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by **Kuroneko-chan** » Tue 05.31.2005 6:02 pm

Okay, I downloaded the Learn Kana flashcards...thingy from this site, and I was wondering if anyone knew what Dakuten and Handakuten and/or Diphtongs are???:|

by **InsanityRanch** » Tue 05.31.2005 10:34 pm

the dakuten turn an unvoiced consonant into a voiced one: k into g, s into z, t into d, ch and ts into dz (or just z), and h (for reasons known only to the Japanese) into b.

The handakuten turn h into p.

and diphthongs are generally written out in Japanese as double vowels or combinations of vowels, which is at least easier than English in that regard.

Shira

by **Kojiki** » Tue 05.31.2005 10:44 pm

The above is perfect, but for a bit more visual idea. The dakuten is the quote looking thing ( " ) and the Hanadakuten is the little circle used only with H. Diphthongs are the double consonant sounds in Japanese that have a brief space between the preceeding syllable and the Diphthong syllable. It's usually indicated in Hiragana by a small "tsu" right where the space should be.

by **zengargoyle** » Tue 05.31.2005 11:42 pm

Kojiki wrote:
The above is perfect, but for a bit more visual idea. The dakuten is the quote looking thing ( " ) and the Hanadakuten is the little circle used only with H. Diphthongs are the double consonant sounds in Japanese that have a brief space between the preceeding syllable and the Diphthong syllable. It's usually indicated in Hiragana by a small "tsu" right where the space should be.

diphthongs are the vowel slides like in: hai. where the vowels slur together rather than
being pronounced seperately. hai vs. ha-i.

the double consonants are glottal stops: nippon. where the flow of air is momentarily
blocked by the glottis.

by **Kuroneko-chan** » Wed 06.01.2005 7:19 pm

Thank you ^__^ I was so confused about it but I do have another question.
I read in the grammar section of this site that the Japanese right: subject-object-verb as opposed to subject-verb-object so I was was wondering if I were gong to say "Hello, everyone" in Japanese would i say "everyone" and then "hello"?