ ぞ
za ji zu ze zo
だ ぢ づ で ど
da ji zu de do
ば び ぶ べ ぼ
ba bi bu be bo
Ah, but what about the "P" sounds? How can softening a sound make a "P" sound? Well, it can't. There's where a special modification comes in called "Handakuten", it's a little circle you stick in the same place you would a Dakuten, which tells you it's a "P" sound.
Here's a list of these Handakuten modified Hiragana with their sound written in English below:
ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ
pa pi pu pe po
What about the remaining sounds? Well, do you remember how they're made by slamming two sounds together? This is represented by drawing the second Hiragana character smaller than the first.
Here's a list of these Hiragana with their sound written in English below:
きゃ きゅ きょ ぎゃ ぎゅ ぎょ
kya kyu kyo gya gyu gyo
にゃ にゅ にょ ひゃ ひゅ ひょ
nya nyu nyo hya hyu hyo
びゃ びゅ びょ ぴゃ ぴゅ ぴょ
bya byu byo pya pyu pyo
みゃ みゅ みょ りゃ りゅ りょ
mya myu myo rya ryu ryo
じゃ じゅ じぇ じょ ちゃ ちゅ
ja ju je jo cha chu
ちぇ ちょ しゃ しゅ しぇ しょ
che cho sha shu she sho
What is Katakana?
And now we move on to the final writing system used in Japanese, and by now you're probably thinking "Three completely different writing systems?" Written Japanese is super complicated!"
Ah, but that's where you're wrong! Katakana is just Hiragana but with different characters. Same sounds, same rules, same number of characters. Think of it like uppercase and lowercase in English, they're the same sounds, just written with different characters.
As with English, some of the characters look similar. For example, "ya" in Hiragana looks like "や" and in Katakana it looks like "ヤ", do you see the similarities? A way of telling Hiragana from Katakana is Hiragana characters are smoother and more rounded while Katakana characters are pointy and sharp.
Here's a list of all the Katakana characters, along with their modified versions (again, same rules as modifying Hiragana characters) and their sound written in English below:
ア イ ウ エ オ
a i u e o
カ キ ク ケ コ
ka ki ku ke ko
サ シ ス セ ソ
sa shi su se so
タ チ ツ テ ト
ta chi tsu te to
ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ
na ni nu ne no
ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ
ha hi fu he ho
マ ミ ム メ モ
ma mi mu me mo
ヤ ユ ヨ
ya yu yo
ラ リ ル レ ロ
ra ri ru re ro
ワ ヲ
wa wo
ン
n
ガ ギ グ ゲ ゴ
ga gi gu ge go
ザ ジ ズ ゼ ゾ
za ji zu ze zo
ダ ヂ ヅ デ ド
da ji zu de do
バ ビ ブ ベ ボ
ba bi bu be bo
パ ピ プ ペ ポ
pa pi pu pe po
キャ キュ キョ ギャ ギュ ギョ
kya kyu kyo gya gyu gyo
ニャ ニュ ニョ ヒャ ヒュ ヒョ
nya nyu nyo hya hyu hyo
ビャ ビュ ビョ ピャ ピュ ピョ
bya byu byo pya pyu pyo
ミャ ミュ ミョ リャ リュ リョ
mya myu myo rya ryu ryo
ジャ ジュ ジェ ジョ チャ チュ
ja ju je jo cha chu
チェ チョ シャ シュ シェ ショ
che cho sha shu she sho
And there you have it! A basic guide to Japanese! Well done if you made it all the way though it. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try my best to answer it!
