Hiragana / Katakana Roots
I've been learning to read Japanese. One teaching strategy says it's better to teach hiragana first so that you can associate conversational and written Japanese faster, and one says it's better to learn katakana first so that you can read borrowed words without knowing Japanese first. I've been trying a third option: learning them both simultaneously.
This has been helpful to me because, for example, I could remember "ko" in hiragana (コ) but not katakana (こ) until I noticed that they kinda look the same. Ditto for (う,ウ), (か,カ), (え、エ), or (き,キ). I started thinking that katakana was just an angular form of hiragana, but then again 'a' (あ,ア) and 'ne' (ね,ネ) seem pretty different.
Turns out I was right some of the time. Some hiragana and katakana have a common ancestor and some don't. (う,ウ) come from 宇, (か,カ) come from 加, and (き,キ) come from 機, but other pairs like (え,エ) are derived from completely different characters. Some pairs that look somewhat similar, like (け,ケ) or (む,ム), have completely different roots. And some pairs that look pretty dissimilar like (ろ,ロ) or (そ,ソ) actually have the same root. Trying to get these straight I ended up making the following chart, showing which pairs share roots and which don't. This doesn't exactly simplify the problem for me, but it does help me see which similarities have a real basis and which are just coincidental.
(ん无)
(ン尓)
わワ:和
らラ:良
やヤ:也
まマ:末
(は波)
(ハ八)
なナ:奈
(た太)
(タ多)
(さ左)
(サ散)
かカ:於
(あ安)
(ア阿)
りリ:利
(み美)
(ミ三)
ひヒ:比
にニ:仁
(ち知)
(チ千)
しシ:之
きキ:機
(い以)
(イ伊)
(る留)
(ル流)
ゆユ:由
(む武)
(ム牟)
ふフ:不
ぬヌ:奴
つツ:川
(す寸)
(ス須)
くク:久
うウ:宇
れレ:礼
めメ:女
へヘ:部
ねネ:祢
てテ:天
せセ:世
(け計)
(ケ介)
(え衣)
(エ江)
(を遠)
(ヲ乎)
ろロ:呂
(よ与)
(ヨ與)
もモ:毛
ほホ:保
のノ:乃
とト:止
そソ:曽
こコ:己
おオ:於
I'm reminded of this paper. Perception of illusory patterns - noticing things that are actually just random - increases when people feel like they lack control in stressful situations. Gamblers or ball players, stressed out by the pressure to win, develop superstitions about lucky clothing or "lucky streaks" that they perceive in strings of random outcomes. I think the stress and difficulty of trying to learn a new language is encouraging me to notice both real and illusory patterns.
This has been helpful to me because, for example, I could remember "ko" in hiragana (コ) but not katakana (こ) until I noticed that they kinda look the same. Ditto for (う,ウ), (か,カ), (え、エ), or (き,キ). I started thinking that katakana was just an angular form of hiragana, but then again 'a' (あ,ア) and 'ne' (ね,ネ) seem pretty different.
Turns out I was right some of the time. Some hiragana and katakana have a common ancestor and some don't. (う,ウ) come from 宇, (か,カ) come from 加, and (き,キ) come from 機, but other pairs like (え,エ) are derived from completely different characters. Some pairs that look somewhat similar, like (け,ケ) or (む,ム), have completely different roots. And some pairs that look pretty dissimilar like (ろ,ロ) or (そ,ソ) actually have the same root. Trying to get these straight I ended up making the following chart, showing which pairs share roots and which don't. This doesn't exactly simplify the problem for me, but it does help me see which similarities have a real basis and which are just coincidental.
(ん无)
(ン尓)
わワ:和
らラ:良
やヤ:也
まマ:末
(は波)
(ハ八)
なナ:奈
(た太)
(タ多)
(さ左)
(サ散)
かカ:於
(あ安)
(ア阿)
りリ:利
(み美)
(ミ三)
ひヒ:比
にニ:仁
(ち知)
(チ千)
しシ:之
きキ:機
(い以)
(イ伊)
(る留)
(ル流)
ゆユ:由
(む武)
(ム牟)
ふフ:不
ぬヌ:奴
つツ:川
(す寸)
(ス須)
くク:久
うウ:宇
れレ:礼
めメ:女
へヘ:部
ねネ:祢
てテ:天
せセ:世
(け計)
(ケ介)
(え衣)
(エ江)
(を遠)
(ヲ乎)
ろロ:呂
(よ与)
(ヨ與)
もモ:毛
ほホ:保
のノ:乃
とト:止
そソ:曽
こコ:己
おオ:於
I'm reminded of this paper. Perception of illusory patterns - noticing things that are actually just random - increases when people feel like they lack control in stressful situations. Gamblers or ball players, stressed out by the pressure to win, develop superstitions about lucky clothing or "lucky streaks" that they perceive in strings of random outcomes. I think the stress and difficulty of trying to learn a new language is encouraging me to notice both real and illusory patterns.