same sounds, does it change

[KINGZ]

The ぢ and the じ sound alike and so does づ and ず . Whats the point to this, other than spelling or does the sound change slightly like it does when が is in middle of a world or phrase? (that is not a hard rule)

sound files attached hiragana

[richvh]

The point is that at one point the sounds represented by those kana were different, but the sounds a language uses change over time. In the post-World War 2 language reforms, most of the づs and ぢ were eliminated (a few were retained for specific types of types of words: where the character repeats a previous unvoiced kana, or where it's the initial kana that has become voiced in a compound.

[KINGZ]

Thank you that helps out alot, now I know why I got all those wrong on the first try with ぢ and right with　じ

[clay]

It's as important as English spelling. Actually other than a few irregularities modern Japanese 'spelling' is very regular.

We really don't need a few letters in our alphabet. C overlaps with K and S sometimes; G overlaps with J. And why do we have a Q?

This funny bit is attributed to Mark Twain, but he probably didn't write it:

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

[AJBryant]

And why do we have a Q

Because if we didn't, some words would just look a bit kweer.


Tony

[richvh]

And why do we have a Q

So the Romans could tell the spelling of qui (one syllable) and cui (two syllables) apart.

[ashitaka]

Q is bi far the ost useless. It hes the same sound ahs K, C has the same sound as K or S bit without these "useless" leters our tekt would look kweer.

hint the sarcasim

[hungryhotei]

We could do with a few more vowels though. We have only 5 letters to show 12 pure vowel sounds. And most of those vowels are made in more than one way.

[ashitaka]

"The whole world should just use latin, then we could all understand scientists."
Well if you count the letters with the strang marks above them like tildes and dots then the english language has........... 752 letters (yes I got bored). Why do we only use 24-29 of them. (Yes i ment 24-29, depending on what language. like the"n"with a ~ over it or that letter that looks like a "b")

[KINGZ]

did the japanese Language ever have the (i used romaji since I dont know if there ever was) YI, YE, WI, WU, & WE to start with, I know you get the same sound from　い、うぃ、う、うぇ　but was there ever a hiragana the was in those places?

[prep_girl_Nessa]

ゐ = wi ゑ = we. Not sure about the others.

[Schattenjedi]

ashitaka wrote: l that letter that looks like a "b")

You would be talking about a ß.

[tanuki]

ashitaka wrote:
Well if you count the letters with the strang marks above them like tildes and dots then the english language has........... 752 letters

I think you meant the Latin alphabet, or Latin extended alphabet or whatever. The English language hardly uses any diacritics at all. In fact, is there any English (i.e. not borrowed) word with a diacritic?

[richvh]

Well, such words as coöperation and naïve used to be commonly written with a diaeresis to show that the second vowel was to be pronounced separately, but they are commonly written without the diaeresis nowadays.