How does Japanese work?

i understand romaji is just the pronouceation
and kanji is usually for name and places
Hiragana is for words with no kanji
Katakana is just the sound for english word??? @~@

and what's up with
Hentaigana
Manyogana
Furigana
Okurigana
??? @~@
what are they for???

and romaji is like roman, right?
how come its pronouce differently??
so is kanji......

and since romaji is like the sound of words, do u have to know how to speak japanese first then u can learn how to read + understand it??

japanese language is so confusing....!!! T^T i have so many questions....TOT

i want to learn it...what do i do?? i have no idea so i'll ask u guys
plz help

Romaji is the roman way...i guess... it's when you type in japanese, only with English letters...like:

namae wa tomii desu.

i guewss you can learn how to pronounce from romaji...
---
Hiragana is for words that arent foreign words...ummm, any word that isnt in katakana, is in Hiragana. But some perticular words, can be in Kanji. Only words that are in Hiragana can be put into Kanji...Although some words can be in hiragana and katakana...but that's rarely. Ummm, katakana is for foreign words to the japanese language..like "cheese" is "chiizu" and is pronounced "chE-E-z" like "cheese". andd stuff liek that, like english names...like mine "Tommy" is "tomii" ( and i like to spell my name Tomii anyways...cause it is the japanese way ) i hope you understand...
---
I've herd of Furigana...but never herd of any of the other ones...im not sure, but maybe they are obsolete now...i dont know...I've never came across them while typeing/writing in japanese...

There are only three writing systems that you need to worry yourself about with Japanese: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The sooner you abandon roman characters in your study, the better off you are.

Hiragana and Katakana are syllabaries: they each contain the same amount of characters necessary to produce the 100 or so syllables in the Japanese language. Each full-width character (or combination full-width and half-width) character) corresponds to one syllable. It is actually easier to read than English in this regard. Hiragana is used for grammar structures such as particles, some Japanese words, and okurigana.

Katakana is used for words that are not native to Japanese (with few exceptions). There are some cases where much more is written in katakana, such as manga.

Okurigana means "accompanying characters" and is the name for hiragana that are combined with kanji to create conjugated verbs: the い in 高い, for instance, or the かった in 安かった. Okurigana shows the verb conjugation.

Don't worry about Hentaigana and Manyogana; they are antiquated forms of writing that predated the new syllabaries.

Step one to learning (written) Japanese: hiragana and katakana.

nice gaijin said:

Katakana is used for words that are not native to Japanese (with few exceptions). There are some cases where much more is written in katakana, such as manga.

Click to expand...

Katakana can also be used to put emphasis on any word and it's often used this way in advertising and also manga, as nice gaijin mentioned.

As for furigana, furigana are small hiragana and/or katakana that are placed by kanji to give the pronunciation (they are written above the kanji when writing horizontally, and on the right of the kanji when writing vertically). It is often used in children's books and manga aimed at kids and teens, who are still learning kanji in school. Sometimes furigana is used to give a double meaning too, especially in song lyrics where, say, the word 女友達 (onna tomodachi, female friend(s)) is written in one line but the singer sings 友達 (tomodachi, friend(s)) instead, and likewise in the written lyrics ともだち is written above 女友達.

And yes, manyougana is long obsolete - it was a system of using only kanji to write Japanese, and it was used before hiragana and katakana were invented.
Hentaigana were alternate ways of writing certain kana (the "hentai" in hentaigana is not the "hentai" you probably know about The "hentai" in "hentaigana" in this case means something like "variant" or "abnormal" and it's written 変体), and this is generally obsolete as well, though some soba restaurants still use them on their signs to give an archaic feeling, like writing "Ye Olde Ale Shoppe" or whatever in English. Most Japanese people can't read most hentaigana nowadays though.

Yes, I understand that they are used more often in manga for the purpose of emphasis (and for sound effects).

振り仮名の説明を忘れてしまった。ありがとうね、ドインキーズさん

I like furiganas. They help me read mangas.
But katakanas in mangas are hard to decypher. They are often stylized and parts are often hidden by the frame or the characters.

gotoh said:

I like furiganas. They help me read mangas.
But katakanas in mangas are hard to decypher. They are often stylized and parts are often hidden by the frame or the characters.

Click to expand...

I have a hard time reading style-ized katakana, like those for titles of manga, products, what haveyou...