k ka ki ku in english
So we read あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), お (o), then か (ka), き (ki), く (ku), け (ke), こ (ko), and so on. Japanese pronunciation is easy! The most important pronunciations are those of the five vowels: あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), and お (o). Nearly every other syllable consists of a consonant and one of these vowels, soKa Ke Ki Ku. This early work from Pierre Perrault, made in collaboration with René Bonnière, chronicles summer activities in the Innu communities of Unamenshipu (La Romaine) and Pakuashipi. Shot by noted cinematographer Michel Thomas-d'Hoste, it documents the construction of a traditional canoe, fishing along the Coucouchou River, a
That is, the voiced consonants are produced by moving the sign for the syllable with the corresponding unvoiced consonant to the side. (That is, to the right if signing with the right hand.) The manual kana ga, gi, gu, ge, go are derived this way from ka, ki, ku, ke, ko; likewise, those starting with z, d, b are derived from the s, t, h kana.
We have 'ka' in the 'a' dan, 'ki' in the 'i' dan and so on: ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. The English flap is equivalent to the Spanish untrilled 'r' (IPA 'ɾ') in "para", while the Japanese flap curls back a bit farther (IPA 'ɽ'). This is an especially important sound to listen to carefully and try to mimic, because