An introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar & Language

1.2. WRITING SPOKEN JAPANESE 15

1.2.1 Katakana specific

As katakana has been used to write out words imported from other lan-
guages into Japanese, it has a few extra ”rules” that do not apply to wriĴen

hiragana, including a number of ways to produce normallyillegalsyllables:
syllables that do not fit in the Japanese table of syllables, but are found in
foreign words nonetheless. Examples of these are for instance the initial
syllable ”fi” in the English word ”fire”, or the ”swe” in ”Sweden”.

The table of approximating writing is as follows, observing English
pronunciation rules (combinations with normal Japanese orthography are
omiĴed):

a e i o u

ch

d f Ħ j q s

sh

sw

t

v (1)

w

x

y

z

Note that ’wo’ is not (as that is pronounced ), and that for the
’x’ series, the leading is the consonant doubling symbol.

In addition to these, there are also a number of consonants which,
in terms of pronunciation, already have Japanese counterparts:

consonant column

c, pronounced as ’s’ uses the –column

c, pronounced as ’k’ uses the –column

l uses the –column

v (2) uses the –column. Preferred to ’v (1)’ in the above table.