What does the dot mean in kunyomi?

4 Comments When you see those dots it separates the part that is the actual reading of the kanji and the part that are additional kana used to complete the word. In the tips and notes for Intro 2 as you mentioned it has 学 as an example. 学 is the kanji meaning “education”, and then it lists まな•ぶ as a kun-yomi reading.

What do dots mean in Japanese?

Japanese Writing » Emphasis Dots. In Japanese, bouten 傍点 , “side marks,” are dots written in the furigana 振り仮名 space that express emphasis. They work like italicized text, or bold text. To emphasize a phrase, every pronounceable character of the phrase gets a dot beside it—punctuation doesn’t get dots.

What does a dot mean in hiragana?

In Japanese, sometimes words are separated by a middle dot, a ・, also called an interpunct, or interpoint, or nakaguro 中黒, “middle black [mark],” nakaten 中点, “middle dot,” nakapotsu 中ぽつ, “middle spot,” nakamaru 中丸, “middle circle, ” etc. But what does this ・ mean in Japanese? Well, it has multiple functions.

What does the dot in katakana mean?

The interpunct ・ (中黒, nakaguro, “middle black”) or “katakana middle dot” (as the Unicode consortium calls it) is a small dot used for interword separation. It is also known as nakapochi, nakapotsu and nakaten. It has a fixed width that is the same as most kana characters.

What is the little circle in Japanese?

It’s called a handakuten 半濁点(meaning half-voiced) , officially. Most people just called it 丸 (Maru) meaning circle, though. In English it would be called a “circular diacritical mark ‘.

How do you use Japanese dots?

Ellipses (リーダー rīdā (leaders), 点線 tensen (dotted line), or てんてん ten-ten (“dot dot”) indicate an intentional omission or abbreviation, or a pause in speech, an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis).

What is a Jukugo word?

Jukugo (熟語) are compound words: Just like English, several kanji compose a jukugo. (think of the English words like “butt pirate”, “can opener,” “douche bag” or “hat rack”). Once you learned enough kanji, you can comprehend Jukugo almost without trying.

What is Onyomi reading?

Onyomi translates roughly to “sound reading.” It means that the kanji is read the same way that it would in the Chinese language—or at least is read as a close approximation of the sounds that are found in the Chinese language, sometimes with their own unique, Japanese spin.

Why don t Japanese use spaces?

Why doesn’t Japanese use spaces? The fact that Japanese is a language made up of syllables, and has 3 different writing systems, makes spaces unnecessary.

Does Japan use periods?

— Period or “Full Stop” This one’s pretty simple. The full stop or 句点 (くてん) — kuten is the Japanese period. It marks the end of a sentence.

What is the meaning of kunyomi in Japanese?

Kunyomi is the Japanese reading of kanji. The Japanese associate the Chinese word with a close equivalent one in Japanese (meaning, not pronunciation like in the case of onyomi-readings). 国 in Chinese (guo) means country but since in Japanese there is kuni means country too.

Do you need to use onyomi and kunyomi readings?

Judging when you need to use onyomi and kunyomi readings is something that must be learned through experience and frequent encounters with the Japanese language. Listen to Japanese music, watch Japanese commercials and news reports and just surround yourself with the language, paired with accurate subtitles.

How do you know if a Japanese word is onyomi?

You’ll know that you’re on the right track when you see a word with no hiragana. Those words are strong candidates for onyomi pronunciation. The next time you’re going to consider a Japanese word as a strong contender for onyomi reading is when you’re looking at a standalone kanji.

How many onyomi are in a mountain?

Depends on the context and the word that goes together with it, you will decide which Onyomi pronunciation to be used. Big: 大 – Da (Chinese) and Tai/Dai (Japanese). So “Big” has 2 Onyomi. Mountain: 山 – Shan (Chinese) and San (Japanese). 2. What is Kunyomi? So what is Kunyomi?