Introduction to Essential Japanese - Lesson 4 : 濁音と半濁音 (Dakuon and handakuon)

And now it's time for Lesson 4 of "Introduction to Essential Japanese"

I'm sure many of you are starting to get bored by these hundred new caveman-like "drawings", so this will be the final lesson on Hiragana and Katakana.

The final lesson covers 濁音（だくおん）and 半濁音 （はんだくおん）

Probably you would have heard of it already - just that you don't realise it.

Let me give you the most widely known Japanese phrase - 頑張って（がんばって）(Ganbatte)

Besides the って that we've covered previously on Lesson 3 (促音）, you will also see が and ば. Notice the 2 tiny line-like characters on the top right corner of the character? That is the 濁音 "symbol".

In essence, it changes the pronunciation of the consonant.

か (ka) becomes が (ga), は (ha) becomes ば (ba)

For more such characters, please refer to the attached image!

edit: the 半濁音 for katakana ha (pa) should be パ, sorry for the mistake. Thanks Eka Kurniawan !

Do note that ち (chi) becomes ぢ (di) like other characters that begin with "t", and even though づ (du) is pronounced similar to ず(zu), you will need to type "du" to get づ. Don't worry though, づ is less commonly used that ず.

Now that we've finished 濁音, you would probably get reminded of this small symbol ° that looks like a degree symbol. So what is this? You can call this a relative of the 濁音 or anything, but this is 半濁音 （はんだくおん）, just that learning this is MUCH easier than 濁音. This is because 半濁音 is only applicable to one line (5 characters) - the は line.

は(ha)ー＞ぱ(pa)

ひ(hi)ー＞ぴ(pi)

ふ(fu)ー＞ぷ(pu)

へ(he)ー＞ぺ(pe)

ほ(ho)ー＞ぽ(po)

and that's all for 半濁音.

Similar to 浊音, 濁音 is applicable to BOTH hiragana and katakana. (Good thing is that you won't need to learn anything new - just add 2 strokes / a circle and you're done :P )

Now that you've followed me thus far, here is a picture with some words containing 濁音 and 半濁音. Enjoy!

And here are 3 Code Geass wallpapers that sums up the past 4 lessons ^^

http://bcs.duapp.com/my-geass/qoloWYb8rL.jpg

http://bcs.duapp.com/my-geass/DrgCJ7iVdz.jpg

http://bcs.duapp.com/my-geass/DYDGqQJ2M0.jpg

Finally, if you haven't saw it the last time, here is a very Moe video to recap your Hiragana and Katakanahttp://youtu.be/9m4aChUgeoE?t=24s(Voice: Kugimiya Rie)

Enjoy ^^