Japanese Kanji Made Easy. Michael L. Kluemper
N
ン is like the crisscross rope pattern of an ancient JomoN period pot.
Kana Notes
• The hiragana う and katakana ウ, when following kana that end in “o” or “u” sounds, serve to lengthen the preceding vowel. In katakana, the symbol ー is used to lengthen any vowel that precedes it.
• A small っ (hiragana) or ッ (katakana) serves to double the consonant that follows.
• The symbol" changes unvoiced sounds to voiced sounds: k becomes g; s becomes z; t becomes d; and h becomes b.
• The symbol。 changes ha, hi, fu, he, and ho sounds to pa, pi, pu, pe, and po.
A GUIDE TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS
1. The kanji.
2. English meanings of the kanji.
3. The number of pen strokes needed to write the kanji.
4. The entry number for the kanji in The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary.
5. Some common readings of the kanji in Japanese. Those readers wishing to know which readings are of Chinese origin (on-yomi), and which are of Japanese origin (kun-yomi) should refer to a dictionary such as The New Nelson.
6. Sample vocabulary words. The pronunciation is given in small capitals over the sample word. A macron over a vowel (as in the one on the letter U of the word SŪGAKU in the above example) indicates that the vowel sound is long. The that accompanies this book gives native-speaker pronunciation of the readings and the vocabulary words.
7. The meaning of the kanji is written in capitals.
8. Many kanji contain elements that can be stand-alone kanji, or elements that are common radicals closely associated with a particular meaning. When the story that accompanies each illustration allows, these kanji and radicals are highlighted in brackets.
CHAPTER 1
NUMBERS and COLORS
| 数 | number, count, math | 13 strokes NN2353 |
 |
kazo(eru), kazu, sū
| SŪ 数 | GAKU 学 | mathematics |
| KAZO 数 | E え | RU る | to count |
| 色 | color | 6 strokes NN4956 |
|
iro, shiki
| KI 黄 | IRO 色 | yellow |
| KE 景 | SHIKI 色 | scenery |
Numbers 数
| 一 | one | 1 stroke NN0001 |
|
hito(tsu), ichi
| ICHI 一 | one |
| HITO 一 | TSU つ | one [thing] |
| 二 | two | 2 strokes NN0072 |
|
futa(tsu), ni
| NI 二 | two |
| FUTA 二 | TSU つ | two [things] |
| 三 | three | 3 strokes NN0008 |
|
mi(tsu), san
| SAN 三 | three |
| MI 三 | TSU つ | three [things] |
| 四 | four | 5 strokes NN0938 |
|
yo(tsu), yon, shi
| YON 四 | four |
| YO 四 | TSU つ | four [things] |
| 五 | five | 4 strokes NN0077 |
|
itsu(tsu), go
| GO 五 | five |
| ITSU 五 | TSU つ | five [things] |
| 六 | six | 4 stroke NN0371 |
|
mu(tsu), roku
| ROKU 六 | six |
| MU 六 | TSU つ | six [thing] |
| 八 | eight | 2 stroke NN0369 |