Quote:
Originally Posted by Daithi
Does the Japanese syllabary cover the full range of sounds within Japanese words or is the syllabary just an approximation of how words sound? In other words are their sounds that aren't covered with these syllables?
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Well, both, sort of. In practice, modern Japanese pronounces "ti" as "chi," for example. Japanese speakers are not always aware of this themselves. The symbol which sounds like "chi" to English speakers appears in the position in the syllabary chart where one would expect to see "ti."
Quote:
Originally Posted by GraceKrispy
In learning Hawaiian, children are first taught the Hakalama-- which seems to me to be similar to a syllabary?
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A syllabary is specifically a writing system composed of symbols for syllables, and based on the Wikipedia article about the Hawaiian language, the Latin alphabet is being used. But it sounds like a language that could have been written with a syllabary instead (which would be quite difficult with English, due to consonant combinations).