Differences between じ versus ぢ and ず versus づ in Japanese : For someone who is new to Japanese, enunciating these hiragana respectively can be a very tongue-twisting/mouth-in-general twisting thing but it’s not just Japanese language students whose minds are boggled, it’s confusing for native Japanese speakers as well!
Contents
Pronunciation
Honestly speaking, this isn’t necessarily a huge problem for native speakers because it technically sounds the same when used in modern Japanese. Technically considered as redundant, it’s quite rare to find words that actually have ぢ or づ in them nowadays. Although the two pairs are pronounced almost identical to each other, they originally still represented distinct sounds different to each other. If you’re wondering we need 2 different hiragana for the same sound, the answer is mainly because of the spelling reforms that happened in 1946. These hiraganas were still technically utilized properly until the Edo period and was eventually merged into their modern counterpart sounds during the spelling reforms.
Differences between じ versus ぢ and ず versus づ in Japanese
ず versus づ
As Japanese students, we are aware that ず(zu) is derived from す(su) and that づ (zu) is from つ (tsu). This somehow gives us an idea of how it should sound like.
| Original sound | Modern Japanese sound | |
| ず | zu | dzu/ zu |
| づ | du | dzu/ zu |
As seen in the table above, the original sounds for both of them are confusing (specifically for づ) because of the hiragana that they were derived from. These are now considered to be outdated and rarely used. Nowadays, if you see ず or づ, it would mainly sound like (dzu), which to be fair, makes more sense compared to how it was originally supposed to sound like.
じ versus ぢ
Again, it’s quite easy to understand that じ(ji) is derived from し (shi) and that ぢ (ji)is derived from チ(chi). Similarly enough to the other pair, they are identical in sound and have definitely changed compared to their original intended sound.
| Original sound | Modern Japanese sound | |
| じ | zi | dʑi/ ʑi |
| ぢ | di | dʑi/ ʑi |
じ and ぢ are now mainly used in a similar manner that represents the sound dʑi/ ʑi. If you’re still confused on how its pronounced, it sounds like the French J where it produces a softer sound where your teeth are technically closed and your tongue is technically raised to your upper palate. If that’s still confusing for you, try saying or listening to someone say je m’appelle in a French accent. The initial “je” in the beginning is how “dz” in じ and ぢ should be pronounced as.
Usage
It’s quite rare to see ぢ and づ in Japanese modern vocabulary and this is because in modern day Japanese, they have actually just kept ぢ and づ in two situations. You would only get to see them in words with repeated sounds or in a word that has rendaku.
Rendaku
Japanese has evolved in a way where they combine two words into one. The first consonant of the second part of the new word is accompanied by a dakuten(the 2 marks on the hiragana that changeす(su) to ず(zu)). An example could be how the word はなぢ (hanaji: nose bleed) is made of はな(hana: nose) and ち (chi: blood). Another example could be てがみ (tegami: letter) which is from the combining て(hand) and かみ (kami). Based on these two examples, you’ll notice a pattern on which word gets the dakuten on. For our two main pairs, we have the following examples.
- 気付く（きづく）
- 馬鹿力 （ばかぢから）
What words do you think make up each word? Try finding it out just by looking at it!
Repeated sounds in words
It is as what is said in the above subtitle. づ and ぢ are still quite used in the instance where a character repeats itself consecutively in a word. The repeated character/hiragana the gets a dakuten. A few examples could be すずしい (su-zu-shii: cool) and かがみ (ka-ga-mi: mirror). For づ and ぢ, here are 2 examples that use them.
- つづく(tsu-dzu-ku: to continue)
- ちぢむ (chi-ji-mu: to shrink)
How do I even type it out on my laptop/phone?!
Bad news kids. Unfortunately, typing out dzu for づ and dʑi for ぢ on your phone or laptop, won’t work! It was a rookie mistake that pretty much every Japanese language student commit and is something that can be done quite easily, just by looking at stuff previously written on this blog. Well, as what we talked about earlier, these hiragana characters originally had different sounds and purposes compared to how they are used in todays modern Japanese. You simply have to type it in Japanese as how it was supposed to be for!
- To get づ = Type out “du”
- To get ぢ = Type out “di
That’s pretty much about it! Hopefully this blog/article has somehow left you less mind boggled and have given you a better understanding of these hiragana characters, with bonus of a few other things! You never ever do stop learning so good luck, and happy studying!