Re: does a blind person need to learn kanji while learning Japanese?
@9, IF you look at the small description offered by NVDA for the three chinese characters, the first one actualy says that it does not distinguish between gender and is usually used as the singular third person. The second one is used as a romantic way of saying she, or when using the word in reference to a nation. The third refers to the third person plural, not just it. So yes, all three are different,but that maters only in writing, as when speaking there is only one word.
Ok, here are some explanations to the hiragana oddities you mentioned.
The u or i being dropped is only applicable to k sounds, s sounds and ch sounds. The reason that sometimes the vowel is pronounced and sometimes not is dependant on two things. One, where the syllable is placed in the word. If the syllable is in the middle or at the end of a word, the vowel will almost always be dropped. And even to western ears when it sounds like it's being dropped, it's not being dropped, simply muted where it's still pronounced, but at full spoken speed it's hard to hear it. It also differentiates between people, especially in dialects or in more formal speech vs. casual speech. In casual speech, more sounds are dropped, similar to other languages where a more lazy way of speaking prevails, much like the s being dropped in many dialects of latin-american spanish. And speaking of dialects, many dialects from western Japan, namely the Osakan and Kyoto dialects, will pronounce these vowels fully regardless of where they are placed in respect to the fact that those dialects were considered the aristocratic and higher form of the language.
Regard ha and wa, that pronunciation was actually used, notably pre-war. I'm not sure of why the shift happened, but it's not hard at all to distinguish which is the particle and which is the other.
The way to pronounce g, whether with an n or not, you already answered. IT's a regional difference. Not just western or eastern, but also Northern Japan comes into play here as well. IT's also never written in Hiragana that way because it's a spoken difference, not a written one.
R is pronounced the same way always, like a spanish flipped r. No rolls, which is why when it's at the beginning of a word it can sound like a d or an l. But the sound in fact never changes drastically. Ryu is pronounced with an r, and ryugakusei is pronounced the same because the first syllable is litterally the same one. When it's in he middle of a word, it's much easier to hear how it's supposed to be pronounced. But again, depending on people and context, to western ears sometimes it can sound like an L, but that's again due to understanding of syllable placement.
Anyway, all that aside, I'd be happy to answer more questions or even provide an audio recording. I just want to make it clear I don't defend Japanese as the best language in the world, because it may sound like that. Three alphabets, one of which has more than a few thousand characters is definitely a lot, and I agree that from a linguistic point of view, it sems crazy. But you admitted yourself that you don't speak the language and I think that's part of the confusion. For Japanese people, three alphabets actually provides more clarity and precision, which is what the Japanese culture is all about... they are able to tell which words are of Japanese origin, which are borrowed from Chinese and which are foreign loanwords. But yes, learning Japanese is definitely not an easy thing to do, and the alphabets are what make most people very weary of it. It's definitely true that western languages whether latin or slovak have a more consistent alphabet and more clearly defined rules. But there are other things in western languages like irregular grammar that more than make up for the difference. lol I'm just lucky that I was thrown in to a world of Japanese international students where I had more than enough people to ask, and seven years later my Japanese is actually surpassing my native mandarin. I don't say that out of pride, merely to emphasize that I had a lot of the same questions when I first started.
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