Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [kana-usage]

仮名遣い. usage of kana, は vs. わ, 書く vs. かく etc.

When to use kana and which kana to use? The two kana syllabaries are fairly phonetic scripts, but there are some unique or unusual spellings and uses. Small kana, lengthened vowels, kana for imported words, small-tsu, old kana (ゑびす), kana-only instead of kanji etc.

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What does it mean if a sentence is in all-kana?

I came across this sentence in a manga: なにすんじゃこんガキャ―――！！ There is no kanji use in that speech-bubble, making it hard to work out the meaning. In fact, I haven't been able to find the meaning of anything past なに (which I already knew means…
AlbeyAmakiir
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Unusual dakutens and つ instead of っ

As I read 「ノルウェイの森」 by 村上春樹, I noticed some words that are probably mistyped. しかしそのおかけでクラスの中で僕の立場はもっと孤立したものになった。 Shouldn't it be そのおかげで? A few more examples: 「...」と彼は黒いボストン・バックに衣類やノートを詰めこみながら言った。 バッグ => バック (no…
nikkou
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Sokuon Diacritic and Wabun Morse Code

I have created a geocache puzzle based on Japanese Morse Code (Wabun Code). The final coordinates that I translated are: N 43° 09.725 W 077° 26.688 I broke this down as follows: N 4 3 ° 9 . 7 2 5 ' kita shijuu san…
GeoGriffin
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Why is つきあう typically written in kana?

The kanji version 付き合う contains only elementary characters with their usual readings. Is there a reason why it's still usually written in kana? Is there a difference in nuance when written in kanji? EDIT As to why I think that it's typically…
Tobias
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