INTRODUCTION
Ancient Japanese was only a spoken language. The Japanese
didn’t have their own writing system. Written documents were in
Chinese. Japanese learned Chinese from Korean scholars.
Japanese adapted Chinese characters to write their own
language.
KANJI

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that
are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with
hiragana , katakana, hindu, arabic numerals and the
occasional use of the Latin alphabet. The Japanese term kanji
for the Chinese characters and is written using the same
characters as the Chinese word hanzi.

In modern Japanese kanji are used to write parts of the
languages such as nouns adjectives stems and verb stems
while hiragana are used to write inflected verb and adjective
endings as phonetic complements.
by:jackie
KANA
 Kana are syllabic Japanese scripts, a part of the
Japanese writing system contrasted with the Chinese
characters known in Japan as kanji .
 Kana means “borrowed letters” in Japanese
 There are three kana scripts: modern cursive
hiragana, modern angular katakana, and the old
syllabic use of kanji known as man’yōgana that was
ancestral to both.
 Japanese invented kana
by: jackie
HIRAGANA
 Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one basic
component of the Japanese writing system.
 Hiragana is the first language taught to
Japanese children.
 It has existed since approximately 800 AD to
the present day.
 The Hiragana syllabary consists of 48
characters
 Hiragana is used to write native words
By:dennise
KATAKANA
 Katakana is a Japanese syllabary one component of the
Japanese writing system along with Hiragana.
 Katakana is used for writing the names of persons and
geographical places (not able to be written in Kanji).
 The complete katakana script consists of 48
characters(excluding functional and diacritic marks)
 It has existed since approximately 800 AD to the present day.
 Katakana are characterized by short, straight strokes and
angular corners, and are the simplest of the Japanese scripts
: dennise
by
W H E R E D I D T H E J A PA N E S E
L A N G U A G E O R I G I N AT E ?
 The first theory: people have lived in
Japan for so long it just grew over time.
 The second theory: hoarse riders made it
to Japan bringing their language with them.
 The third theory: The Japanese language
came from wet rice farmers immigrating
from Korea
by: dennise
1)What was the first language taught to Japanese children?
2)What is Katakana used for?
3)In modern Japanese what is kanji used for?
4)What is the third theory of the origin of the Japanese language?
5)What are the three kana scripts?
1)Hiragana was the first language taught to Japanese children.
2) Katakana is used for writing the names of persons and
geographical places.
3) In modern Japanese kanji are used to write parts of the
languages such as nouns adjectives stems and verb stems.
4) The third theory: The Japanese language came from wet rice
farmers immigrating from Korea.
5) Three kana scripts are: modern cursive hiragana, modern
angular katakana, and the old syllabic use of kanji.
In this activity we will be writing a few words in
Japanese
For this activity you will need something to write
with and a piece of paper
日-day
日本-Japan
火-fire
手-hand 小-small 犬-dog
by:dennise