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(Pye) (Fa) (Fi) (Fe) (Fo) : A I U E O

Japanese writing can be done in hiragana or katakana, but this is impractical due to homophones. Characters are written without spaces and require correct stroke order for proper shape. Writing can be horizontal (yokogaki) or vertical (tategaki), with traditional books opening differently than Western ones.

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Andre kh
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13 views1 page

(Pye) (Fa) (Fi) (Fe) (Fo) : A I U E O

Japanese writing can be done in hiragana or katakana, but this is impractical due to homophones. Characters are written without spaces and require correct stroke order for proper shape. Writing can be horizontal (yokogaki) or vertical (tategaki), with traditional books opening differently than Western ones.

Uploaded by

Andre kh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A I U E O

(pye)

(fa) (fi) (fe) (fo)

(fye)

(hu)

(mye)

(rye)

(la) (li) (lu) (le) (lo)

4) Writing a Japanese text

It is possible to write everything in hiragana or katakana since both scripts cover the entity
of sounds of the Japanese language, although this is not very practical due to the high
number of words having the same pronunciation but different meanings.

All characters are written one by one and in the same size. There are no spaces between
different words, which feels a little bit unusual for most foreigners. It takes time to get used
to this and easily distinguish different words.
It is important to write the strokes in the correct order and directions to give the characters
the right shape. The reason why becomes obvious when practicing with a brush pen1 ,
which is very much recommended for beginners.

Japanese writing is made in two directions. Horizontal writing (yokogaki) is from the left to
the right as in western style. Traditional writing (tategaki) is vertical starting from the right
top and ending at the left bottom. A book printed in tategaki opens from what Westerners
would call the back, while a book printed in yokogaki opens from what traditionally in
Japan would have been considered the back.2

1A brush pen is a pen with a brush instead of a brush instead of the nib. You can get them in some
Japanese shops or via mail order.
2 Wikipedia, Japanese writing system

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