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Yotsugana - Wikipedia

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Different regions distinguish different sets of sounds. Using Nihon-shiki romanization:
  1 sound (zi = di = zu = du)

  2 sounds (zi = di ≠ zu = du)

  3 sounds (zi = di ≠ zu ≠ du)

  4 sounds (zi ≠ di ≠ zu ≠ du)

Japanese writing

Components
Kanji Stroke order Radicals Jōyō kanji list Kyōiku kanji Tōyō kanji Jinmeiyō kanji Hyōgai kanji
Kana Hiragana Hentaigana Katakana Man'yōgana Sōgana Gojūon
Typographic symbols Japanese punctuation Iteration mark
Uses
Syllabograms Furigana Okurigana Braille
Transliteration
Rōmaji Hepburn Kunrei-shiki / ISO 3602 Nihon-shiki JSL Wāpuro (keyboard input)
Cyrillization Polivanov system
v t e

Yotsugana (四つ仮名, literally "four kana") are a set of four specific kana, じ, ぢ, ず, づ (in the Nihon-shiki romanization system: zi, di, zu, du), used in the Japanese writing system. They historically represented four distinct voiced morae (syllables) in the Japanese language. However, most dialects, such as Standard Japanese-speakers, have undergone mergers and now pronounce two sounds.

Modern sound usage in various dialects

Most of the far northern dialects (Tōhoku dialects and Hokkaidō) and far southern dialects (notably Okinawan Japanese) and the Ryukyuan languages (the other Japonic languages) have also mostly merged the four sounds to one sound. However, a few dialects, mainly around Shikoku and Kyushu in the southwest, still distinguish three or even all four sounds.

In the current Tokyo dialect, the base of the modern standard language, as well as in the widely spoken Kansai dialect, only two sounds are distinguished, as is represented in the Hepburn (ji, ji, zu, zu) and Kunrei (zi, zi, zu, zu) romanization systems.

Modern kana usage

The spelling differences between the four kana were retained well into the mid-20th century, long after the merger of the different sounds that they had represented. Two distinct morae remain in most dialects of the mainland, such as in Tokyo.

Shortly after World War II ended, the discrepancy between kana orthography and pronunciation was rectified as part of a general orthographic reform, the Gendai Kanazukai, or modern kana orthography. Under the new orthographic rules, only the two kana じ zi and ず zu are to be used, with two notable exceptions:

When a word exhibits sequential voicing, or rendaku, as a result of compounding, a second morpheme that would otherwise begin with the kana つ tu or ち ti in isolation (神無月　かんなづき kannaduki for which 月 in isolation is written つき tuki).
When the kana つ tu or ち ti is repeated and voiced in a word (続くつづく tuduku).

An exception was permitted for regions that pronounced the four kana as three or four distinct sounds. After a 1986 update to the Gendai Kanazukai, the exception was replaced with a statement that the unified spelling was to be primarily used, but etymologically-correct spellings would still be permitted.

Modern regional variants

The following table shows some of the differentiations among yotsugana characters expressed in regional dialects across Japan:

Variants	ぢ di	じ zi	づ du	ず zu
Tokyo (standard)	[d͡ʑi] ~ [ʑi]		[d͡zɯᵝ] ~ [zɯᵝ]
North Tohoku, Izumo^[1]	[d͡ʑi]
South Tohoku	[d͡zɯᵝ]
Kōchi (Hata, Tosa)^[1]	[di] ~ [dᶻi]	[ʑi]	[dɯᵝ] ~ [dᶻɯᵝ]	[zɯᵝ]
Kagoshima	[d͡ʑi]	[ʑi]	[d͡zɯᵝ]	[zɯᵝ]
Okinawa	[d͡ʑi]

References

^ ^a ^b Van de Weijer, Jeroen; Nanjo, Kensuke; Nishihara, Tetsuo (2005). Voicing in Japanese. Walter de Gruyter. p. 150. ISBN 9783110197686.

Japanese language

Earlier forms

Dialects

Eastern	Hokkaidō Tōhoku Northern Nanbu Tsugaru Akita Southern Kesen Nairiku Kantō Western Gunma Kanagawa Tokyo Eastern Ibaraki Tochigi Northern Izu Islands Tōkai–Tōsan Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka Shizuoka Narada Echigo Nagaoka Gifu-Aichi Nagoya Mikawa Mino Hida
Western	Hokuriku Kaga Kanazawa Shiramine Kansai Awaji Banshū Kishū Okuyoshino Shikoku Iyo Tosa Sanuki Chūgoku San'yō Bingo East San'in Inshū Umpaku
Kyūshū	Hōnichi Ōita Hichiku Chikuzen Hakata Kumamoto Nagasaki Saga Tsushima Satsugū
Other	Amami Japanese Okinawan Japanese

Pidgins and creoles

Japonic languages

Eastern Old Japanese Hachijō grammar
Ryukyuan	Northern Amami Ōshima Southern Amami Ōshima Kikai Kunigami Okinawan Okinoerabu Tokunoshima Yoron Southern Miyako Tarama Yaeyama Yonaguni

Writing system

Logograms	Script reform Kanbun Kanji by stroke count Kanji radicals by frequency by stroke count Kokuji Ryakuji Ateji
Kana	Hiragana Katakana Furigana Okurigana Gojūon Man'yōgana Hentaigana Sōgana Kana ligature
Orthography	Braille Kanji Punctuation Kanazukai Historical kana Modern kana Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai Yotsugana Transcription into Japanese
Encoding	EUC EUC-JP ISO/IEC 2022 JIS 0201 0208 0211 0212 0213 Shift JIS Unicode Hiragana Kana Extended-A Kana Extended-B Kana Supplement Small Kana Extension Katakana Katakana Phonetic Extensions Other ARIB STD B24 Enclosed EIS Extended shinjitai Half/Full

Grammar and
vocabulary

Phonology

Pitch accent
Rendaku
Sound symbolism
Kanji pronunciation sources
- Go-on
- Kan-on
- Tō-on

Transliteration

Literature

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