Kana Charts

[phattangent]

I've made two Kana charts to help people who are learning Japanese. Personally, I'm going to use them in my notebook this fall at school. I hope y'all find them useful as well. Thanks!

Hiragana Kana Chart

PDF: http://michaelcotterell.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/hiragana.pdf

Katakana Kana Chart

PDF: http://michaelcotterell.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/katakana.pdf

[furrykef]

ティ is actually "ti", not "thi", but it can represent "thi".

- Kef

[phattangent]

I always thought that チ "chi" could be used for "ti", and that ティ was used for "thi"... am I just dead wrong?

[richvh]

You can type "thi" into the Windows IME to get ティ using romaji input, but that's not the sound it represents. You're more likely to use シ or ジ for the unvoiced/voiced phonemes represented in English by "thi"

[phattangent]

So, in order to fix the chart, should I just change the vowel sound for ティ from "thi" to "ti"?

[furrykef]

Yeah.

Also, I figure you already know this, but ゃ, ゅ, and ょ can be used for lots of other sounds: しゃ、しゅ、しょ、ちゃ、ちゅ、ちょ、きゃ、きゅ、きょ････

[becki_kanou]

Just a question: did you translate your first Japanese sentence using some sort of automatic translation tool? I don't mean to be insulting, but the mistakes seem much more like computer-generated mistakes than beginning-learner mistakes; 「マイノートブック大学」in particular.

If, in fact, you did use some-type of translation software, you should be aware that the translations from Japanese to English and English to Japanese are often laughably bad, and shouldn't be relied upon.

[phattangent]

Yeah.

Also, I figure you already know this, but ゃ, ゅ, and ょ can be used for lots of other sounds: しゃ、しゅ、しょ、ちゃ、ちゅ、ちょ、きゃ、きゅ、きょ････

Yeah, I didn't include those because I thought they were obvious...

[furrykef]

Not any more obvious than じゃ、じゅ、じょ is, really.

[phattangent]

I did it this way because I wanted the people using the charts to think of the sounds "ja", "ju", "jo" and not "jya", "jyu", "jyo"...