Dakuten, Han-Dakuten, and Sokuon
Dakuten
We’ve now covered all of the 46 CHARACTERS you need to phonetically read Japanese, but that is NOT all of the sounds in Japanese. We can actually modify the sound of SOME rows of hiragana and katakana with these two symbols:
゛゜
The name of this first symbol:
゛
is “Dakuten”.
The name is perfect, because to write DAKUTEN in Japanese, we actually need to USE it.
だくてん
See how it appears attached to the right side of た?
What a だくてん mark does is turns an UNVOICED consonant, into a VOICED consonant.
UNVOICED consonants are things like “k, s, t, and h”. Try saying those out loud. Did you notice how your VOICE doesn't need to make an appearance? Consequently, kana that start with THOSE consonants are the only ones that you can use a だくてん mark with, technically.
VOICED consonants are sounds like “n, m, y, ら, and w”. Try saying those out loud. Notice how you can hear your VOICE when you say them? That’s why they are called VOICED, and the other ones UNVOICED.
So what HAPPENS to the consonants K, S, T, and H when you mark them with a だくてん and thus need to voice them?
K becomes G
S becomes Z
T becomes D
H becomes B.
If you said those out loud, you probably noticed how you needed to use your VOICE to say G, Z, D, and B.
Let’s see this in practice, below.
かきくけこ
↓
がぎぐげご
“ga gi gu ge go”
さしすせそ
↓
ざじずぜぞ
“za zi or ji zu ze zo”
Notice that the し sort of becomes Ji as opposed to Zi, though it’s sort of in BETWEEN the two.
たちつてと
↓
だぢづでど
“Da di du de do”
Fun fact, the pronunciation of ぢ and づ are indistinguishable from じ and ず even for Japanese natives.
はひふへほ
↓
ばびぶべぼ
“ba bi bu be bo”
Now you know 20 more sounds in Japanese!
Han-Dakuten
The name of our second mark is "Han-Dakuten" or "Half-Dakuten":
゜
In hiragana, we'd write this as はんだくてん.
This mark can ONLY be used with the はひふへほ row, and what it does is it makes:
H sound a P or PLOSIVE sound
Let’s check it out:
はひふへほ
↓
ぱぴぷぺぽ
“pa pi pu pe po”
Please note that the dakuten and han-dakuten symbols are exactly the same when used with katakana.
ガギグゲゴ
ザジズゼゾ
ダヂヅデド
バビブベボ
ぱぴぷぺぽ
Sokuon
While, technically, this indicates a "geminate" or lengthened consonant sound for the consonant that follows it, this is generally only true when it comes before a kana with an S consonant. When it comes before kana starting with K, T, and P consonants it sounds much more like a "glottal stop". In other words, for one single BEAT, or MORA, there is NO SOUND.
For example:
まって
vs
まて
This is also true for when it appears at the END of a word, which happens in written dialog to indicate an abrupt stop in the word.
It generally doesn't show up before any other kana, except for in some loan words.
You will never see this at the beginning of a sentence.
You'll generally only see these combinations:
っさ っし っす っせ っそ
っか っき っく っけ っこ
った っち っつ って っと
っぱ っぴ っぷ っぺ っぽ
This is also true for when it appears at the END of word, which happens in written dialog to indicate an abrupt stop in the word.
It’s super important, when reading or writing, to USE this small つ when it is supposed to be there, because it can completely change the meaning of a word.
まって means “Wait!”
マテ is some kind of drink apparently.
I don’t know, I’ve never actually heard it before.
Typing
To type the small つ in isolation, you can either type an L or an X before tsu or tu.
Like this:
Ltu or ltsu
Xtu or xtsu
When WITHIN a word, double up the consonant sound that follows it to get your small tsu. For example:
がっこう would be typed like this:
ga kko u
To type dakuten and han-dakuten, you simply replace the consonants in the same way you do when speaking:
が→GA
ぎ→GI
ぐ→GU
げ→GE
ご→GO
ざ→ZA
じ→JI or ZI
ず→ZU
ぜ→ZE
ぞ→ZO
だ→DA
ぢ→DI
づ→DU
で→DE
ど→DO
ば→BA
び→BI
ぶ→BU
べ→BE
ぼ→BO
ぱ→PA
ぴ→PI
ぷ→PU
ぺ→PE
ぽ→PO
To type the katakana versions, just hit F7 after typing the above!
We have two more SUPER important concepts to cover, but first let’s get some READING practice with all of these new sounds together.
