Category:Japanese words with nonphonetic spellings
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- In modern Japanese orthography (現代仮名遣い), Japanese hiragana and katakana are used very phonetically,[1] with exceptions that are few but notable:
- The three basic particles は, へ, and を are pronounced wa, e, and o respectively, which would be normally written わ, え, and お.[2]
- いう (iu, “to say”) is prescriptively ゆう (yuu).[5]
- In on'yomi and most[6] native words,[7] おう is pronounced as a long vowel ō, identical to おお.
- In on'yomi, えい, is pronounced as a long vowel ē, identical to ええ.[8]
- Kanji are of course non-phonetic and non-notable.
Notes[edit]
- ^ Compare this guide from 1903 for the pre-reform 歴史的仮名遣い.
- ^ Spelling the salutation こんにちは as こんにちわ is considered a mistake but is probably evidence that the particle has fossilized and no longer recognized here in the minds of speakers.
- ^ As in the nouns 歯 (ha, “tooth”) and 辺 (he, “vicinity”).
- ^ Were it not for this preservation, を would not be used in modern Japanese at all, the sound having merged with o long ago; in modern loanwords wo is written as うぉ.
- ^ Pronunciation as precisely iu is a modern phenomenon, a spelling pronunciation.
- ^ When う is the end of a verb, it is pronounced as ou, as in 思う (omou).
- ^ As しよう (shiyō, volitional of する (suru)) or ありがとう (arigatō).
- ^ In loanwords, it is generally pronounced as ei, as in メイド (meido).