Shiritori
Shiritori ( Japanese し り と り or 尻 取 り , English “take the end”) is a Japanese word game for at least two people.
Game flow
The first player names a Japanese word, the next player now also finds a Japanese word that must begin with the same syllable that the previous player's word ended with. Then it is the next player's turn and must find a word that begins with the same syllable of the previously spoken word, and so on.
Rules of the game
There are many variations of the rules of the game, the most important of which are
- Only nouns are allowed as words .
- No distinction is made between Hiragana , Katakana and Kanji .
- Word combinations with the particle no ( の ) are possible, but only for words that have become commonplace in Japanese.
- Dakuten ( ゛ , clouded sound) and Handakuten ( ゜ , half- clouded sound ) can be used or ignored.
- If the last syllable is a chōon ( ー , stretch sign), there are the following possibilities:
- The chōon is ignored and the penultimate syllable is used.
- The chōon is viewed as a vowel in its own right.
- The next word must begin with the penultimate syllable and the chōon.
- If the last syllable is a yōon (broken sound), you have the following options:
- The Yōon is used entirely as a syllable.
- Only the reduced syllable ( ゃ , ゅ , ょ ) is used as an independent new syllable.
There are many other possible game rules that increase the difficulty of the game. This makes the game suitable for beginners as well as for Japanese learners, up to native speakers .
Playing
As soon as a player says a word twice or says a word that ends with the Mora n ( ん ) (there is no word in Japanese that begins with the Mora n ), the player is eliminated. The game continues until there is only one player left.
example
| round | japanese word | rōmaji spelling | first syllable | last syllable | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | さ く ら | sakura | - | ら | |
| 2. | ラ ジ オ | rajio | ラ (ら) | オ | |
| 3. | お に ぎ り | onigiri | お (オ) | り | |
| 4th | り す | risu | り | す | |
| 5. | す も う | sumou | す | う | |
| 6th | う ど ん | udon | う | ん | lost the game |